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All Thumbs
When Dr. Francine "Penny" Patterson began
teaching Koko sign language, it soon became apparent that gorilla hands
were shaping the language in a unique way. But as A CONVERSATION WITH
KOKO dramatically shows, the difference wasn't surprising, for gorilla
hands are shaped quite differently than a person's. In particular, gorilla
thumbs are smaller than ours, meaning the apes can't make some signs the way a person would. As a result, Koko has developed
what Patterson calls Gorilla Sign Language, or GSL.
Koko grasped ASL quickly. |
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GSL isn't the first new sign language. People in Europe, Asia, and
the Americas have all developed their own sign languages, just as they
have created their own spoken and written languages. And just as written
English is built from an alphabet of 26 letters, ASL is built from a
collection of fluid, expressive gestures. The meanings of some signs
are clear even to those who don't speak ASL. Putting fingers to your
mouth, for instance, refers to eating, while a pantomime of fluttering
fingers means rain. Other signs, however, are much more abstract and
may have no obvious relationship to their meaning. There is no obvious
reason, for instance, why a particular finger twisted at the cheek should
mean "candy." But just as poets mold English into surprising
new combinations and creative kids invent entire new slang vocabularies
every year, ASL users are constantly evolving their language, developing
new signs or stringing old ones together in startling new ways.
That people can teach each other new ASL signs isn't surprising. But
the idea that people could teach a gorilla to sign surprised many. Koko's
quick grasp of ASL, however, may have been aided by the fact that wild
gorillas already appear to have their own form of sign language. Researchers
have detected a whole suite of hand gestures and body postures the animals
use to communicate; to Koko, learning ASL may seem like learning a dialect
of her own existing language. And just as humans often adapt foreign
words to their own language, Koko appears to have adapted ASL signs
to fit her own needs -- and the shape of her hands. Just as bilingual
speakers have created mixed languages like "Spanglish" (Spanish
and English), Koko apparently has created GSL, a mixture of ASL and
her own gestures.
But don't look for GSL at your local zoo any time soon. So far, only
Koko and Michael can use or understand it. And it is not known if Koko
or another gorilla parent can teach it to a baby. ASL, in contrast,
is the fourth most used language in the United States, with millions
of speakers -- all of whom are aided as they speak by slightly larger
thumbs!
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