Meaning of monkey-speak | Babel Free

Examples

“About a dozen guys showed up for a performance by comedian Tim Allen at the Kentucky Center for the Arts last night wearing yellow hard hats, some proudly carrying tape measures and other tools. Their entrance sparked laughter, applause and lots of Allen’s trademark “ooo-ooo” monkey-speak from the sold-out crowd.”

“Monkey-speak may give scientists clues to early human language / ■ Scientists at the Yerkes Primate Institute are studying the dialects of monkey families to gain an understanding about the birth of human language”

“In the field, researchers play tape recordings of vervet monkey cries to see how these affect real monkeys. […] And when the scientists play a cry that is monkey-speak for “Look out! Eagle!”, the real-life monkeys hide in a bush where the eagle can’t reach them.”

“A band of pigtailed macaques, maybe 30, sat together on the shore, peering through wind-driven rain, bopping one another on the back and head, pointing toward the Andaman Sea and cackling, in monkey-speak, “Do you believe those people?””

CEFR level