Like Taci, the My Magical Mother character many of us know; in TV shows, movies or books scenarios where animals talk like humans It amuses us by being portrayed, but we all know that it is not possible in reality.

So why is this not possible? How did this ability develop in humans and is it different from animals? In brief, Why can’t animals talk like humans?

First, let’s look at the difference between communication and speech.

All living species on Earth communicate with each other. People do this through speaking, body language, gestures, facial expressions, or in sign language it does. Linguists and psycholinguists agree that animals communicate in different ways, but differ from human language.

As for animals; it makes different sounds, dances, emits vibrations, certain movements it does. Although they cannot form unlimited sentences with a limited number of rules like humans, they can communicate with each other in different ways. However, this is not “language production”. Like humans, they cannot produce unlimited expressions, they are limited to certain expressions.

You may think that some animals can talk like humans. For example parrots. But parrots or budgerigars can’t really talk either they imitate. So they are meaningless.

Communication comes from the nature of living beings.

Cats don’t learn to meow when they’re hungry and dogs don’t learn to wag their tails when they’re happy. Likewise, people learn not to scream when they are afraid. But talking is different, since childhood to which we are exposed from our environment we have a unique ability, we learn to speak.

Generating meanings is an exclusive human ability.

Words and sentences; It consists of a combination of sounds and syllables arranged in different combinations and lengths to express feelings and thoughts. Under any of these combinations a meaning” lies down.

The meanings we assign to words emerge with common agreement as a result of the communication of people through the ages. the same sounds in different languages, can have different meanings. Just like the same objects have different names in different languages. In short, behind speech there is both sound production and meaning.

Let’s see how speaking skills work in humans.

The reasons behind the emergence of the ability to speak within us are multiple and complex. The first of these, due to biological reasons.

The researchers’ first conclusion about why animals can’t talk like humans is, our bodies are structured differently. To say more specifically; We have a different lung, jaw, tongue, larynx and throat than animals. However, this claim is sufficient to some extent.

Some parts of our brain play an important role in our speech.

The human brain has a developed neocortex, also known as the cerebral cortex, that organizes words to convey meaning. in our brain Broca and Wernicke The regions we mention are developed parts of the language and make it possible for us to speak.

In addition, the gene we call FOXP2 is responsible for the activation of some of our other genes. Since this gene activates other genes, which genes are responsible for speech and language still not quite clear.

According to another theory by Elaine Morgan, our ability to speak is due in part to our evolutionary path.

In this theory, which states that we did not evolve directly from tree-climbing apes, but from aquatic apes, evolution of aquatic monkeys It is said that we learn to consciously control our breathing, which allows us to make the sounds necessary for our speech.

In short, speaking is a unique human ability.

As far as we know, our evolution has given us this ability and set us apart from other species. Other animals imitate the sounds we make or Ability to establish internal communication methods No other animal has ever had the same ability to speak as humans.