- Title: SOUTH KOREA: Meet Koshik the elephant who speaks Korean
- Date: 2nd November 2012
- Summary: YONGIN, SOUTH KOREA (NOVEMBER 2, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF KOSHIK THE ELEPHANT KOSHIK AND KEEPER KEEPER SAYING IN KOREAN "Good, good" KOSHIK SAYING IN KOREAN "Good, good" KOSHIK SAYING IN KOREAN "Good" (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) CO-RESEARCHER OF REPORT SUKHUN OH SAYING: "This research shows Koshik obviously learned and imitated human speech to establish a relationship with his
- Embargoed: 17th November 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Korea, Republic of
- Country: South Korea
- Topics: Nature / Environment,Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVA4QI4M6QY3ZA016QQNY0NDEO5B
- Story Text: An Asian elephant named Koshik can imitate human speech, saying words in Korean that can be understood by speakers of the language, multi-national researchers say.
It is unclear why 22-year-old Koshik started mimicking human speech but cognitive biologists Angela Stoeger from the University of Vienna and her colleagues suggest in research published in the journal Current Biology that it might be related to his experiences as a juvenile.
"This research shows Koshik obviously learned and imitated human speech to establish a relationship with his keepers," said a Sukhun Oh, a co-researcher, at an amusement park Everland in Yongin, south of Seoul.
Koshik was the only elephant living at the Everland Zoo in South Korea for about five years in his youth, with only people for company during an important phase for bonding and development.
"The research group have much interest in whether Koshik will express more correctly the words he imitates now and whether he will learn more words. And they will research more accordingly," Oh added.
There have been reports of elephants imitating the sound of truck engines, and a male elephant living in a zoo in Kazakhstan has been reported to say words in Russian and Kazakh, but that case was never investigated by scientists.
Koshik made headlines in 2010 by attracting tourists with his unusual ability, but the researchers have now run tests where they asked native Korean speakers to write down what they heard when listening to recordings of the elephant.
They found that by sticking his trunk in his mouth to help form the sounds, he has a vocabulary of the five Korean words for 'hello', 'sit down', 'no', 'lie down' and 'good'.
On Friday (November 2), Koshik said only one word, 'good' - his keeper said Koshik does not want to say anything while strangers are around.
There is no evidence that Koshik understands the meaning of the words he is using.
The Everland park invited media to take pictures of Koshik on Friday, saying the report, "An Asian Elephant Imitates Human Speech" led by Doctor Angela Stoeger of University of Vienna and Doctor Daniel Mietchen of University of Jeana, was carried in an on-line journal Current Biology.
The report says the scientists document a male Asian elephant that imitates human speech, matching Korean formants and fundamental frequency in such detail that Korean native speakers can readily understand and transcribe the imitations.
"To create these very accurate imitations of speech formant frequencies, this elephant places his trunk inside this mouth, modulating the shape of the vocal tract during controlled phonation", the report added.
The Everland quoted Doctor Angela Stoeger on Friday as saying Koshik's ability of imitating human speech provided an important basis to study the evolutionary and biological angles for learning human speech ability. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None