Category Communication

Wouldn’t it be lovely if your pet dog or cat could talk to you? Well, the fact is that though animals have voices, tongues, lips, teeth, and a nose like we do, they can only make noises and not talk. Even when a parrot repeats things that you say, it is not talking. It is just copying the sounds that you make.The reason may be that only humans have a larynx or voice box that is slung low, so that it can resonate to produce something more than a grunt or a meow. It may also be that our brains are more evolved… in any case; the ability to communicate through speech makes human beings different from animals                                                                                                  

We know that animals communicate. But why do they communicate? The first reason is to warn off other animals from their territory. Through their communication, they challenge rivals and establish their superiority. The courting ritual of animals is carried out through their communication. Some animals display body parts to show they are ready to mate or to attract the opposite sex. Others stand or walk in a particular way, while still others release particular scents. Many animals have characteristic mating calls that are unique to the species, thus allowing them to mate only with members of their own species.Animals also make “food calls” that attract a mate, their babies or their friends to a food source. Some signals are made to warn other members of their group of a threat. There are also some signals that are used to modify the meaning of signals that follow, or came earlier. In short, communication helps animals to co-ordinate the vital functions of their lives …mating, gathering food, hunting, caring for their young, marking their territory, and defending themselves

Animals transmit messages animals and signal each Other in many ways. Facial expressions and body language convey a lot of meanings. The way an animal stands or holds its ears tells its rival or another animal in the group something about its intentions. Many animals also exchange visual signals.Similarly, animals convey messages through the sounds they make, and the scents they release. Animals often anoint their territories with scent marks that other animals can read as they pass by. So, animals are really very clever at transmitting messages without talking like we do!

Zoo semiotics is a very long word indeed, isn’t it? But it actually has quite a simple meaning. It means the study of the different ways in which animals communicate with each other.We all know that animals cannot talk, but this does not mean that they do not communicate with one another. They have several different ways of communicating, and this communication affects the behaviour of other animals around them. Zoo semiotics studies all this, and this science which is more than 40 years old, was founded by a distinguished American professor, called Thomas Sebeok

To be honest, no one knows exactly who invented the alphabet or when it was invented. One thing is likely though… the alphabet was not invented suddenly on one fine day. It probably evolved gradually from earlier forms of writing.  It is generally felt that the people living around Syria and Palestine were the first to use the alphabet. The origins of the English alphabet can be traced back to the Semitic alphabets developed by the people who lived on the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean. A 3600 year old sandstone sphinx has letters of the Semitic alphabet inscribed on it. When joined together, the letters from the name of the goddess Baalat. A 3000 year old tablet excavated in Syria proves that the people living there during that time developed an alphabet that represented the sounds of their own language. This alphabet has 30 letters, and a special sign to divide one word from the next.The Phoenicians also developed an alphabet of 22 letters, and since they were great traders, their alphabet influenced the development of writing in different parts of the ancient world.

The cuneiform script was created by the Sumerians around 3000 BC. It is one of the earliest known forms of writing.Cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. Over time, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract. Cuneiforms were written on clay tablets, on which symbols were drawn with a blunt reed called a stylus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped. This gave rise to the name cuneiform, which means ‘wedge shaped’.The records in cuneiform script that were kept by priests of this time have helped us to learn a lot about this ancient civilization.