A new study reveals that female rhesus monkey use “baby talk” to communicate with infants. From National Geographic:
“You can’t ask What does it mean?” (University of Chicago professor Dario) Maeustripier) said. “It doesn’t mean anything. It’s the intonation that matters.”But the sounds appear to serve a key purpose.
“They don’t have a meaning linked to a representation of an item or object, but they may perform a very important social function to bring individuals together,” said Lisa Parr of Yerkes National Primate Center at Atlanta’s Emory University.
