Chimps, we are told at New Scientist, the fount of all things believable if you also read and believe the National Enquirer, are “hard-wired to evolve language”
They can’t talk, but chimps may have some of what it takes to evolve language. That is the suggestion of a study which found chimps link sounds and levels of brightness, something akin to synaesthesia in people. Such an association could help explain how our early ancestors took the first vital step from ape-like grunts to a proper vocabulary.
– Catherine de Lange, “Chimp brains may be hard-wired to evolve language,” (New Scientist 05 December 2011)
Could we just stop at “They can’t talk”?
See also: And you thought that the human evolution folk were fresh out of ideas? Now chimps flinging poop help explain our origins,
Also: A scientist looks at Project Nim