Yerkish

"Lexigraphy" redirects here. For dictionaries, see lexicography.

Yerkish
Lexigram
Created by	Ernst von Glasersfeld
Setting and usage	Use a keyboard to punch keys with lexigrams
Users	3 (apes) (date missing)
Purpose	constructed language Animal language Yerkish
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	None

Yerkish is an artificial language developed for use by non-human primates. It employs a keyboard whose keys contain lexigrams, symbols corresponding to objects or ideas.

A lexigram represents a word but is not necessarily indicative of the object referenced by the word. Lexigrams were notably used by the Georgia State University Language Research Center to communicate with bonobos and chimpanzees. Researchers and primates were able to communicate using lexigram boards made in up to three panels with a total of 384 keys.

History

Lexigram representing Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, a developer of the language

The language was developed by Ernst von Glasersfeld and used by Duane Rumbaugh and Sue Savage-Rumbaugh of Georgia State University while working with primates at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Primates were taught to communicate by means of a lexigram board, a computerized array of keys labeled with lexigrams. Von Glasersfeld coined the term "lexigram" in 1971, created the first 120 of them, and designed the grammar that regulated their combination. This artificial language was called Yerkish in honor of Robert M. Yerkes, the founder of the laboratory within which the lexigrams were first used.

The first ape trained to communicate in Yerkish was the chimpanzee Lana, beginning in 1973 within the context of the LANA project.

See also

• Primate cognition
• Kanzi
• Panbanisha
• Great Ape Trust
• Great ape language

References

1. Rumbaugh, D. M. ed. (1977) Language Learning by a Chimpanzee. The LANA Project. New York, Academic Press
2. von Glasersfeld, E., Department of Psychology, University of Georgia. The Yerkish language for Non-Human Primates. American Journal of Computational Linguistics, 1974, 1.