Asian Elephant Speaks Korean, Scientists Say

CREDIT: Current Biology, Stoeger et al. View full size image

Researchers say an Asian elephant named Koshik has learned to imitate human speech from his handlers. The researchers believe Koshik is trying to communicate with his trainers in Korean and trying to increase his social bond with humans.  The researchers say Koshik's speech mimicry exactly copies the pitch and other characteristics of his human trainers' voices. The elephants vocabulary consists of these five words: "annyong" ("hello"), "anja" ("sit down"), "aniya" ("no"), "nuo" ("lie down"), and "choah" ("good").

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