An Asian Elephant Imitates Human Speech

2012-11-07 - Yongin, South Korea. Angela S. Stoegersend email, Daniel Mietchen, Sukhun Oh, Shermin de Silva, Christian T. Herbst, Soowhan Kwon, W. Tecumseh Fitch

Here, we document a male Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) that imitates human speech, matching Korean formants and fundamental frequency in such detail that Korean native speakers can readily understand and transcribe the imitations. To create these very accurate imitations of speech formant frequencies, this elephant (named Koshik) places his trunk inside his mouth, modulating the shape of the vocal tract during controlled phonation

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Talking elephant Kosik introduced overseas: Reuters

2010-10-12 - Yongin, South Korea.

Korea´s very own talking elephant is starting to gain attention abroad. His fame has now brought foreign researchers to Korea, including German biologist Daniel Mietchen of the University of Jena and elephant vocal sound expert Angela Stoeger-Horwarth of the University of Vienna, who visited Korea to study Kosik last week.

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