Humans, dolphins, and elephants are the only known species that vocally label their conspecifics. It remains unclear whether nonhuman primates share this ability. We recorded spontaneous “phee-call” dialogues between pairs of marmoset monkeys. We discovered that marmosets use these calls to vocally label their conspecifics. Moreover, they respond more consistently and correctly to calls that are specifically directed at them. Analysis of calls from multiple monkeys revealed that family members use similar calls and acoustic features to label others and perform vocal learning. These findings shed light on the complexities of social vocalizations among nonhuman primates and suggest that marmoset vocalizations may provide a model for understanding aspects of human language, thereby offering new insights into the evolution of social communication.

中文翻译：

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非人类灵长类动物对他人的声音标记


人类、海豚和大象是唯一已知的能用声音标记同种动物的物种。目前尚不清楚非人类灵长类动物是否也具有这种能力。我们记录了一对狨猴之间自发的“噗噗”对话。我们发现狨猴使用这些叫声来用声音来标记它们的同种动物。此外，他们对专门针对他们的呼叫的响应更加一致和正确。对多只猴子的叫声的分析表明，家庭成员使用相似的叫声和声学特征来标记其他猴子并进行声音学习。这些发现揭示了非人类灵长类动物社会发声的复杂性，并表明狨猴发声可能为理解人类语言的各个方面提供一个模型，从而为社会交流的进化提供新的见解。