Dogs know language from gibberish
January 18, 2022 10:06 AM Subscribe
Dogs can distinguish language from gibberish—and tell languages apart. Many animals can pick out auditory patterns in human speech—but a study suggests dogs are particularly good at it.
Two neuroscientists moved from Mexico to Hungary. When they realized how different it was to be surrounded by people speaking Hungarian instead of Spanish, they wondered if their dogs had noticed this as well.
Researchers recruited five golden retrievers, six border collies, two Australian shepherds, one labradoodle, one cocker spaniel and three mixed breeds. They examined the subjects' dog brains using functional magnetic resonance while the dogs heard passages from "The Little Prince" in either Spanish or Hungarian (via noise-cancelling headphones).
In case you are interested in the subjects' names, the original study lists them (Bingo, Barney, Grog, Odín, Maverick, et al.) and includes some images of dog brains, though not images of the dogs themselves.
[via Jodi Ettenberg's Curious About Everything newsletter]
Two neuroscientists moved from Mexico to Hungary. When they realized how different it was to be surrounded by people speaking Hungarian instead of Spanish, they wondered if their dogs had noticed this as well.
Researchers recruited five golden retrievers, six border collies, two Australian shepherds, one labradoodle, one cocker spaniel and three mixed breeds. They examined the subjects' dog brains using functional magnetic resonance while the dogs heard passages from "The Little Prince" in either Spanish or Hungarian (via noise-cancelling headphones).
In case you are interested in the subjects' names, the original study lists them (Bingo, Barney, Grog, Odín, Maverick, et al.) and includes some images of dog brains, though not images of the dogs themselves.
[via Jodi Ettenberg's Curious About Everything newsletter]
This finding contradicts an earlier study by Gary Larson.
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:16 AM on January 18, 2022 [40 favorites]
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:16 AM on January 18, 2022 [40 favorites]
This is really interesting. I was once warned about a dog who supposedly became angry when people spoke in English. (I didn't test it.)
Choosing The Little Prince is interesting. I guess it's neutral, so you know they're not reacting to the awkward translation? (To be clear, I'm kidding.) I wonder if you could come up with a text that has the same stresses, lengths of words, and phonemes in both languages but arranged in a different order.
posted by eotvos at 10:18 AM on January 18, 2022
Choosing The Little Prince is interesting. I guess it's neutral, so you know they're not reacting to the awkward translation? (To be clear, I'm kidding.) I wonder if you could come up with a text that has the same stresses, lengths of words, and phonemes in both languages but arranged in a different order.
posted by eotvos at 10:18 AM on January 18, 2022
Dogs lying still in an MRI machine wearing noise cancelling headphones to advance science is the most wholesome thing I’ve read in a while.
posted by Monday at 10:35 AM on January 18, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by Monday at 10:35 AM on January 18, 2022 [8 favorites]
The Little Prince has also been translated into many languages. I suspect they're trying to set themselves up for replicating this in other languages.
posted by madcaptenor at 10:48 AM on January 18, 2022
posted by madcaptenor at 10:48 AM on January 18, 2022
Their Auto-Correction isn't perfect.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:48 AM on January 18, 2022
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:48 AM on January 18, 2022
I suppose it's not too terribly surprising that dogs can understand that a language is actual communication, but the most relevant point, I think, is who's a good boy? Who's a good boy!?"
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 11:01 AM on January 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 11:01 AM on January 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
In case you are interested in the subjects' names,
now see, this elevates the tone of things from run-of-the-mill dog appreciation to that deep level of dog person, I salute you fruitslinger!!
edit to add: if this is your jam, I'll use the opportunity to plug "Fifteen Dogs" because it's a great little journey into philosophy, dogs, language (novel by Andre Alexis)
posted by elkevelvet at 11:03 AM on January 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
now see, this elevates the tone of things from run-of-the-mill dog appreciation to that deep level of dog person, I salute you fruitslinger!!
edit to add: if this is your jam, I'll use the opportunity to plug "Fifteen Dogs" because it's a great little journey into philosophy, dogs, language (novel by Andre Alexis)
posted by elkevelvet at 11:03 AM on January 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
Pics or it didn't happen!!!
posted by praemunire at 11:17 AM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by praemunire at 11:17 AM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Researchers recruited five golden retrievers, six border collies, two Australian shepherds, one labradoodle, one cocker spaniel and three mixed breeds.
Well, sure, if they're studying smart dogs...
posted by Mchelly at 11:21 AM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Well, sure, if they're studying smart dogs...
posted by Mchelly at 11:21 AM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
They chose The Little Prince because of the poignant meditation on the nature of human beings' relationship with the natural world. Or something. Probably.
posted by bleep at 11:22 AM on January 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by bleep at 11:22 AM on January 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
One of my dogs recognizes the word for her breed - if someone asks me if she's a greyhound, she prances over to them for pats. I need to set up some people to ask me if she's a galgo to see if she heads over to them in that case.
posted by winna at 11:25 AM on January 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by winna at 11:25 AM on January 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
One of my kids’ favorite things to do is to say random nouns without inflection and then slip “treats” or “walk” in there. Let’s just say I’m not surprised in the result of this research.
posted by q*ben at 11:30 AM on January 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by q*ben at 11:30 AM on January 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
I like that a former bandmate of mine has inadvertently taught her dogs to spell. Many dog owners will know that their fur friends recognize "walk" or "park", but when she avoided these terms, her dogs eventually worked out what "w-a-l-k" and "p-a-r-k" meant. She eventually wound up talking like a Victorian novel, speaking of perambulating on the greensward.
Another friend fosters rescue dogs. Though she is anglophone, several of her latest fosters are from Quebec, so she has had to learn sufficient French to talk to them. She posted on social media recently, "Of all the words a rescue dog might recognize, I had not imagined 'tourtière' to be among them." (This is a traditional pie of ground meat, onions, and savoury seasonings.)
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:41 AM on January 18, 2022 [22 favorites]
Another friend fosters rescue dogs. Though she is anglophone, several of her latest fosters are from Quebec, so she has had to learn sufficient French to talk to them. She posted on social media recently, "Of all the words a rescue dog might recognize, I had not imagined 'tourtière' to be among them." (This is a traditional pie of ground meat, onions, and savoury seasonings.)
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:41 AM on January 18, 2022 [22 favorites]
One of my kids’ favorite things to do is to say random nouns without inflection and then slip “treats” or “walk” in there. Let’s just say I’m not surprised in the result of this research.
oh yes the t-word and the w-word. :D
posted by winna at 11:44 AM on January 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
oh yes the t-word and the w-word. :D
posted by winna at 11:44 AM on January 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
Before the pandemic, we fostered rescue dogs. Lately, we've done some dog-sitting.
We're in Montreal, so it's common that people speak English and possibly another language in addition to French, so I'm always sure to ask people what language their dog understands before we take care of the dog. We can't speak every language, of course, but we are pleased to be able to speak at least dog-level English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. We just had a dog a few weeks ago who knew commands in three languages!
I know that's not quite the same as the point of this study, but it does make me think about dogs and languages.
Also, we had to take one of our rescue dogs to the vet once and we spoke to the vet tech in English but before they took the dog back to surgery, I had to make sure they knew: "We're anglophone, but the dog speaks French!"
posted by fruitslinger at 12:03 PM on January 18, 2022 [12 favorites]
We're in Montreal, so it's common that people speak English and possibly another language in addition to French, so I'm always sure to ask people what language their dog understands before we take care of the dog. We can't speak every language, of course, but we are pleased to be able to speak at least dog-level English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. We just had a dog a few weeks ago who knew commands in three languages!
I know that's not quite the same as the point of this study, but it does make me think about dogs and languages.
Also, we had to take one of our rescue dogs to the vet once and we spoke to the vet tech in English but before they took the dog back to surgery, I had to make sure they knew: "We're anglophone, but the dog speaks French!"
posted by fruitslinger at 12:03 PM on January 18, 2022 [12 favorites]
My first dog came running the second anyone cursed in the kitchen - pretty much any curse - because she knew it meant someone probably dropped food.
posted by Mchelly at 12:32 PM on January 18, 2022 [17 favorites]
posted by Mchelly at 12:32 PM on January 18, 2022 [17 favorites]
We got a puppy once from an Peruvian breeder. Brought it home after, what, eight weeks? Critter wandered about the house, getting used to the new surroundings, finally moseyed into living room where a television was on, totally uninteresting to him, until a Spanish language commercial came on, and damned if the dog didn't immediately go stock still, turn to the screen and stare and stare.
Now we have a cat. She likes French, not so keen on Italian. Go figure.
posted by BWA at 12:32 PM on January 18, 2022 [10 favorites]
Now we have a cat. She likes French, not so keen on Italian. Go figure.
posted by BWA at 12:32 PM on January 18, 2022 [10 favorites]
It doesn't take a professional researcher to show that dogs know scat ;)
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:39 PM on January 18, 2022
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:39 PM on January 18, 2022
Anecedata, but a friend in the U.S. adopted a dog from Russia. Once, on a walk, the dog heard two women conversing in Russian and became wildly excited and insisted on pulling my friend over to see these women, whom the dog had never before met in its life.
posted by gauche at 12:42 PM on January 18, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by gauche at 12:42 PM on January 18, 2022 [12 favorites]
> Dogs can distinguish language from gibberish—and tell languages apart.
pfft. i can too but nobody pats me on the head. 😤
posted by glonous keming at 12:54 PM on January 18, 2022 [8 favorites]
pfft. i can too but nobody pats me on the head. 😤
posted by glonous keming at 12:54 PM on January 18, 2022 [8 favorites]
I wonder whether cats can. And whether my rescue cat would have been at ease in her new home more quickly had I spoken to her in Swedish rather than English.
posted by acb at 2:04 PM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by acb at 2:04 PM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
"hellu keetty. here-a is sume-a deleeceeuous fuod und veter fur yuou"
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 2:20 PM on January 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 2:20 PM on January 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
Is my dog the only one that doesn't speak any special languages nor understand gibberish? I've tried to teach her Spanish to no luck.
She is trainable, with words, but you can gibberish them up and it's close enough for her. As in you want to go for a bark to the bark?
She's also blind, and that 'dogs nose is strong' thing is not her either. We have a double entry door, both with doormats, and she constantly stands in front of the wrong closed door, while the other is wide open. She really needs another, even smaller dog to be her seeing-eye dog.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:23 PM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
She is trainable, with words, but you can gibberish them up and it's close enough for her. As in you want to go for a bark to the bark?
She's also blind, and that 'dogs nose is strong' thing is not her either. We have a double entry door, both with doormats, and she constantly stands in front of the wrong closed door, while the other is wide open. She really needs another, even smaller dog to be her seeing-eye dog.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:23 PM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
I live with an enormous, very smart but relaxed Tibetan Mastiff and I'm more convinced than ever that many dogs can understand us.
I mean like he understands complex sentences and commands kind of smart, not just the usual dog words like "stay" or "treat" or "walk". Like you can tell him "go wait by the front door" or "go wait by the back door" especially when it involves a modifier or reward like "and we'll get you some dinner in a minute" and he'll do it. If he feels like it.
But you can also tell when he understands what you're saying but isn't interested in doing that thing because he'll just look at you and kind of half-smile and make this weirdly soft yarping noise and makes it clearly obvious he disagrees and he's going to do his own thing until it's more logical to do the thing you asked him to do.
But he clearly understands other more complex phrases, like "Mom isn't coming home tonight, she's going to spend the night at (boyfriend's name) place, she'll be back tomorrow!" because he'll harrumph like an old and affably grumpy old man and go flop over on his huge dog bed in disappointment and sigh heavily about it all.
He's also smart enough to train humans and communicate non-verbally in ways I've never really seen in a dog before. Like if he wants to be let out or come into my room to find some peace and quiet he paws at my door just once, then waits like thirty seconds, then paw at the door again. And unless it's urgent he basically never paws at the door more than three times like that. If it isn't urgent he stops and will go away to wait patiently.
If it's urgent and he really needs to be let out he'll do his usual routine, and then after about a minute or two of waiting he'll start paw-knocking like once every 10-15 seconds, but there's never any of that sort of frantic, impatient pawing or scratching at a door that most dogs will do when they want to go through a door right now, it's always very sedate, polite and deliberate.
I swear if his paws weren't so furry and he could make a proper fist or knuckles with his paws he'd knock on the door firmly but politely like a human.
He also basically never barks or growls unless it means something. Like if he barks it's usually just one huge WOOOOF that the whole neighborhood can hear for a good half mile around and it means there's stranger danger or coyotes on the property or something like that.
The first time I head him bark like that it scared the shit out of me because we'd been housemates for months at the point before it happened and when he finally did bark it was so forceful and loud and deliberate that he was clearly communicating something like "FUCK OFF!" in Dog and he really meant it. Now when I hear him bark like that I know it means something. If he barks more than twice it really means something and we should probably go look at what he's barking at.
Oh yeah, that's the other thing. He talks in his sleep and it sounds like he's trying to make human talking noises, and it's full on conversations like he's trying to pronounce vowels and consonants in complete sentences. The first time I heard him do it he was sleeping on the floor in my room and I bolted wide awake because I thought there was someone human in my room trying to talk to me.
I swear he vocalizes or verbalizes more in his sleep then he does when he's awake.
Also when you call him his name or nicknames combined with telling him "I love you!" he just smiles and grins from ear to ear and basically turns into a giant furry puddle and knows how good he has it.
I'm not normally a dog person but he and I get along just fine. We're about the same age in human vs. dog years, we're affably grumpy but warm and helpful, we both really like naps and snacks and we snore a lot and make weird noises in our sleep.
posted by loquacious at 3:09 PM on January 18, 2022 [9 favorites]
I mean like he understands complex sentences and commands kind of smart, not just the usual dog words like "stay" or "treat" or "walk". Like you can tell him "go wait by the front door" or "go wait by the back door" especially when it involves a modifier or reward like "and we'll get you some dinner in a minute" and he'll do it. If he feels like it.
But you can also tell when he understands what you're saying but isn't interested in doing that thing because he'll just look at you and kind of half-smile and make this weirdly soft yarping noise and makes it clearly obvious he disagrees and he's going to do his own thing until it's more logical to do the thing you asked him to do.
But he clearly understands other more complex phrases, like "Mom isn't coming home tonight, she's going to spend the night at (boyfriend's name) place, she'll be back tomorrow!" because he'll harrumph like an old and affably grumpy old man and go flop over on his huge dog bed in disappointment and sigh heavily about it all.
He's also smart enough to train humans and communicate non-verbally in ways I've never really seen in a dog before. Like if he wants to be let out or come into my room to find some peace and quiet he paws at my door just once, then waits like thirty seconds, then paw at the door again. And unless it's urgent he basically never paws at the door more than three times like that. If it isn't urgent he stops and will go away to wait patiently.
If it's urgent and he really needs to be let out he'll do his usual routine, and then after about a minute or two of waiting he'll start paw-knocking like once every 10-15 seconds, but there's never any of that sort of frantic, impatient pawing or scratching at a door that most dogs will do when they want to go through a door right now, it's always very sedate, polite and deliberate.
I swear if his paws weren't so furry and he could make a proper fist or knuckles with his paws he'd knock on the door firmly but politely like a human.
He also basically never barks or growls unless it means something. Like if he barks it's usually just one huge WOOOOF that the whole neighborhood can hear for a good half mile around and it means there's stranger danger or coyotes on the property or something like that.
The first time I head him bark like that it scared the shit out of me because we'd been housemates for months at the point before it happened and when he finally did bark it was so forceful and loud and deliberate that he was clearly communicating something like "FUCK OFF!" in Dog and he really meant it. Now when I hear him bark like that I know it means something. If he barks more than twice it really means something and we should probably go look at what he's barking at.
Oh yeah, that's the other thing. He talks in his sleep and it sounds like he's trying to make human talking noises, and it's full on conversations like he's trying to pronounce vowels and consonants in complete sentences. The first time I heard him do it he was sleeping on the floor in my room and I bolted wide awake because I thought there was someone human in my room trying to talk to me.
I swear he vocalizes or verbalizes more in his sleep then he does when he's awake.
Also when you call him his name or nicknames combined with telling him "I love you!" he just smiles and grins from ear to ear and basically turns into a giant furry puddle and knows how good he has it.
I'm not normally a dog person but he and I get along just fine. We're about the same age in human vs. dog years, we're affably grumpy but warm and helpful, we both really like naps and snacks and we snore a lot and make weird noises in our sleep.
posted by loquacious at 3:09 PM on January 18, 2022 [9 favorites]
I think that human babies can tell the difference between gibberish and language in utero. About the time they start moving and reacting to noises.
Mine reacted to me cupping my hands and saying Hello in There by tossing within and hurling himself towards me in the bed. It was the first thing I said when he was born and his mouth formed a perfect circle. We bonded day one.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 3:12 PM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Mine reacted to me cupping my hands and saying Hello in There by tossing within and hurling himself towards me in the bed. It was the first thing I said when he was born and his mouth formed a perfect circle. We bonded day one.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 3:12 PM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
"hellu keetty. here-a is sume-a deleeceeuous fuod und veter fur yuou"
I feel like a crime has been committed.. this comment elicited a forceful exhalation from my nostrils and I just hope no-one was watching
posted by elkevelvet at 3:36 PM on January 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
I feel like a crime has been committed.. this comment elicited a forceful exhalation from my nostrils and I just hope no-one was watching
posted by elkevelvet at 3:36 PM on January 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
I feel like a crime has been committed.. this comment elicited a forceful exhalation from my nostrils and I just hope no-one was watching
No. That would be if the cat's first language was Danish.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 3:54 PM on January 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
No. That would be if the cat's first language was Danish.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 3:54 PM on January 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
No. That would be if the cat's first language was Danish.
If you had a measure of the poverty of my knowledge of languages, and added the fact that I just this day read the passage in The Almost Nearly Perfect People where he describes how all the other Nordic peoples make fun of spoken Danish, and multiply by the timing of your follow-up, you'd have some kind of equation wouldn't you? Please stop, I don't want this to go any further.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:46 PM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
If you had a measure of the poverty of my knowledge of languages, and added the fact that I just this day read the passage in The Almost Nearly Perfect People where he describes how all the other Nordic peoples make fun of spoken Danish, and multiply by the timing of your follow-up, you'd have some kind of equation wouldn't you? Please stop, I don't want this to go any further.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:46 PM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Oh I'm going further. Uti Vår Hage taking the piss out of the Danish language.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 7:49 PM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 7:49 PM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
I love how every study involving dogs continues to prove that they are the best!
posted by ellieBOA at 1:23 AM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by ellieBOA at 1:23 AM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by mhoye at 10:12 AM on January 18, 2022 [36 favorites]