Birds Can Distinguish Languages

摘要：Pet birds can not only imitate sounds, they can distinguish between languages, potentially offering new clues on how the brain recognizes speech, Japanese researchers say.日本有关研究人员日前表示，家养的宠物鸟不仅能够模仿声音，同时它们也能辨别不同的语言，这一发现可能为人们研究大脑如何认知语言提供新的线索。

Pet birds can not only imitate sounds, they can distinguish between languages, potentially offering new clues on how the brain recognizes speech, Japanese researchers say.

It has already been confirmed that monkeys, mice and other mammals can recognize different languages but this is the first time that birds have been found to possess the ability, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported.

A research team exposed Java Sparrows to English and Chinese translations recorded by exchange students of two well-known Japanese novels, "The Tale of Genji" and Natsume Soseki's "I Am a Cat."

A bird sitting on a perch first listened to the English version and was only allowed to eat afterwards. Then the researchers played English and Chinese recordings at random and only allowed the bird to eat after hopping onto the perch with the English.

The birds correctly identified the English recording 75 percent of the time. The same results were achieved with another two birds that were permitted to eat only when Chinese was played.

"Humans are able to distinguish between languages, even ones they don't know, from the intonation and pronunciation, and it seems that paddy birds have the same ability," said Keio University experimental psychology professor Shigeru Watanabe, who led the research.

"If we study common traits in brain structure, this may shed light on the mechanisms of speech recognition," Watanabe was quoted as saying by the Mainichi Shimbun.

Watanabe said paddy birds like the Java Sparrow and parakeets, which are skilled vocally, learn sounds unique to their species after becoming adults, suggesting that they have a high ability to distinguish between sounds.

The researchers did not use Japanese because it was the language the birds normally listened to, the newspaper said.

日本有关研究人员日前表示，家养的宠物鸟不仅能够模仿声音，同时它们也能辨别不同的语言，这一发现可能为人们研究大脑如何认知语言提供新的线索。

据法新社2月6日报道，此前，人们曾证实猴子、老鼠和其它一些哺乳动物能够认知不同的语言；而这次人们首次发现，鸟类也具备这种能力。日本研究人员给文鸟（爪哇禾雀，Java Sparrow）听英文版及中文版的两部日本名著的录音。这两本书分别是紫式部的《源氏物语》和夏目漱石的《我是猫》。研究人员之所以没有用日语进行试验是因为这种语言鸟平时经常听到。

研究的具体过程如下：让一只站在杆上的文鸟先听英语录音，然后才允许它吃东西；接下来，研究人员随意播放英语和中文录音，但是只有当文鸟听到英语录音跳到杆子上后，才允许它吃东西。

研究发现，文鸟成功分辨出英语录音的概率为75％。研究人员又用另外两种鸟进行了分辨中文录音的试验，并且得到了相同的结果。对此，此项研究的负责人、日本庆应大学（Keio University）实验心理学教授渡边茂说：“人类能够从语调和发音来辨别不同的语言，即使是一些自己没有掌握的语言也如此。现在看起来，这些以谷类为食的小鸟也同样具备这种能力。”渡边茂还说，这一发现或许会为人们研究语言识别机制带来启迪。