Paper describes the Korean speaking Asian elephant named ‘Koshik’
A study by researchers from the University of Vienna documents a 22-year-old male Asian elephant that imitates human speech, according to a Sci-News. com report Friday.
Video Screen Shot/ Daniel Mietchen via Wikimedia Commons
Researchers have confirmed that the elephant named Koshik, who lives at South Korea’s Everland Zoo is able say exactly five Korean words: “annyong” (“hello”), “anja” (“sit down”), “aniya” (“no”), “nuo” (“lie down”), and “choah” (“good”).
The study, “An Asian Elephant Imitates Human Speech” was published Nov. 1 in the online journal, Current Biology.
“Human speech basically has two important aspects, pitch and timbre”
Intriguingly, the elephant Koshik is capable of matching both pitch and timbre patterns: he accurately imitates human formants as well as the voice pitch of his trainers. This is remarkable considering the huge size, the long vocal tract, and other anatomical differences between an elephant and a human.”
Everland Zoo officials in the city of Yongin said Koshik also can imitate “ajik” (not yet), but the researchers haven’t confirmed the accomplishment.
