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The Difference between Human and Animal Communication

Differences in a nutshell
Humans and animals go back a long way to a long history of friendship and rivalry, from rearing for livelihood to hunting down for daily meat. But when we note down the similarities between the different species, the list is narrowed down. The humans are distinct from animals with their ability to utter speech. The ability to express syllables alone stands humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. Our highly developed speaking mechanisms involving speech organs like lungs, larynx, windpipe, tongue and lips. These complex structures are not seen in animal anatomy. This difference alone stands as a reason for the difference in communicational patterns. Human speech is featured with the presence of smallest distinctive sound units called phonemes. These elements are arbitrary in nature and lack a particular meaning. It is the human cognitive and language enhancing brain cells that put together these sounds in an infinite number of ways to create definite number of meanings. In animals’ case they do not communicate by arranging arbitrary sounds which limits the number of messages they can create. Another thing that distincts humans from savages are creativity. New words can be invented easily. But animals have only groans and gestures to express. They are not privileged with the ability to speak.