This story Squirrels make 'silent scream' - see below - reminds me of new research pointing at the human-like cognitive skills of chimpanzees, the ape, Koko, and the "fast mapping" abilities of the border collie, Rico.

Most of this research is very, very new [how long has ASL itself been around?] and, while our skepticim is perfectly justified, researchers need time and money to conduct more rigorous studies.

Is all of this 'hrrump' about Koko's abilities faintly reminiscent of the initial public reaction to Darwin's "Origin of the Species"?

Dispassionate skepticism is one thing. Unstudied disdain another [so it seems to me].

BTW many of our own AWAD pundits are focusing exclusively on Koko in expressing skepticism regarding "cross-species" ASL mastery, but, as I understand the reports, this mastery is not unique to Koko but had been demonstrated in many chimpanzees long before Koko became a media favorite.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3932943.stm

BTW is hrrump a word? I couldn't find it in American Heritage dictionary, but was the meaning lost on anyone who read it in this post?

If everyone understands what "hrrump" means, if it isn't a word, what is it?

If it isn't a "word", it functions like a "word" and if enough people use it often enough it will certainly become a "word".

Perhaps it is only a "pre-word". Is there such a thing as a "pre-word", I wonder.