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MrKindaFunny In the books his language-learning was a bit odd: he learned some written English by looking at children's books' but the first Western human language he spoke was French. (I believe he knew some Afrikan languages before learning French from a Frenchman, Paul D'Arnot.) By the end of the books he was "speaking many languages, including that of the great apes, French, Finnish, English, Dutch, German, Swahili, many other Bantu languages, Arabic, Ancient Greek, Ancient Latin, and Mayan, as well as the languages of the Ant Men and of Pellucidar." As to why he spoke in monosyllables in some of the movies, I don't think it was anything racist, just the idea of the screenwriter and possibly Johnny Weissmuller's poor acting skills. In earlier films he spoke perfect English, as he did in many later films, but the Weissmueller version of the character in the on most wildly known. In the books he was equally at home in English society, living on his African estates, or living wild in the jungle.
