Из Вики: "The name "orangutan" (also written orang-utan, orang utan, orangutang, and ourang-outang) is derived from the Malay and Indonesian words orang meaning "person" and hutan meaning "forest",[1] thus "person of the forest".[2] Orang Hutan was originally not used to refer to apes, but to forest-dwelling humans. The Malay words used to refer specifically to the ape is maias and mawas, but it is unclear if those words refer to just orangutans, or to all apes in general. The first attestation of the word to name the Asian ape is in Jacobus Bontius' 1631 Historiae naturalis et medicae Indiae orientalis - he described that Malaysians had informed him the ape was able to talk, but preferred not to "lest he be compelled to labour".[3] The word appeared in several German-language descriptions of Indonesian zoology in the 17th century. The likely origin of the word comes specifically from the Banjarese variety of Malay.[4]"
Они могут говорить, но не хотят, так как иначе их заставят работать.
Помню рассказ, как советские геологи где-то в Малайзии сидели вечером у костра, пели, по советскому обычаю,
"солнышко лесное" "Очи Черные" - а им из леса стали подпевать. Ну любят они, орангутанги, душевные песни.

"A case has been reported of a brothel village keeping a shaved and chained female orangutan for sexual purposes."