Sperm Whale ‘Language’ is Similar to Ours
- Apr 18
- 2 min read
The sounds made by sperm whales are “one of the closest parallels” in the animal kingdom to the language of humans, a study has found.
Sperm whales communicate through rhythmic clicks known as codas. Previous attempts to understand their meaning have focused on timing, as if deciphering Morse code. But scientists have now found that the clicks come in different frequencies, similar to human vowel sounds.
These “vowels” come in two types, known as a-vowels and i-vowels, that can rise and fall in pitch, as well as forming so-called diphthong double pitches within one syllable, reminiscent of languages such as Mandarin. On the surface, [these vocalisations] sound like this alien, ocean intelligence that has nothing to do with us,” Gašper Beguš, the lead author of the study and a linguist at the University of California, Berkeley, told Scientific American. “But when you actually look at it closely, you realise, ‘Oh, we’re way more similar.’”
The structure of the whales’ communication has “close parallels in the phonetics and phonology of human languages, suggesting independent evolution”, the paper, published in the Proceedings B journal, states. Sperm whale coda vocalizations are “highly complex and represent one of the closest parallels to human phonology of any analyzed animal communication system”, it added.
The latest discovery around sperm whale speech has inched forward the possibility of someday fully understanding the creatures and even communicating with them.
Human language has long been thought to have features that mark it out as distinct from the communication of all other species - but research has uncovered the same statistical structure that is a hallmark of human language in humpback whale song. This work reveals previously undetected structure in whale song, illustrating a deep commonality between two unrelated species united by the fact that their communication systems are culturally transmitted.
