Sperm Whales' Communication Closely Parallels Human Language, Study Finds

Source: Slashdot

Study Overview

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian:

We may appear to have little in common with sperm whales – enormous, ocean‑dwelling animals that last shared a common ancestor with humans more than 90 million years ago. But the whales’ vocalized communications are remarkably similar to our own, researchers have discovered. Not only do sperm whales have a form of “alphabet” and form vowels within their vocalizations, but the structure of these vowels behaves in the same way as human speech.

The original article can be found here. The new study has found these parallels.

Communication Details

Sperm whales communicate in a series of short clicks called codas. Analysis of these clicks shows that the whales can differentiate vowels through:

• short or elongated clicks,
• rising or falling tones,

using patterns similar to languages such as Mandarin, Latin, and Slovenian.

The paper published in Proceedings B states that the structure of the whales’ communication has “close parallels in the phonetics and phonology of human languages, suggesting independent evolution” (link). Sperm whale coda vocalizations are described as “highly complex and represent one of the closest parallels to human phonology of any analyzed animal communication system.”

Implications

“Sperm whale communication isn’t just about patterns of clicks—it involves multiple interacting layers of structure,” said Mauricio Cantor, a behavioral ecologist at the Marine Mammal Institute who was not involved in the research.
“With this study, we’re starting to see that these signals are organized in ways we didn’t fully appreciate before.”

Project CETI aims to comprehend 20 different vocalized expressions—relating to actions such as diving and sleeping—within the next five years.

David Gruber, founder and president of Project CETI, added:

“A future where we can fully understand what the whales are saying and have a conversation with them is totally within our grasp. We’ve already got a lot further than I thought we could. But it will take time and funding. At the moment we are like a two‑year‑old, just saying a few words. In a few years’ time, maybe we will be more like a five‑year‑old.”