Researchers find that humpback whale songs are similar to human speech

Scientists identify the sounds of humpback whales with human speech — some of the most complex vocal manifestations in the animal kingdom.

This is stated in a study published in the journal Science Advances.

An international team of scientists analyzed recordings of moans, whistles, barks, screams and squeaks in the songs of large mammals collected over eight years in New Caledonia.

The researchers compared the songs of 16 whale species with 51 human languages. They applied two basic rules of linguistics— Menzerathʼs law

and Zipfʼs law of brevity

information reference

The rule that the most common word in a text occurs approximately twice as often as the second most frequent word, three times as often as the third, and so on.

. Menzerathʼs rules were followed by 11 whale species, while Zipfʼs law was followed by blue and humpback whales. Only the sounds of humpback whales showed the most consistent results with the properties of human language.

Scientists believe that animal songs are made up of sounds arranged in a hierarchical order. They form phrases, and phrases form song themes.

“Humpback whale song is culturally transmitted on a geographical scale that has not been seen before [in species] other than humans, but evolutionarily they [humpback whales] are quite distant from us. We found something really exciting,” says Jenny Allen, a leading expert on the structure of whale songs at Griffith University.

Scientists still donʼt know why the communication systems of such different animals have evolved in such similar ways.

• Whales are known to use a hoarse, drawn-out vocal technique called vocal fry when hunting, similar to the pronunciation style of some American celebrities, including Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton.

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