Scientists find whale song, human language share same structure

WELLINGTON, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- International scientists have found that whale noises and songs share the same structure with human language.

The scientists analyzed the groans, moans, whistles, barks, shrieks and squeaks in humpback whale song recordings collected over eight years in New Caledonia in the South Pacific.

"Their noises and our words share a common pattern," said Emma Carroll, a marine biologist at the University of Auckland and an expert in whale genetics, adding the finding is "something truly fascinating."

This doesn't mean whales have language, but it could point to similarities in how two evolutionarily distant species' communication systems have evolved and how they are learned, Carroll said.

Across human languages, the most used word appears about twice as often as the second most common word, three times as much as the third most common word and so on. The words used most frequently are very short, such as "the", "of", and "and."

Dividing the whale song into segments, the researchers found the same rules of frequency and brevity apply, according to the research.

In the paper published in the journal Science, the researchers argue that the structure may aid "learnability," just as it would for humans.

Humpback whale song is one of the most complex acoustic displays in the animal kingdom, a striking example of a socially learned, culturally transmitted behavior. Only performed by males, the song likely plays a role in the selection of mates. A song can last for as long as 20 minutes and involves many sound types arranged into a pattern, according to the research.

Once thought to be unique to humans, it may transpire that foundational aspects of human language are shared across species, the researchers said.■