Humpback whale song is structured in a similar way to human language \u2013 with shorter sounds used far more often than more complex ones \u2013 a structure which helps infants quickly learn how to communicate from their elders in both species.<\/p>\n
Across languages and whale song, some words, or word-like elements, are used frequently while others are infrequent. They follow a pattern known as \u201cZipfian distribution\u201d, where the most used word in a language (like \u201cthe\u201d) is used about twice as often as the second most common word, and three times as frequent as the third most common word and so on.<\/p>\n
All human languages \u2013 whether written, spoken or signed \u2013 share these common properties that help them be transmitted from one generation to the next.<\/p>\n
Researchers detected word-like elements while analysing eight years of humpback whale recordings from New Caledonia, finding whale song shared the same characteristic fingerprint that makes human languages learnable, publishing their discovery in Science.<\/p>\n
Dr Jenny Allen, an expert in whale song structure at Griffith University and co-author of the paper, said one of the things that made humpback whales so fascinating was how often their song changed and how quickly whales were able to learn a new song.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuman language and whale song are both culturally learned, so whales learn the songs from the other whales that they spend time with. So that\u2019s why all the whales in one population will be singing the same song,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only other species where you see learning on that spatial scale is in humans.\u201d<\/p>\n
The unexpected discovery of parallel structures in human language and whale song was made possible by a unique collaboration between marine biologists, behavioural ecologists, scientists and linguists.<\/p>\n
Prof Simon Kirby, an expert in language evolution at the University of Edinburgh and co-author of the paper, said insights about infant learning were \u201cthe key that unlocked this discovery\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said human babies used an approach called \u201cstatistical learning\u201d in order to identify words in the continuous stream of language that they\u2019re exposed to. \u201cIt sounds technical and complicated,\u201d Kirby said, \u201cbut actually it\u2019s beautifully simple.\u201d<\/p>\n
Babies noticed that sounds within words were often stuck together, and more predictable than across word boundaries. \u201cIf you think of a word like \u2018baby\u2019, after a \u2018bae\u2019 sound, \u2018bee\u2019 is a relatively predictable continuation of that sound.\u201d<\/p>\n
The researchers used these insights to identify the word-like sound elements in whale song.<\/p>\n
Once the researchers applied this infant-inspired analysis to the recordings of whale song, they found other parallels, including that the patterns of word use in human languages matched the statistical patterns of sound elements in humpback whale song.<\/p>\n
The researchers emphasised that their discovery was about structure, rather than content, and people would not be able to \u201cspeak whale\u201d anytime soon.<\/p>\n
Human language and humpback whale song served very different roles, Allen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhale song, we believe, is a reproductive display, because it\u2019s only males that sing, and they primarily sing to and from the breeding grounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said even when the song became complex, these were probably \u201cembellishments to impress the ladies or intimidate the guys\u201d.<\/p>\n
Humpbacks were like the \u201cPavarottis of the sea\u201d, said Dr Vanessa Pirotta, a whale scientist who was not involved in the study. Male humpback whales had an amazing ability to produce a variety of sounds, she said.<\/p>\n
Pirotta said earlier research had found evidence of specific vocalisations and themes being transmitted between different groups and generations, and even across oceans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hottest 100 on the east coast this year might be the hottest 100 across the ditch in New Zealand the next year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n