Birdsong and whale song show patterns similar to human language
An international research team has discovered that Bengalese finch birdsong follows statistical patterns similar to human language. This suggests that the fundamental building blocks of language may be a universal feature of learned communication rather than a uniquely human trait.
Why it matters
This research challenges long-held assumptions about the uniqueness of human language and provides a new framework for studying animal communication.
edited by Sadie Harley , reviewed by Robert Egan
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Add as preferred source A teaching situation—left is a son and right is the father. Credit: Kazou Okanoya, Teikyo University, Japan. An international team of researchers has uncovered a previously undetected structure in the birdsong of Bengalese finches that has the same statistical patterns found in human languages.
The songbirds—famous for their complex, learned songs—organize their songs using the same mathematical formula found in human speech, a trait that has developed over time and makes complex communication easier to learn and pass from one generation to the next.
The findings, published in the journal Science Advances , build on the team's previous discovery that humpback whales also rely on a similar systematic structure.
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