Sperm whales speak with vowels thought to be unique to humans, scientists discover – NaturalNews.com

• Sperm whales communicate using human-like vowel sounds and diphthongs.
• Researchers discovered whales combine these sounds in ways similar to human speech.
• This complex communication challenges the uniqueness of human language.
• The finding was made by speeding up recordings to reveal hidden patterns.
• It raises profound questions about animal intelligence and legal rights.

In a stunning discovery that blurs the line between human and animal intelligence, scientists have decoded a secret language used by sperm whales that features human-like vowel sounds.

Researchers from Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) have found that these ocean giants communicate using patterned clicks that form “a” and “ee” vowel-like sounds, which they can combine in ways that are remarkably similar to human speech. This groundbreaking research, conducted in the Caribbean waters where scientists recorded nearly 4,000 whale codas, reveals a communication system of unexpected complexity that challenges our understanding of language itself.

The discovery emerged when researchers realized they needed to adjust their human biases about the pace of communication. Whale conversations initially sounded like slow, Morse code-like clicks. But when the team sped up the recordings, hidden patterns emerged that resembled human vowel systems. “What used to be conceived of as this alien-looking Morse-code-like system just became much more human-like,” said Gašper Beguš, Project CETI’s linguistics lead. “We have a case of underwater vowels–in a very different world from ours, the communication system appears very similar to our speech.”

A language of vowels and diphthongs

The research identified two distinct vowel-like sounds – an “ah”-like a-coda and an “ee”-like i-coda – that whales produce during social interactions. Even more remarkably, the scientists discovered that sperm whales combine these sounds to create diphthongs, similar to how humans use diphthongs in words like “boy” or “died”. Just as “died” sounds different from “did” because of its combined vowels, whales appear to make similar distinctions.”. This represents the first time researchers have found a non-human species using vowel-like sounds and grammar-like rules in communication.

The complexity doesn’t end there. The study revealed that whales actively control the pitch, length, and type of sounds they produce, carefully modulating their “speech” in ways previously thought unique to humans. The “ah” codas are naturally longer than “ee” codas within the same rhythm, and “ee” codas split into short and long versions, suggesting different meanings based on sound duration.

Anatomy of communication

Fascinatingly, whales achieve these human-like vocalizations using anatomy that parallels our own speech mechanisms. While humans use vocal cords and vocal tracts to produce and filter sound, sperm whales use their lips and air sacs to achieve similar results. This represents an extraordinary case of convergent evolution, where completely different biological structures developed to serve similar communication functions in separate species.

David Gruber, Founder and President of Project CETI, emphasized the significance of this finding. “By integrating linguistics and non-human communication, we are now aware that sperm whales have vowel- and diphthong-like structures in their voices, and that they evolved an entirely independent way of producing vowels,” he said in a statement.

The research team collected their data using small suction-cup microphones called DTAGs attached to 15 sperm whales swimming in the Caribbean between 2014 and 2018. This allowed them to record the whales’ clicks up close without distortion, capturing clear examples of their complex vocal exchanges during social moments like greeting family members, coordinating group movements, and staying in touch while diving for food.

Implications for understanding intelligence

This discovery fundamentally challenges human exceptionalism regarding language and communication. “What’s interesting from a linguistics standpoint is the resemblance to human vowel systems,” Beguš added. “The presence of consistent vowel- and diphthong-like patterns points to a level of phonetic complexity previously thought to be unique to humans. This is a step toward understanding whether the building blocks of language are more universal across species than we believed.”

The implications extend beyond scientific curiosity into legal and ethical territories. Understanding that sperm whales may have the capacity for complex language raises serious questions about animal rights and conservation. As Beguš noted, “We’re thinking deeply about what finding these human-like structures means for the legal rights of animals. This paper prompts questions like, for example, what is language? Is there anything uniquely human about language, or is it just a continuum?”

This research represents just the beginning of understanding whale communication. Scientists have yet to assign specific meanings to the different codas and vowel combinations, and much work remains to correlate these vocalizations with specific whale behaviors. But the discovery already transforms our understanding of the natural world and our place within it. As we decode the sophisticated languages of our planetary co-inhabitants, we’re reminded that intelligence and complex communication aren’t exclusively human domains; they’re universal phenomena waiting to be understood.

Sources for this article include:

DailyMail.co.uk

IFLScience.com

NationalGeographic.com

Berkeley.edu