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Whale song more similar to human language than previously thought – study

Research has revealed a previously undetected ‘language-like structure’ in whale song that was thought to be unique to human language.

The Independent UK · Feb 6, 2025

Whalesong patterns follow a universal law of human language, new research finds

All known human languages display a surprising pattern: the most frequent word in a language is twice as frequent as the second most frequent, three times as frequent as the third, and so on. This is known as Zipf’s law.

The Conversation · Feb 6, 2025

Humpback whale song and human language are more similar than you might think. Here’s why

Researchers have found a pattern indicating certain ‘words’ are used more often than others – but humans won’t be speaking whale any time soon

The Guardian - AU · Feb 6, 2025