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March 27, 2006
Learning A Foreign Language
And how much more foreign can you get than the native tongue of the humpback whale? Yes after years of research scientists have concluded that humpbacks do have their own dialogue. They won't call it a language yet, but they do admit the songs sung by these creatures are not random, are not simple repetitive sounds. No, the songs are full of complexity, very similar to human languages.
Humpback songs are arranged within a hierarchical structure with equivalents to themes, paragraphs, sentences, clauses, and words themselves. The only major difference is human language averages 10 bits of information per second - that is to say with our grammar, intonations, and inflections, we can communicate whole ideas within one second. A humpback whale on the other hand can only communicate 1 bit of information per second. Scientists believe this may be an evolutionary trait more than a deficiency in language. Humpbacks live in the vast oceans which require their "language" to travel at great distances. What this means is sounds need to be long and stretched out so that they can be carried for hundred and thousands of miles without degradation. In order for the humpbacks to communicate an idea, it would require multiple sounds overlapping. This is probably why they are arranged more like songs.
It's absolutely fascinating. I even wanted to see if it were possible for humans to mimic those sounds. Apparently its nearly impossible for us since much of the tones are only reproducible in water; not to mention our vocal chords don't support many of the sounds whales make. I guess I'll never learn "whale" then.
via Discovery News
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