#languagepatterns — Public Fediverse posts

#Birdsong and #WhaleSong show patterns similar to #HumanLanguage

by University of Edinburgh

edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan

"An international team of researchers has uncovered a previously undetected structure in the birdsong of #BengaleseFinches 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 #HumpbackWhales also rely on a similar systematic structure.

Language has long been considered a uniquely human trait, with features that mark it as distinct from the communication of all other species.

The findings suggest that some of language's most fundamental building blocks may not be uniquely human after all, but rather a universal feature of learned communication, the researchers say."

Read more:
https://phys.org/news/2026-08-birdsong-whale-song-patterns-similar.html

#Nature #Communication #BirdLanguage #WhaleLanguage #LanguagePatterns #Linguistics #Zoology

#Birdsong and #WhaleSong show patterns similar to #HumanLanguage

by University of Edinburgh

edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan

"An international team of researchers has uncovered a previously undetected structure in the birdsong of #BengaleseFinches 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 #HumpbackWhales also rely on a similar systematic structure.

Language has long been considered a uniquely human trait, with features that mark it as distinct from the communication of all other species.

The findings suggest that some of language's most fundamental building blocks may not be uniquely human after all, but rather a universal feature of learned communication, the researchers say."

Read more:
https://phys.org/news/2026-08-birdsong-whale-song-patterns-similar.html

#Nature #Communication #BirdLanguage #WhaleLanguage #LanguagePatterns #Linguistics #Zoology