A new study suggests that humpback whales’ intricate songs follow structural patterns similar to human language, potentially making them easier to learn. Human language follows a universal statistical rule known as Zipf’s law, where the most frequently used word appears roughly twice as often as the second most common word, three times as often as the third, and so on. Now, researchers have discovered that humpback whale songs follow the same pattern, highlighting an unexpected connection between complex vocal communication systems in humans and whales.
Although scientists clarify that whale song is not equivalent to human language, the findings suggest that complex, culturally transmitted communication systems may share underlying structures. Simon Kirby, a language evolution expert at the University of Edinburgh and co-author of the study, expressed excitement over the discovery, noting that like human language, whale song must be passed down within a community, ensuring its survival. The study, published in Science, used an analysis method inspired by how human infants identify words in continuous speech streams.
Humpback whales sing lengthy, evolving songs composed of repeated phrases and themes. While all males in a given population sing the same song, these songs change over time-sometimes gradually, and other times in sudden “song revolutions,” when a new melody from a neighboring population replaces the existing one entirely. Understanding how these shifts occur remains a mystery, especially since researchers, unlike in human language studies, are not native speakers of whale song.
To analyze whale song structure, scientists transformed years of recorded songs from New Caledonia into sequences of fundamental sound elements, including squeaks, grunts, whistles, groans, and moans. They then identified commonly repeated patterns—akin to words—and found that their frequency followed Zipf’s law. For example, in 2010, the most frequent sequence, groan-groan-moan, appeared about twice as often as the second most common sequence, a moan followed by three ascending cries. These commonly used sound combinations were also generally shorter than the less frequent ones.
While humans and whales are not closely related, both species rely on cultural transmission to pass down their communication systems. Ellen Garland, a co-author and expert in whale songs at the University of St. Andrews, emphasized the role of learning and transmission in shaping communication structures.
The study aligns with another recent paper that found the vocalizations of 11 dolphin and whale species follow Menzerath’s law, which states that as a sequence gets longer, its individual components tend to shorten. This efficiency principle, previously observed in humans, birds, and primates, appears to be a universal strategy in vocal communication, likely minimizing energy costs and reducing risks from predators.
As researchers continue investigating, they hope to find similar statistical properties in other species with complex vocal systems, such as bats, songbirds, and elephants.
