Now, a new paper investigating five properties of the codas shows that these sounds are used in patterns that follow structured rules similar to those seen in human speech.<\/p>\n
“All five properties have close parallels in the phonetics and phonology of human languages, suggesting independent evolution,” writes a team<\/a> led by linguist Ga\u0161per Begu\u0161 of Project CETI and the University of California, Berkeley.<\/p>\n “Sperm whale coda vocalizations are thus highly complex and represent one of the closest parallels to human phonology of any analyzed animal communication system.”<\/p>\n Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus<\/a>) are large marine mammals that live in closely-knit, matrilineal clans, with strong bonds and cooperative relationships that give them a competitive advantage in the cruel seas. Such complex social structures usually necessitate concomitantly sophisticated communication skills.<\/p>\n It’s long been suspected that cetacean communication<\/a> has a lot more going on<\/a> than we can discern<\/a>, especially in sperm whales. Their gatherings are often accompanied by a soundscape of clicks that can propagate through the ocean for miles<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2024, researchers from Project CETI analyzed 8,719 coda vocalizations from at least 60 individual whales recorded between 2005 and 2018, and found them<\/a> “more expressive and structured than previously believed,” with features that can be combined in ways comparable to elements of human speech.<\/p>\n That work suggested whale communication is built from flexible, combinable parts, but did not explore how those parts are structured internally<\/p>\n In the new paper, Begu\u0161 and colleagues analyzed 3,948 codas from 15 individuals recorded between 2014 and 2018 as part of The Dominica Sperm Whale Project<\/a> in the Eastern Caribbean to reveal at least some of those internal structures.<\/p>\n The team found that sperm whale codas fall into distinct categories that behave like vowel sounds in human speech, with consistent differences in length, patterns, and interactions with neighboring sounds.<\/p>\n They identified two different types of codas with different formant<\/a> structures \u2013 that is, the structures of the resonant frequencies of the sound. They called codas with one formant “a-codas”, and those with two formants “i-codas”.<\/p>\n These a- and i-codas don’t just resemble human vowels acoustically, but also behave like them in several ways, too. For example, a-codas are longer than i-codas, and i-codas also have shorter and longer forms.<\/p>\n Individual whales have their own timing for how they use these codas, too, and neighboring sounds can influence each other, similar to compound sounds in human speech, such as an a and a u coming together to make an ow sound.<\/p>\n “We show that the sperm whale communication system has previously undocumented characteristics that make it similar to human phonology,” the researchers write<\/a>.<\/p>\n They are careful not to go so far as to call it a language, but a “communication system”, a broader category of information propagation under which language falls. A communication system becomes a language when it can combine sounds into structured, meaningful messages. Without knowing what sperm whale codas mean, we cannot with confidence define them as language.<\/p>\n However, the analysis does take us a step closer to decoding whale communication, the central goal of Project CETI. The collaboration is using machine learning<\/a> to break down sperm whale communication to the tiniest detail in an attempt to actually understand what the whales may be saying to each other.<\/p>\n Related: Incredible Video Shows Sperm Whales Come Together to Birth a Calf<\/a><\/p>\n The implications of this would be tremendous. It would tell us whether language is unique to humans, and give us insight into how language evolved. It could also give us a way to communicate with another species on their own terms \u2013 one that lives dramatically differently from human cultures.<\/p>\n And the skills and tools acquired to do so may then be applied to other animals, potentially opening up a new way to learn about our planet.<\/p>\n This work is a tantalizing step on that ambitious journey, one that hints at a whole world of discovery nearing our grasp.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/social-whales.jpg\")
Sperm whales live in tight-knit, matrilineal family-oriented groups. (by wildestanimal\/Moment\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"Subscribe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Generic-Health-Promo-Final-642x273.jpg\")
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