On February 20, 2025, a study was published in Science Advances by Mason Youngblood, a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stony Brook University’s Institute for Advanced Computational Science. The research examines the similarities between whale communication and human language.
Youngblood analyzed vocal sequences from 16 whale species and compared them to 51 human languages. The study revealed that whales compress their calls to enhance efficiency, much like humans do when speaking. Eleven of these species follow Menzerath’s law, where longer sequences are composed of shorter elements. Additionally, some whales such as humpback and blue whales adhere to Zipf’s law of abbreviation, indicating frequently used sounds are shorter.
The study notes variations among different whale species. For example, certain dolphin species in the Cephalorhynchus genus do not exhibit these efficiency patterns. This could be due to their reliance on ultrasonic sounds for predator evasion rather than optimizing communication timing. Even within a single species, there are differences; killer whales compress call sequences but not the smaller components within them.
These findings suggest that while efficient communication is common across many animals, it is influenced by biology, behavior, and environment rather than being universal. Youngblood stated: “I find it fascinating that communication evolves in similar ways across species, even when the purpose is wildly different.” He noted that despite differing purposes — such as mate attraction or coordination — many vocal sequences in whales mirror the efficiency seen in human language.