Whalesong patterns follow a universal law of human language, new research finds

All known human languages display a surprising pattern: the most frequent word in a language is twice as frequent as the second most frequent, three times as frequent as the third, and so on. This is known as #ZipfsLaw.
In a new research published in Science, a team of experts in whale song, #linguistics and developmental #psychology analyzed eight years' of song recordings from #HumpbackWhales in #NewCaledonia. Led by Inbal Arnon from the Hebrew University, Ellen Garland from the University of #StAndrews, and Simon Kirby from the University of #Edinburgh, they used techniques inspired by the way human infants learn #language to analyze humpback #whale song.
They discovered that the same #ZipfianPattern universally found across #human languages also occurs in #WhaleSong. This complex signaling system, like human language, is culturally learned by each individual from others.

https://phys.org/news/2025-02-whalesong-patterns-universal-law-human.html

#Biology