Do whales optimize their vocalizations for efficiency, just like human language? 🐋🎶 My latest study in
Science Advances (@science.org) suggests they do—following linguistic laws seen in human speech. 🧵 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ads6014
Science Advances (@science.org) suggests they do—following linguistic laws seen in human speech. 🧵 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ads6014
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📏 Menzerath’s Law: Longer sequences tend to have shorter elements.
✂️ Zipf’s Law of Abbreviation: More frequently used elements tend to be shorter.
Do these apply to whales? I analyzed vocal sequences from 16 species to find out.
✅ 2 of 5 species (humpback & blue whales) followed Zipf’s Law of Abbreviation.
✅ Many whales also shorten sounds toward the end of sequences—the opposite of human language.