Sperm Whales Make Human-Like Vowel Sounds, Scientists Find

Deep in the ocean, sperm whales are clicking out messages that sound surprisingly like human speech.

Scientists at Project CETI just discovered that these massive marine mammals use two distinct "vowel" sounds when they communicate. The find reveals that whale language might work more like ours than anyone expected.

Sperm whales create clicks by flapping structures called phonic lips inside their noses. They string these clicks together into rhythmic patterns called codas that vary between different whale families.

For years, researchers focused on the rhythm of these clicks, treating them like morse code. But last year, the team found something remarkable hiding in plain sound.

The clicks actually come in two types based on their frequency patterns, technically called formants. In human language, formants are exactly what make each vowel sound different from another.

Lead researcher Gašper Beguš, a linguist at UC Berkeley, was stunned by the similarity. "On the surface, these vocalizations sound like this alien, ocean intelligence that has nothing to do with us," he says. "But when you actually look at it closely, you realize we're way more similar."

The whales appear to change the shape of an air sac in their nose to switch between vowel types, just like humans change mouth and throat shape to make different vowels. The team called them a-codas and i-codas.

Here's where it gets even more interesting. The whales aren't just randomly mixing these sounds together. The new study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, found clear patterns in how they use each vowel type.

Some rhythmic patterns used an even split of both vowel types. Others relied mainly on a-codas and rarely used i-codas. The a-codas tended to be shorter, while i-codas came in both short and long versions.

These patterns mirror what happens in human languages. Arabic, for example, distinguishes between vowels based on length, and changing that length changes the word's meaning entirely.

Why This Inspires

The whales are clearly controlling which click type to use according to some kind of system. While scientists don't yet know if these patterns carry specific meanings, the ability likely evolved for an important purpose.

Mason Youngblood, who studies animal communication at Stony Brook University, says the discovery opens up exciting possibilities. "These sounds are able to convey more information than we previously thought," he notes. "And I think that, in and of itself, is undeniable."

The finding gives whales potentially more ways to carry meaning in their communication. It suggests that beneath the ocean's surface, conversations are happening in a language structure that echoes our own.

Each new discovery brings us closer to understanding what these intelligent giants are actually saying to each other.