Study Finds Phonetic-Like Structures in Sperm Whale Clicks

Researchers from Project CETI, a nonprofit dedicated to studying cetacean communication, have uncovered evidence that sperm whales employ a complex system of clicks resembling human phonetic structures. The findings, detailed in a study published this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, analyzed nearly 4,000 codas—short sequences of clicks—from a group of 15 female and young sperm whales off the coast of Dominica in the Eastern Caribbean.

The research, led by linguist Gašper Beguš of the University of California, Berkeley, reveals that these codas incorporate features akin to vowels in human languages. Using recordings collected between 2014 and 2018 by the Dominica Sperm Whale Project, the team examined sound wave shapes, frequency peaks, and intervals between clicks. They identified two primary coda types: "a-codas," characterized by a single resonance peak and typically longer duration, and "i-codas," with two peaks that can vary in length. These distinctions mirror vowel differences in languages such as English, where an "ah" sound differs from an "ee," or tonal variations in Mandarin that alter word meanings.