Sperm whales’ communication closely parallels human language, study finds

Analysis shows whales’ coda vocalizations are ‘highly complex’ and remarkably similar to our own

Oliver Milman

The Guardian: 15 Apr 2026

We may appear to have little in common with sperm whales – enormous, ocean-dwelling animals that last shared a common ancestor with humans more than 90 million years ago. But the whales’ vocalized communications are remarkably similar to our own, researchers have discovered.

Sperm whales communicate in a series of short clicks called codas. Analysis of these clicks shows that the whales can differentiate vowels through the short or elongated clicks or through rising or falling tones, using patterns similar to languages such as Mandarin, Latin and Slovenian.

Until the 1950s, it was not clear to scientists that sperm whales even vocalized but modern technology, including artificial intelligence, is helping unlock the language of these creatures – with unexpected similarities to our own speech.

“I think it’s another humbling moment that we’re not the only species with rich, communicative, communal and cultural lives,” said David Gruber, founder and president of Project CETI.

“These whales could be passing information along generation to generation to generation for over 20 million years. Humans now are just having the right tools and desire to be able to look at whale voices in this way to see the complexity that has been there all along.”

Another thing that us 'highest intellect' species on the planet, humans have utterly failed to

achieve... an understanding of even a single 'language' of another species that we share our 'spaceship' with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-cRwL1VyyA

Indeed. We've spent all our time on SETI when the real mysteries can be answered right here.