New research in animal language shows surprising parallels to human language.

Some animal communication systems are instinctual; others are culturally transmitted.

Scientists can describe complex animal communications but have yet to decipher their meanings.

The fictional world is full of people who can talk to animals: Tarzan of the Apes, Mowgli from The Jungle Book, and Dr. Doolittle. But what if we really could learn to converse with apes, wolves, and other wild creatures? It turns out that scientists studying a range of types of animal communication may be bringing us closer to understanding, and maybe even using, animal language.

Human vs. Animal Language: Worlds Apart?

Linguists specializing in the scientific study of human language have long maintained that human language and animal communication are fundamentally different from one another: Animals can convey simple messages about things in their immediately present environment, while humans have the ability to combine language sounds, parts of speech, and phrase types into infinitely many sentences with limitless meaning possibilities.

And while we humans have to learn our complex language systems from those who raise us, animal communication has been thought to be largely instinctual: A mother cat doesn’t have to teach her kittens how to meow and purr, and the big cats in the jungle make basically the same sounds, with similar meanings, just at a louder—and scarier—volume.

Hidden Parallels in Whale Language

However, new research on whale communication has uncovered some surprising similarities between human language and animal communication. Driving this research is Project CETI, the Cetacean Translation Initiative, a non-profit organization applying a range of scientific perspectives, including linguistics, AI, cryptography, and marine biology, to the study of........

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