Stay Curious

SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AND UNLOCK ONE MORE ARTICLE FOR FREE.

Sign Up

VIEW OUR Privacy Policy


Discover Magazine Logo

WANT MORE? KEEP READING FOR AS LOW AS $1.99!

Subscribe

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?

FIND MY SUBSCRIPTION
Advertisement

Animals Share Human-like Hallmarks of Speech

These species have dialects, babble like babies and even experience their own cultural evolutions of sound.

Two white-crowned sparrows. (Credit: FotoRequest/Shutterstock)

Newsletter

Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news

Sign Up

Because we learn to speak from nearby adults, our dialects diverge across geographic lines. It’s even possible to predict where a stranger was raised based on speech patterns alone. Southerners, for example, use “y’all” as the preferred plural of “you,” while South Philadelphians say “youse.” People from different eras also speak differently; you’d get strange looks if you walked around talking like Shakespeare.

But we’re far from the only species that boasts a range of vocal patterns. Sac-winged bats, for example, live across Mexico and South America and have distinct vocal styles across this range. When the female bats disperse to mate, they listen for calls that are similar — enough to indicate familiar food and pathogens — but not identical to those of the group they were born into. Similarly, in California, white-crowned sparrows living just miles apart will often sing different tunes; in rare instances, individuals living at ...

Stay Curious

JoinOur List

Sign up for our weekly science updates

View our Privacy Policy

SubscribeTo The Magazine

Save up to 40% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine.

Subscribe
Advertisement

0 Free Articles