Dolphins may have a spoken language, new research suggests

[brooklynite]

CNN:

A conversation between dolphins may have been recorded by scientists for the first time, a Russian researcher claims.

Two adult Black Sea bottlenose dolphins, named Yasha and Yana, didn't interrupt each other during an interaction taped by scientists and may have formed words and sentences with a series of pulses, Vyacheslav Ryabov says in a new paper.

"The (pulse) exchanges reminds us of an exchange with sentences between two people," Ryabov told CNN.

Joshua Smith, a research fellow at Murdoch University Cetacean Research Unit, says there will need to be more research before scientists can be sure whether dolphins are chatting.

[forgotmylogin]

1. Fascinating

Their mindspace is probably so different that it would be a feat to learn how they communicate.

"Water. Fish. (glee) So long. Thank you."

[ProfessorGAC]

2. All But The "Water"

Nobody mentions "air" in a sentence. The water is just a given just like air is for us. The rest was pretty darned funny!

[hunter]

4. There's got to be a big mess of cetacean words describing water conditions.

Murky, clear, temperature and salinity stratifications (especially those affecting sonar), noise, chemical composition...

It wouldn't surprise me if some condition of "water" occurred multiple times in every conversation, maybe even as a kind of grammatical tense influencing every expression.

That might explain why the cetacean languages are so difficult for us to decipher.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Same Is True Of Air

And we don't reference it in every conversation.

Like i said, i liked the post and thought it clever, but it dolphins and whales can verbally communicate, water seems an unlikely topic.

Now, the temperature of the water might come up. Just like us with "Hot/Cold/Humid/Rainy Enough For Ya?"

[hunter]

9. My line of thinking was that sonar is a primary sense for them...

... and there's some speculation their language evolved as echomimetic representations of sonar imagery.

Water conditions are not equivalent to atmospheric conditions; water conditions are much more extreme. As humans living in air we rarely encounter conditions of multiple mirages, winds we can't walk against, or noise and voices traveling hundreds or thousands of miles.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. I Know Hunter

I'm messing around with you. I actually do believe all this. Cetacean behavior is so sophisticated that it's very plausible they have a form of audible language.

I just got tickled by your first post and decided to banter with you. All good.

[randome]

3. "Trump."

[hr][font color="blue"][center]“If you're not committed to anything, you're just taking up space.”
Gregory Peck, Mirage (1965)[/center][/font][hr]

[Jim Beard]

17. They have a natural "Smile".

[pinboy3niner]

5. Dolphins can't talk, silly. They're just punking the researchers on porpoise.

[closeupready]

7. Whale, I'll be darned!

[sarisataka]

8. This was researched before

And scientists could not understand any dolphin speech

[MowCowWhoHow III]

10. Don't believe a word they say!

[MoonRiver]

11. That's a no brainer, but thanks for posting! SPINDAL NEURON

explains everything: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spindle_neuron
The monstrous countries who exploit these highly sentient beings should be shamed, boycotted and brought to task.

[GummyBearz]

12. Dolphins are the second smartest species on earth

Mice being the smartest. The experiments those mice run on human scientists are astounding. 42... who would've thought

[Yavin4]

13. Well, we know for sure that they aren't Trump surrogates on CNN

"Two adult Black Sea bottlenose dolphins, named Yasha and Yana, didn't interrupt each other during an interaction taped by scientists"

[Glassunion]

15. Then why haven't they won a superbowl since the 70's?

[gratuitous]

16. Lack of a pass rush

It's easy to get knocked off course when you're in the water.