Songbirds and humans share some common speech patterns
If you listen to songbirds, you will recognize repeated melodies or phrases. Each phrase is made up of distinct sounds, strung together. A study from researchers at 平特五不中 has found that the song phrases of many songbird species follow patterns that are similar to those used in human speech. At least in some respects.
The songbirds the researchers studied, like humans-鈥攏o matter what language they speak-鈥攖end to use shorter elements (whether these are words or sounds) when they are putting together longer phrases. Linguists speculate that this pattern, known as Menzerath鈥檚 Law, may make communication more efficient by making things easier to understand or say.
But the 平特五不中 team suggest that, at least in songbirds, physical factors such as muscle fatigue and limited lung capacities may also play a role. They also speculate that similar factors could contribute to seeing Menzerath鈥檚 Law in humans.
Do physical elements play a role in songbird (and human) vocal patterns?
鈥淎lthough we see Menzerath鈥檚 Law in all the songbird species we looked at, and others have seen it among primates and penguins, we aren鈥檛 sure this necessarily reflects enhanced communication efficiency in non-human animals,鈥� said Jon Sakata, a professor in 惭肠骋颈濒濒鈥檚 Biology Department and the senior author on the paper that was recently published in . 鈥淚t is possible that these patterns of communication that we saw in songbirds are caused by physical predispositions and constraints.鈥�
Interestingly, Sakata also notes that the brain mechanisms regulating breathing and vocal muscles seem to be organized in similar ways in birds and humans.
Even song from untutored birds follow similar patterns
The idea that physical elements may play a role in these song patterns is supported by the fact that when the researchers compared the song patterns of birds that had been typically reared and tutored by their parents with those that had not been taught to sing by their parents (untutored birds), they found the same patterns.
鈥淭he individual units of sound made by untutored birds were very different from those made by the typically raised birds,鈥� said Logan James, the first author on the paper and a former PhD student in , now a post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. 鈥淗owever, the 鈥榬ules鈥� by which they organize these aberrant elements is indistinguishable from typically raised birds. These results suggest that physical predispositions or limitations may play a role in producing these song patterns.鈥�
Further work will need to be done in this area to see whether this is indeed the case. For example, work linking species variation in the strength of Menzerath鈥檚 Law to species variation in the biomechanics of vocal production would be a useful next step.
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About this study 鈥淧hylogeny and mechanisms of shared hierarchical patterns in birdsong鈥� by James et al. was published in .聽The research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI, the Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, and a Heller award.聽 DOI :聽 |
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