In the rainforests of the Congo, bonobos are doing something surprising: they’re not just making random calls, but combining sounds in ways that resemble sentences. One sound might mean “look at me”, another “let’s do this”, and together they become “watch what I’m doing, come join in.”
Until recently, this kind of vocal creativity—called compositionality—was thought to be uniquely human. But now, birds, whales, and primates are showing hints of it too. And with artificial intelligence helping decode their sounds, scientists are beginning to wonder: could we one day talk with animals instead of just about them?
The Language Puzzle
To understand why this matters, let’s rewind a bit. Linguists—people who study language—often ask three questions:
- How are sounds physically made? (phonetics)
- How are sounds combined into meaningful units? (morphology)
- What rules govern how those units form phrases and sentences? (syntax)
For decades, humans were thought to be unique in the ability to combine and rearrange sounds to create entirely new meanings. But research has chipped away at that assumption.
In 2016, scientists studying Japanese tits (a kind of bird, not the human kind) discovered that these birds use compositionality. When they heard an “alert” call followed by a “recruitment” call, they first looked for predators and then approached the caller. When the calls were reversed, the birds didn’t respond in the same way. Order mattered—just as in human language.
Similar discoveries came with chimpanzees. When faced with fake snakes in the wild, they strung together alarm calls with calls that summon allies. The message was clear: “Danger’s here, come help.”
What’s striking about Berthet’s bonobos is that they don’t just use one pattern. They combine a limited set of sounds in multiple ways, sometimes creating meanings that can’t be predicted from the parts alone. That’s a step closer to what we do with idioms. Think of the phrase “spill the beans”. It has nothing to do with legumes—it’s about revealing a secret.
Read more: Scientists Say More Animals Are Conscious Than We Ever Imagined—Even Insects
Whales with Dialects
It isn’t just primates that surprise us. Sperm whales off Dominica also have complex vocal systems. They produce bursts of clicks, called codas, which are grouped much like letters into words. Some codas even resemble vowels in human speech.
Researchers from Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) are using generative AI to mimic whale sounds and analyze patterns. Early findings suggest whales may have something like a phonetic alphabet, with variations in tempo and rhythm. Some codas even glide in frequency, similar to diphthongs in human languages (like the “ou” in pout).
If that sounds abstract, consider this: different whale families actually have different “dialects.” Much like human communities, they may share a base “language” but with regional accents and local phrases.
Where AI Comes In
Listening to animal sounds is one thing. Understanding them at scale is another. Enter AI.
Organizations like the Earth Species Project in California are training algorithms to spot patterns in animal communication that humans might miss. With vast amounts of recordings—think thousands of hours of chirps, whistles, or codas—AI can detect subtle changes, categorize calls, and even generate responses.
AI doesn’t just save researchers time. It allows us to ask questions we couldn’t before:
- Do whales change their “sentences” based on context?
- Do birds improvise?
- Do monkeys add emotional “tone” to calls the way we raise our voice when excited?
Some teams are even testing whether AI can produce “reply calls” that animals recognize. In theory, that could mean chatting—very carefully—with other species.
But… Is It Really Language?
Here’s the tricky part. Whether these sophisticated systems count as “language” depends on how you define the word. Linguist Charles Hockett once proposed a checklist of features that true language should have. A few examples:
- Displacement: talking about things that aren’t here and now (like gossiping about what happened yesterday).
- Productivity: inventing entirely new sentences that still make sense.
- Duality of patterning: creating meaningful units (words) out of meaningless sounds (letters).
So far, no animal system checks all the boxes. Dolphins might show hints of displacement when they call out the “names” of companions who disappeared years ago, but it’s not conclusive. Whales and primates mix and match calls, but their “vocabularies” are limited compared with ours.
Then there’s recursion—nesting phrases inside each other. Humans can say: “The dog that chased the cat that stole the fish is barking.” That’s a mental juggling act most animals don’t seem to manage.
Still, experiments show promise. Crows trained on touchscreen tasks can recognize recursive patterns better than macaque monkeys, performing on par with human toddlers. Whether they use this ability in daily “crow talk” is another matter.
Why This Matters
All this raises a fascinating possibility: are humans really alone in having language, or are we just further along on the spectrum?
If AI helps us decode and even converse with animals, the implications could be enormous:
- Conservation: Imagine asking whales about the health of the oceans they travel through.
- Ethics: If animals clearly demonstrate complex communication, does it strengthen the case for their rights?
- Science fiction turned real: The dream of “Doctor Dolittle” or talking with dolphins might shift from fantasy to fieldwork.
Related Stories
- The Parrot That Told Jokes
The African grey parrot Alex, studied by Irene Pepperberg, learned not only to mimic words but to use them in meaningful ways—counting, identifying colors, and even asking for things. His skills suggest some birds may already be on the edge of language-like communication. - The Singing Mice of the Andes
Some mice produce elaborate, almost song-like calls to court mates. Researchers studying them found that the rodents can speed up or slow down their songs, hinting at a kind of rhythm control similar to music. - Dolphin Dialects
Bottlenose dolphins develop signature whistles that function like names. They can “call” each other across large distances and sometimes even mimic the whistles of friends. AI tools are now being used to map out dolphin “conversations.”
Read more: Humpback Whales Keep Saving Animals From Orcas—And No One Knows Why
So, Will We Ever Talk With Them?
The cautious answer is: maybe, but not the way we imagine in movies. We’re unlikely to have deep, philosophical chats with whales or monkeys. What’s more realistic is building a shared “dictionary” of sorts—understanding their signals, and perhaps producing responses they recognize as meaningful.
David Robinson of the Earth Species Project puts it best: “The word is still out on whether we’ll find a full-on language.” But even partial breakthroughs could transform how we see animals—not as background creatures, but as fellow communicators on this noisy planet.
Featured image: Freepik.
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