Scientists discover surprising language 'shortcuts' in birdsong – like humans

Summary

Scientists have uncovered a hidden pattern in birdsong that mirrors a core rule of human language.A new study, led by researchers at The University of Manchester, in collaboration with Chester Zoo, found that birds appear to follow Zipf’s Law of Abbreviation (ZLA) – the idea that more frequently used sounds tend to be shorter. This rule, found in all human languages, helps make communication more efficient.The findings, published in the journal PLoS Computational Biology today, offer new insight into how animals communicate and provide a new foundation for researchers exploring whether birds, like humans, shape their vocal signals according to the 'principle of least effort'.Lead author Dr Tucker Gilman, Senior Lecturer at The University of Manchester said: “In human language, if we say something a lot, we tend to shorten it – like saying ‘TV’ instead of ‘television’. It turns out that the same pattern exists in birdsong.“We know that birds and humans share similarities in the genes and brain structures involved in learning to communicate but this is the first time we’ve been able to detect a consistent pattern of ZLA across multiple bird species. There’s still a lot more work to be done but this is an exciting development.”Although previous studies hinted that animal communication might follow ZLA – including in penguins – it has been difficult to find clear evidence of ZLA in birdsong. That’s partly because most birds have much smaller repertoires compared to humans. While humans use thousands of words, birds may only produce a few dozen distinct sounds.To tackle this, the researchers developed new method for studying ZLA in birdsong that focuses on how often individual birds use certain note types and how long those notes last allowing them to examine communication at an individual rather than population level.They then applied this method using a new open-source computational tool called ZLAvian, which compares real-world observed patterns to simulated ones to d...