science
Sperm Whales Have Vowels: What Project CETI's Latest Discovery Means for Language
A sperm whale named Pinchy, recorded off the coast of Dominica, is helping linguists rewrite what we thought we knew about animal communication. Project CETI's newest study in Proceedings B shows that whale clicks contain discrete vowels, diphthongs, and coarticulation patterns that mirror human phonology. The findings, built on machine learning analysis of thousands of recordings, suggest that features once thought uniquely human evolved independently in the ocean ninety million years ago.
Livia Chen · Mar 2, 2026