There are many famous examples of animals who seem to understand human language. But is there any real science behind them?

Humpback whale song is a striking example of a complex, culturally transmitted behavior, but up to now, there was little evidence it has a language-like structure. Human language, which is also ...

Zipf’s law of abbreviation explains how commonly spoken words tend to be shorter. The idea is so intuitive, birds appear to ...

This animal-supporting mindset has stood against the rise of Christianity, which held that all other beings were created to serve humans and their needs.

Babbling in babies and marmoset monkeys shows how brain growth and feedback from caregivers shape language learning.

Whale song has language-like structure Language has long been considered a uniquely human trait, with features that mark it out as distinct from the communication of all other species.

In what they call a world first, researchers in Europe say they've taught an orca whale to successfully imitate a variety of sounds, including calls made by other animal species and even spoken ...

A study reveals that African elephants communicate using intentional gestures to ask for food, similar to ape communication.

Indeed, recent decades saw ample scientific attempts to compare human speech, the prominent behavioral manifestation of language, with other animals’ vocalizations. Diligent studies have found only ...

UC Berkeley researchers say large language models have gained "metalinguistic ability," a hallmark of human language and cognition no other animal has displayed.