this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2024
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Science Memes

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Interspecies linguistics (mander.xyz)
submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 months ago (7 children)

Only humans have language. Inter-species communication is nothing special. Rattlesnakes are named for their ability to communicate cross species.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 3 months ago

"Either back it up or get fucked up."

[–] [email protected] 44 points 3 months ago (1 children)

curious how it's always humans saying that they're the only ones who have language..

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

it's only humans capable of the sub communication protocol called English that says that

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No other languages have evolved to say that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Exactly, other languages would use something like "Det är bara människan som utvecklat tal" or "Es ist nur der Mensch, der die Sprache entwickelt hat" depending on language

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 months ago

Only humans have language.

Animal language.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

They identified nouns and adjectives in prairie dog communication, that also seems to vary with regional dialects. I'll try to remember to dig up a source when I'm not out and about later.

Edit: here's a not fully scientific link, but has names and links for people who want to go deeper in the science while being a decent lay person's overview.

Yes, the blog name isn't very scientific looking (I have not read anything else on it). https://thehumanevolutionblog.com/2015/08/18/a-career-studying-the-sophisticated-vocabulary-of-prairie-dogs/

And here's a peer reviewed study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347205801174

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Weren't science communicators talking about parts of speech in whale communication last year, too? They're using AI to identify patterns and variations in speech.

Here's a general (though older) overview of whale language: https://www.britannica.com/explore/savingearth/the-language-of-whales

Here's a more recent article taking about using AI to identify patterns in speech: https://scitechdaily.com/ai-decodes-sperm-whale-language-revealing-a-complex-system-of-communication/

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

I appreciate your disclaimers and context of your sources.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

What is this strange group on Lemmy that is so anti animal intelligence?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

A rattlesnake can certainly communicate using sound, but is that language? Bright colors can communicate ideas of "do not eat this" across species as well, but they wouldn't fit my mental model of a language.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

what is language than making sounds to convey meaning and then decoding said sounds to understand their meaning

human language is incredibly complex but a bee just buzzing a particular buzz that means "bear nearby" counts as a valid form of linguistic communication imo

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

Bees actually dance to communicate and it's considered a language 😄

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Koko the gorilla would beg to differ

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Just gonna drop this, I haven't done a deep dive in sources thoufh

https://youtu.be/e7wFotDKEF4?si=earmcx6FpV4PLDfN

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Don't leave your SI lying around like that