Dolphins are known for their squeaky calls, but now it appears that these clever mammals of the sea can call each other by name.
What is their communication system like, and how does this compare with human language?
Linguist Daniel Midgley explores undersea linguistics on this episode of Talk the Talk.
Listen to this episode
You can listen to all the episodes of Talk the Talk by pasting this URL into your podlistener.
http://danielmidgley.com/talkthetalk/talk_classic.xmlThere are two things I really don’t like. One is new age woo, and the other is lazy claims about language being used by animals. This episode has them both! But I managed to keep my calm, dispassionate nature intact. With science!
Show notes
There’s a little bit of Tagalog in them thar Minions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nyc4O3RqpA
Looks like Tagalog to me.
http://translate.google.com/?source=osdd#tl/en/nalito%20na
A little more
http://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2013/07/01/960379/minions-can-speak-filipino
The director and voice artist explains.
http://entertainment.inquirer.net/101383/multilingual-minions-take-over-in-despicable-me-2
Benny Lava
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prabhu_Deva
Dolphins appear to use a unique whistle as a name.
NPR:
http://www.npr.org/2013/07/22/204462853/we-call-him-flipper-but-what-do-the-dolphins-call-him
Smithsonian:
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/07/do-dolphins-use-whistles-to-call-themselves-by-unique-names/
The full article
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/07/17/1304459110.abstract
Hear some whistles
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/02/dolphin-names/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Top+Stories%29
There’s some real dolphin woo out there. Here’s a rank example. Don’t swallow it.
http://www.globalanimal.org/2011/09/11/dolphins-dont-just-squeak-they-speak/50761/
This is a laundry list of all the terrible pseudo-science related to the animal language topic.
http://www.livescience.com/22474-animal-languages-communication.html
Chomsky isn’t too keen on it eitherhttp://www.chomsky.info/interviews/2007—-.htm
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/chomsky.htm
“Dolphin-Assisted Therapy” is pseudo-science
http://www.aeonmagazine.com/nature-and-cosmos/lori-marino-dolphins-are-not-healers/
Dolphins have big brains
http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/dolphin-brains-compare-human-brains
They pass the mirror test
http://earthtrust.org/delbook.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_cognition#Language
and maybe learn things culturally
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v3/n7/full/ncomms1983.html
Although you could make the same claim about whales
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130425-humpback-whale-culture-behavior-science-animals/
So are they using a language? Probably not, but referring to things is still cool.
http://www.dolphincommunicationproject.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1103&Itemid=285
