Will We Ever Learn to Speak Dolphin?

Dolphins are highly intelligent mammals, with an amazing ability to learn to understand our language. But as we gain more insights into their behaviour, we’re also coming to suspect that they might have their very own language — or at the very least a complex system for communicating with one another.

A big question facing marine biologists today is whether we’ll ever be able to understand what they’re actually saying. Thankfully, science could help us to construct a dolphin Rosetta Stone — but it won’t be easy.

Dolphins, like humans, devote a considerable portion of its genome to the development of the nervous system — a strong indication that their cognitive capacities are comparable to our own.

And like us, they have large brains and the capacity for higher-order thinking. They live in hierarchical arrangements, engage in fission-fusion social arrangements (which means dolphins come and go between pods as they please), cooperate, and exhibit unique personalities.

They can also pass the mirror test (an indication that they have a strong sense of self) and are able to respond to commands issued from a television monitor (surprisingly, not a lot of animals can do this — including some primates).

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Image via Telegraph, Oregon State University.