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- The call of the jackass penguin, a wheezing bray that sounds like a donkey in distress, follows some of the same linguistic laws found in human languages, scientists have found.
Researchers say that, just like in our own speech, more frequently used sounds within the call tend to be shorter, while the longer the call, the shorter the sounds within it. It is the first time this pattern has been shown outside primates.
“We can probably find many other species that conform to these laws because this is probably a general principle, rather than something related to human language specifically,” said Dr Livio Favaro, a co-author of the research now at the University of Turin.