Mediterranean Sperm Whales Found to Have Distinct Dialects

The news in Greek

1. επιστήμονας  (m.)
   Άτομο που ασχολείται με την επιστήμη και κάνει έρευνες. ↩︎
2. ανακαλύπτω
   Βρίσκω κάτι που δεν ήταν γνωστό πριν. ↩︎
3. επικοινωνώ
   Ανταλλάσσω πληροφορίες ή μηνύματα με κάποιον άλλο. ↩︎
4. διάλεκτος  (f.)
   Μια ιδιαίτερη μορφή γλώσσας που χρησιμοποιείται από μια συγκεκριμένη ομάδα. ↩︎
5. Μεσόγειος  (f.)
   Η θάλασσα που βρίσκεται ανάμεσα στην Ευρώπη, την Αφρική και την Ασία. ↩︎
6. φάλαινα  (f.)
   Μεγάλο θαλάσσιο θηλαστικό που ζει στον ωκεανό. ↩︎

Translation

Text comprehension

Question 1: How many dialects do Mediterranean sperm whales use?

Question 2: What are the sounds that sperm whales use to communicate called?

Vocabulary

Greek	English
επιστήμονας  (m.)	scientist
ανακαλύπτω	discover
επικοινωνώ	communicate
διάλεκτος  (f.)	dialect
Μεσόγειος  (f.)	Mediterranean
φάλαινα  (f.)	whale

Read the full story

Scientists have discovered that sperm whales in the Mediterranean Sea communicate using two distinct dialects, offering new insight into how whale dialects develop.

Sperm whales communicate vocally using sequences of sharp clicks known as “codas”. The rhythmic pattern of these clicks can vary between different matriarchal groups, and a group of sperm whales will only associate with another group if they share the same dialect — effectively belonging to the same “vocal clan”.

“Dialect is used to structure the social groups within which these animals cooperate,” said Dr Luke Rendell of the University of St Andrews, co-lead of the new study. He noted similarities with the way humans may feel more comfortable interacting with someone who speaks the same language as them.

Rendell and his colleagues report finding two distinct dialects among Mediterranean sperm whales — a small, threatened population of a few thousand individuals believed to have first appeared in these waters around 20,000 years ago. The findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The researchers analysed recordings made using underwater hydrophones over 112 days between 2003 and 2021. Recordings were taken around the Hellenic Trench — which runs from the northern Ionian Sea, south of the Peloponnese and Crete, to Rhodes — and around the Balearic Islands off the coast of Spain.

Whales in the western Mediterranean used one dialect, while those in the eastern basin used a faster version of it, though they occasionally also produced the western dialect. Rendell suggested this indicates that sperm whales originally settled in the western basin before spreading eastward and developing a faster dialect.

“The whales in the eastern basin remember the old ways of communicating, but they’ve moved on and have evolved them a little — they’ve changed them,” he said. He added that dialect formation appeared to be a slow process requiring some degree of isolation between populations, something also considered key in the evolution of human languages and bird communication. “This is the first example we have where we can look at a piece of the whole picture and understand how new dialects are formed,” Rendell said.