Arnon I. auteur aut IRD Kirby S. auteur aut IRD Allen J. A. auteur aut IRD Garrigue Claire auteur aut IRD Carroll E. L. auteur aut IRD Garland E. C. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access Humpback whale song is a culturally transmitted behavior. Human language, which is also culturally transmitted, has statistically coherent parts whose frequency distribution follows a power law. These properties facilitate learning and may therefore arise because of their contribution to the faithful transmission of language over multiple cultural generations. If so, we would expect to find them in other culturally transmitted systems. In this study, we applied methods based on infant speech segmentation to 8 years of humpback recordings, uncovering in whale song the same statistical structure that is a hallmark of human language. This commonality, in two evolutionarily distant species, points to the role of learning and cultural transmission in the emergence of properties thought to be unique to human language. specialized PACIFIQUE SUD NOUVELLE CALEDONIE 034 020 387 6734 649-653 [+ erratum post date 03 avril 2025] 2025 0036-8075 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010093631 10.1126/science.adq7055 0036-8075 [F B010093631] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010093631 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2025-07/010093631.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2025-07-15 2025-07-15 fdi:010093631 fre