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Dolphins 'talk' to their young in a higher pitch, just like humans do

26 June 2023

Female dolphins modify their vocalisations in the presence of their offspring, mirroring the ‘baby talk’ used by humans


The ivory comb

Oldest legible sentence written with first alphabet is about head lice

9 November 2022

The early adopters of the alphabet cared about their personal hygiene, judging by the inscription on the side of an ancient ivory comb


Celsus Library in ancient city Ephesus

AI can help historians restore ancient texts from damaged inscriptions

9 March 2022

An AI tool developed by DeepMind can help historians restore ancient Greek texts with 72 per cent accuracy, and date inscriptions to within 30 years of their true age


Why everyone should learn some sign language

Why everyone should learn some sign language

12 January 2022

Sign languages are flourishing in many parts of the world. This could bring cognitive benefits for all who learn them, says Bencie Woll


Ronnie Wavehill talking to his grandchildren about the early colonial days in his first language Gurindji

Languages could go extinct at a rate of one per month this century

16 December 2021

As people around the world travel more and receive more formal education, languages are predicted to vanish at an alarming rate


question in the brain

Using tools helps you understand language and vice versa

11 November 2021

Language and tool use seem to be governed by the same brain region, suggests a study involving an fMRI scanner


Woman carrying millet

Origins of Japanese and Turkish language family traced back 9000 years

10 November 2021

Millet farmers living 9000 years ago in what is now north-east China may have spoken a proto-Transeurasian language that gave rise to Japanese, Turkish and other modern tongues


Listen to an Australian duck say ‘you bloody fool’ like a human

Listen to an Australian duck say ‘you bloody fool’ like a human

5 September 2021

When raised in captivity, musk ducks learn to copy the sounds of human life around them, which shows that they are what’s known as vocal language learners like parrots and humans


Puzzle-solving great apes: The shared abilities underpinning language

Puzzle-solving great apes: The shared abilities underpinning language

19 July 2021

The evolutionary origins of speech may be glimpsed in the tool-using abilities of great apes.


tamarin

Monkeys can change their accent to communicate with another species

26 May 2021

Red-handed tamarins change their calls to sound more like pied tamarins where the two species share the same patches of forest, and doing so may help the two species understand each other


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