Human Speech, Music, and Bird Song Share a Common Origin

Author: Philip Perry / Source: Big Think

Every time I hear that song “Talk to the Animals,” I role my eyes. Now it seems the concept behind Dr. Doolittle may not be so far-fetched, after all. Take human languages for instance. There are 6,906 of them, and around 250 language families. Each one contains grammar and syntax.

But in many instances linguists tell us, they’re surprisingly similar.

What’s more, ours aren’t the only sounds in the animal kingdom to observe a style of grammar. Bird song for example, has a grammar to it. Research is now finding that the sounds made by humans, birds, and many other animals may have a common origin. This hints at a “universal grammar,” which exists across a wide swath of vertebrates. The findings have implications not just for linguistics but music, computer science, and more.

Scientists believe it all comes down to common circuitry inside the brain. Imagine bird song, human speech, and music all emanating from common jumbles of neurons firing in particular patterns. Scientists who study bird song have suspected this for some time. But now, researchers at McGill University in Montreal, have provided the very first evidence for it, and it’s compelling. Their findings were published in the journal Current Biology.

This series of studies was based on current theories linguists have surrounding human languages. They also concern music. It seems there are commonalities which are the same throughout the kaleidoscope of human tongues. These have been dubbed “universals.

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They surround syntax or the order words go in. But this also includes things like word stress, pitch, and the timing speech occurs in. Some linguists, including left-wing dissident Noam Chomsky, have proposed a “universal grammar,” which learning a language is built on. It’s nature vs. nurture all over again. So are we predisposed to certain grammatical structures or are they learned?

A zebra finch. Credit: Kaz, Pixababy.

Investigators used zebra finches for their research. These are commonly used in birdsong studies. Logan James is a PhD student…

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