Humpback whale song and human language are more similar than you might think. Here's why

Researchers have found a pattern indicating certain 'words' are used more often than others - but humans won't be speaking whale any time soonFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastHumpback whale song is structured in a similar way to human language - with shorter sounds used far more often than more complex ones - a structure which helps infants quickly learn how to communicate from their elders in both species.Across languages and whale song, some words, or word-like elements, are used frequently while others are infrequent. They follow a pattern known as "Zipfian distribution", where the most used word in a language (like "the") is used about twice as often as the second most common word, and three times as frequent as the third most common word and so on.Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Continue reading...