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Dolphin Language Lexicon Hope
Scientists have been trying to crack dolphin language for many years and now they have made a scientific breakthrough that for the first time offers the hope of producing a lexicon of dolphin words.
A new technique sees the use of a CymaScope to actually produce a 3D imprint or picture of the sounds that dolphins make replicating the way that some scientists believe dolphins are able to vision sound in the water as a kind of sonic shape.
These shapes are essentially 'picture words' and it is these that the scientists hope to collect and compile their dolphin lexicon from.
The key to this technique is the CymaScope, a new instrument that reveals detailed structures within sounds, allowing their architecture to be studied pictorially. Using high definition audio recordings of dolphins, the research team, headed by English acoustics engineer, John Stuart Reid, and Florida-based dolphin researcher, Jack Kassewitz, has been able to image, for the first time, the imprint that a dolphin sound makes in water. The resulting "CymaGlyphs," as they have been named, are reproducible patterns that are expected to form the basis of a lexicon of dolphin language, each pattern representing a dolphin 'picture word.'
Kassewitz, of the Florida-based dolphin communicationresearch project SpeakDolphin.com said, “There is strong evidence that dolphins are able to ‘see’ with sound, much like humans use ultrasound to see an unborn child in the mother’s womb. The CymaScope provides our first glimpse into what the dolphins might be ‘seeing’ with their sounds.”
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (5)
at 08:18 on January 1st, 2009
Awww, lovely New Years story...
at 08:20 on January 1st, 2009
Great New Years Post in deed. Thank you.
at 09:35 on January 1st, 2009
The whole notion of the shape of a sound is fascinating - we forget sometimes the physical nature of sound and light too for that matter
at 07:21 on January 2nd, 2009
What a great discovery this would be. I am really hopeful that we can interpret the language of one of the most intelligent species on our planet. What a wealth of knowledge this could provide us.
at 16:18 on January 2nd, 2009
Me too. I'm sure that as well as being sentient many animals can communicate and some have an understanding of abstract matters too.