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Vyacheslav Ryabov claims to have recorded a conversation between two dolphins demonstrating the use of "words" and "sentences":
A conversation between dolphins may have been recorded by scientists for the first time, a Russian researcher claims. Two adult Black Sea bottlenose dolphins, named Yasha and Yana, didn't interrupt each other during an interaction taped by scientists and may have formed words and sentences with a series of pulses, Vyacheslav Ryabov says in a new paper. "Essentially, this exchange resembles a conversation between two people," Ryabov said.
[...] Using new recording techniques, Ryabov separated the individual "non coherent pulses" the two dolphins made and theorized each pulse was a word in the dolphins' language, while a collection of pulses is a sentence. "As this language exhibits all the design features present in the human spoken language, this indicates a high level of intelligence and consciousness in dolphins," he said in the paper, which was published in the St. Petersburg Polytechnical University Journal: Physics and Mathematics last month. "Their language can be ostensibly considered a high developed spoken language."
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In his paper, Ryabov calls for humans to create a device by which human beings can communicate with dolphins. "Humans must take the first step to establish relationships with the first intelligent inhabitants of the planet Earth by creating devices capable of overcoming the barriers that stand in the way of ... communications between dolphins and people," he said.
The study of acoustic signals and the supposed spoken language of the dolphins (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.spjpm.2016.08.004) (DX)
(Score: 2) by tfried on Wednesday September 14 2016, @06:41AM
I see language much more as a living thing, constantly evolving, without any apparent design. There is little "why" in this.
Depends on the sort of "why" you are looking for. I was not trying to argue that languages need articles and/or grammatical gender. And thanks for providing the counter-examples that I was lacking. However, I do think it's fun to think about how languages would come up with mostly redundant features such as articles. I.e. not "what do we need articles for", but "how did articles evolve" (and I'm not so sure my theory on that is any good, but I still like it...).
Same with my attempted answer to the OP's question: "why do so many languages have grammatical gender at all (and why would they extend it to inanimate things)". I'm totally not trying to argue that languages need this, but as it still appears to be rather "popular" among languages, it's very valid to ask how that feature came to be. Much like genetic evolution, it seems reasonable that this has provided a real advantage at least some time in the past (although that advantage need no longer apply at present). That's what my speculation is all about.
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Wednesday September 14 2016, @11:56PM
It seems to me that the "evolution" of language, contrary to the common idea/association (not saying this is right, just that that is what is how it is commonly percieved) of evolution with a growing complexity, language has seemed to always trend toward lesser and lesser complexity and simpler grammar. I'm not a linguist, but I would guess that "original" language/s were very complex and highly specific, making expressing complex/abstract ideas harder, and that over time language has simplified in order to make expression of complex ideas easier, and also as a byproduct of intermixing and cultural development.