Sperm whales make sounds like human vowels, scientists report

NPR | By Megan Lim,

Patrick Jarenwattananon

Published April 16, 2026 at 4:52 PM EDT

A new report from scientists at Project CETI demonstrates that the noises that sperm whales make to communicate with each other contain what humans would describe as vowels.

Megan Lim

Patrick Jarenwattananon

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Sperm whales make sounds like human vowels, scientists report

Support quality journalism, like the story above, with your gift right now.

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