Koshik Vocabulary

to scuba divers using communication equipment has contributed to NOC developing speech mimicking capabilities. Due to these instances, NOC’s caretakers began recording his speech mimicking both under and above the surface of the water. Through these recordings, it was found that the rhythm of NOC’s speech amplitude and vocal bursts were similar to that of a human’s. Additionally, NOC would make, on average, three vocalizations per second with a break of 0.05 to 0.5 seconds between each. Finally, NOC’s vocalization attempts shared one other similarity to human speech, which is that his fundamental frequencies varied from 200 to 300 Hz, which is considerably lower than usual for a whale (Ridgway et al. 2012). White whales produce sound …show more content…
Although the only known individual of his species that can mimic human speech, Koshik is capable of accurately reproducing fundamental frequencies and formants in Korean. Koshik is able to mimic human speech by placing his trunk inside of his mouth to alter the shape of his vocal tract in order to produce different vocalizations. Speech mimicry has been hypothesized to function in developing similarities between individuals that are directly related or live in the same social environment. However, Koshik was observed mimicking human speech with the purpose of creating and developing societal relationships both within and between different species (Stoeger et al. …show more content…
Each of these species share similarities in the way they acquire and learn different speech patterns. However, the Grey parrot demonstrates true imitation of speech, and is therefore often used as the model to study the evolution of vocal learning and communication (Pepperberg 2010). Through studying phylogeny, it is possible that a derived characteristic may be found that explains why birds, cetaceans and elephants all possess the ability to mimic human