Sperm whale language

I often said that musical acousticians have to question sound about
possibility conditions of sign communication. On my website, in my first
message at Patrice Bailhache, I wrote :

<< L'acousticien est rivé à la matière sonore, incapable de
distinguer ce qui la rend apte à signifier. Il n'a pas vu
qu'il existe un seul invariant élémentaire à travers le
canal sonore : le substrat temporel. >>

In post 11536 I wrote :

<< Important thing is the following. There exist a UNIQUE
ELEMENTARY INVARIANT in acoustic channel (if relative
source position is fixed). It's time. It's why duration
intervals and frequency intervals may alone support
algebraic structure which necessitate elementary invariance
for conservation of composition law under height or
intensity translation. >>

In inaugural message "Nouvelle alliance de la musique et de la science" in
my website, I wrote :

<< Ne pourrait-on pas qualifier de fétichisme du paramètre,
une attitude qui rive le regard sur le physico-sensible,
au détriment de la possibilité d'abstraire l'intelligible.
Qu'est-ce qui rend la matière sonore apte à signifier ?
Quel type d'invariance, à travers le canal sonore, est
exigé par tel segment particulier d'intelligibilité musicale ?
L'acoustique musicale, à défaut d'interdisciplinarité,
requiert au moins un soupçon sémiotique. >>

In La Presse, Montréal 17 sept 2000, an article, "Le tam-tam des
cachalots", report news that concerns this idea.

Bioascoutician Michel André who studies sperm whale language has found what
was searched since long time by biologists and acousticians. He has made
following reasoning : since salinity and temperature deform sound,
significative element of acoustical signal is what is constant : time
interval. And like it seems often cacaphonic and very hard to analyse, he
asked Doudou N'Diaye Rose, famous senegalese drummer master, to listen
recording. In few seconds the musician has described number of whales (what
was before obtained by weeks of analyse) and organization of signals : low
rythm of dominant male, hierarchy and signature of each whale. Michel André
has also found that dolphin's whistling appears at few meters in water like
whale's click.

Pierre Lamothe