Beluga trying to speak?

Quoted from Dictionary.com (http://hotword.dictionary.com/belugawhale/)

"From Dr. Doolittle to Jane Goodall, human-animal communication has occupied our thoughts both in fiction and in reality. Dogs recognize their names when they are called; researchers have successfully taught primates to communicate in sign language; and the famed African gray parrot, Alex, built a vocabulary of over 100 English words out of which he learned to form cogent sentences. All of these examples show humans reaching out to communicate with animals, but what happens when animals try to speak with us?
For the first time researchers have released a recording of the spontaneous impersonation of human speech out of the mouth. . . or spout of a beluga whale. The unexpected speaker was a cetacean (the scientific name for beluga whales) named NOC, residing in San Diego, California at the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program. After seven years under the care of researchers in the program, NOC began to produce vocalizations that sounded remarkably similar to human speech, but unlike dolphins or marine mammals in similar programs, NOC was never trained to do so.
Sam Ridgway, president of the National Marine Mammal Foundation, released a paper in Current Biology Magazine describing the odd mechanics NOC had to master in order to produce such human-like sounds. By applying pressure sensors to detect vibrations in NOC's nasal passages, Ridgway concluded that NOC was using a structure that appears in dolphins and some whales known as "phonic lips." The cetacean controlled this unlikely organ to mitigate the flow of sound out of his nasal cavity (the blowhole on top of his head) in the same way humans control their vocal chords.
Though NOC sadly passed away in 1999, his voice lives on in the recordings that have inspired this exciting new development in human-animal communication."

http://soundcloud.com/io9/piis0960982212010093-mmc2

I find this impressive. It doesn't really sound like anything coherent, more like the babbling of a child (which might suggest that the beluga was actually practicing sounds just as a baby would rather than directly mimicking speech like a bird does). Very interesting! Thoughts?

Baha! It sounds like it's singing.

I love learning about intelligent animals. Whales, octopi, apes.... completely fascinating. How incredible would it be to live in a world with a second sentient species that we could communicate with at high levels?

Sibs, maybe these articles will quell your curiosity? The youtube video is especially interesting. It covers a Doctor in Arizona's decoding of prarie dog speech. No joke.

http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/2777-animal-languages-communication.html

http://youtu.be/y1kXCh496U0

I can't even wrap my head around this....how can we decode animal language?.we have speech that consists of words that all have a definition..its so hard to believe we could teach animals our words and what they mean let alone have an animal teach us its language and what they mean...I just.....I don't even know what to think right now lol

Random: When I was in elementary school we had this library book about Koko the gorilla (the one who learned sign language). I loved it and I checked it out multiple times. It turns out, my college roommate (and one of my best friends) was similarly obsessed with the same book when SHE was in elementary school. Haha!

Chels - Totally. Language is hard to even comprehend. But I suppose we'd teach them like we teach our own kids... associate words with concepts, and build from basic to complex. Woo!

How in the world.....I wish I could say more on this. I'm literally just in awe after reading/watching this...I seem to forget the similarity between animals and humans because I feel like this shouldn't work....but I bet it will lol

I had a moment like that when I saw some pictures of bonobos the other day. Their arms! They're like.... human arms! With hands with knuckles and elbows and swirling hair patterns. (I mean, I know we're all primates obviously, but it doesn't always strike you.) It's hard to look a picture of an ape just chilling out on the ground, leaning against a rock, ankles crossed, and not feel some weird ancestral affinity.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47847725@N04/4530705767/

Even after watching the video I still don't think that animal language equates with human language, but there's definitely complexity within the communication systems that animals use - there's no doubt.