The temporal structure of speech rhythms resembles that of the communication signals of numerous animal species. This is shown by a recent study conducted by a research team from the Leibniz Centre for General Linguistics (ZAS) in Berlin, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, the University of Regensburg and the Institute for Advanced Studies at Aix-Marseille University. For the study, speech recordings from 48 languages across all inhabited continents were analysed and compared with rhythmic data from animal species such as fish, seals and birds. The aim was to determine whether the rhythm of human speech is unique, and if not, how it fits into a broader biological pattern across species.