Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:Birdsong is incredibly important for nearly every bird species on Earth, as it plays a role in mating and communication. Now, scientists have discovered that birdsong actually follows a human linguistic trait known as Zipf’s law of abbreviation (ZLA), which explains the negative correlation between word length and usage. Related Story AI Bots Have Secret LanguagesA new study led by scientists at the University of Manchester shows that much like humans, birds follow a linguistic law known as Zipf’s law of abbreviation (ZLA), or the brevity law. Discovered by American linguist George Kingsley Zipf in 1945, the law describes the negative correlation between word length and usage frequency. This isn’t the first study to apply the brevity law to birds.