Unlike many species, song learning birds and humans have independently evolved the ability to communicate via learned vocalizations. Both birdsong and spoken language are culturally transmitted across generations, within species-specific constraints that leave room for considerable variation. We review the commonalities and differences between vocal learning bird species and humans, across behavioral, developmental, neuroanatomical, physiological, and genetic levels. We propose that cultural transmission of vocal repertoires is a natural consequence of the evolution of vocal learning and that at least some species-specific universals, as well as species differences in cultural transmission, are due to differences in vocal learning phenotypes, which are shaped by genetic constraints. We suggest that it is the balance between these constraints and features of the social environment that allows cultural learning to propagate and describe new opportunities for exploring meaningful comparisons of birdsong and human vocal culture that focus on the ontogeny of vocal interactivity. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 7 is January 14, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

中文翻译：

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鸟鸣学习与文化：类比人类口语

与许多物种不同，学习唱歌的鸟类和人类已经独立进化出通过学习发声进行交流的能力。鸟鸣和口语都在文化上代代相传，在特定物种的限制下，留下了相当大的变化空间。我们回顾了声乐学习鸟类和人类在行为、发育、神经解剖学、生理学和遗传水平上的共性和差异。我们提出，声乐曲目的文化传播是声乐学习进化的自然结果，并且至少一些特定于物种的普遍性以及文化传播中的物种差异是由于声乐学习表型的差异造成的，这些表型由遗传限制。我们认为，正是这些约束和社会环境特征之间的平衡，才允许文化学习传播和描述探索鸟鸣和人类声乐文化的有意义比较的新机会，这些文化关注于声乐交互的个体发育。《语言学年度评论》第 7 卷的预计最终在线出版日期为 2021 年 1 月 14 日。有关修订后的估计，请参阅 http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates。