The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Master's Theses Fall 12-2014 Dialect Use Within a Socially Fluid Group of Southern Resident Killer Whales, Orcinus orca Courtney Elizabeth Smith University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses Part of the Animal Studies Commons, and the Zoology Commons Recommended Citation Smith, Courtney Elizabeth, "Dialect Use Within a Socially Fluid Group of Southern Resident Killer Whales, Orcinus orca" (2014). Master's Theses. 61. https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/61 This Masters Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi DIALECT USE WITHIN A SOCIALLY FLUID GROUP OF SOUTHERN RESIDENT KILLER WHALES, ORCINUS ORCA by Courtney Elizabeth Smith A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Approved: Dr. Stan Kuczaj_______________________ Committee Chair Dr. Alen Hajnal_______________________ Dr. Sheree Watson____________________ Dr. Karen Coats______________________ Dean of the Graduate School December 2014 ABSTRACT DIALECT USE WITHIN A SOCIALLY FLUID GROUP OF SOUTHERN RESIDENT KILLER WHALES, ORCINUS ORCA by Courtney Elizabeth Smith December 2014 Resident killer whales, Orcinus orca, of the Northeastern Pacific form stable kinship-based matrifocal associations and communicate with group-specific repertoires of discrete calls (dialects) that reflect these associations. The gradual fission of matrilines is usually consistent with dialect variations among groups that may manifest as differences in call usage at the repertoire level or subtle structural differences of the calls themselves.