Abstract Dolphins exhibit striking similarities with humans. Here we review them with the help of quantitative linguistics and information theory. Various statistical laws of language that are well-known in quantitative linguistics, i.e. Zipf’s law for word frequencies, the law of meaning distribution, the law of abbreviation and Menzerath’s, law have been found in dolphin vocal or gestural behavior. The information theory of these laws suggests that humans and dolphins share cost-cutting principles of organization.