A WHISTLE can mean many things - someone is impressed, annoyed, or has spotted a taxi from an inconveniently long distance away.
But can people use whistles to have actual conversations - with words, messages and replies - rather than just hum out a particularly musical “oi”?
Verdict:
TRUE
Yes, in several communities around the world, people use whistled forms of their spoken languages to communicate over long distances.
And no, these are not random bird noises or a secret code invented during a boring school assembly. They are structured systems that convert spoken words into whistles.
Researchers refer to this as whistled speech or whistled language.
A whistled language does not replace an existing language. Instead, it adapts it.
Speakers transform the sounds and patterns of their usual spoken language into whistles. Pitch, changes in pitch, pauses, length and intensity help convey vowels, consonants and syllables.
And a skilled listener can recognise the message, much as they would in ordinary speech.
Research published in Frontiers in Psychology notes that whistled speech can carry conversations over distances ranging from roughly 50 metres to two kilometres, depending on terrain and conditions.
It is particularly useful in mountainous areas and dense forests, where shouting is inefficient, and a phone signal may have taken a personal day.
Two famous examples are Silbo Gomero - used on La Gomera in Spain’s Canary Islands - which reproduces Castilian Spanish through whistles, and a whistled form of Turkish - often called kuş dili, or “bird language.”
UNESCO added Silbo Gomero to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009, and placed kuş dili on its List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2017.
If you’re wondering whether people still use this form of communication, the answer is yes.
Many whistled-language traditions, however, face pressure from mobile phones, migration and changing ways of life.
For communities that use them, whistled languages are practical tools, cultural traditions and a striking reminder that human communication is much more inventive than simply speaking louder.
References:
1. https://www.bbc.com/future/
2. https://www.pimsleur.com/blog/
3. https://www.fcitle.com/post/
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
