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More Than 80 Cultures Still Speak in Whistles
Smithsonian ^ | Bob Holmes

Posted on 08/26/2021 9:28:35 AM PDT by BenLurkin

In at least 80 cultures worldwide, people have developed whistled versions of the local language when the circumstances call for it. To linguists...hope to learn more about how our brains extract meaning from the complex sound patterns of speech. Whistling may even provide a glimpse of...the origin of language itself.

Whistled languages are almost always developed by traditional cultures that live in rugged, mountainous terrain or in dense forest. That’s because whistled speech carries much farther than ordinary speech or shouting, says Julien Meyer... a linguist and bioacoustician at CNRS, the French national research center, who explores the topic of whistled languages in the 2021 Annual Review of Linguistics. Skilled whistlers can reach 120 decibels — louder than a car horn — and their whistles pack most of this power into a frequency range of 1 to 4 kHz, which is above the pitch of most ambient noise.

As a result, whistled speech can be understood up to 10 times as far away as ordinary shouting can, Meyer and others have found. That lets people communicate even when they cannot easily approach close enough to shout. On La Gomera, for example, a few traditional shepherds still whistle to one another across mountain valleys that could take hours to cross.

Whistled languages work because many of the key elements of speech can be mimicked in a whistle, says Meyer. We distinguish one speech sound, or phoneme, from another by subtle differences in their sound frequency patterns. A vowel such as a long e, for example, is formed higher in the mouth than a long o, giving it a higher sound. “It’s not pitch, exactly,” says Meyer. Instead, it’s a more complex change in sound quality, or timbre, which is easily conveyed in a whistle.

(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: canaryislands; cultures; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; keywordtroll; language; thisisstupid; whistles
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1 posted on 08/26/2021 9:28:35 AM PDT by BenLurkin
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2 posted on 08/26/2021 9:29:11 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: SunkenCiv

ping


3 posted on 08/26/2021 9:29:30 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: All

I used to talk to women with whistles but now I guess they call that sexual harassment


4 posted on 08/26/2021 9:30:19 AM PDT by escapefromboston (Free Chauvin)
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To: BenLurkin

Biden speaks with whistles. To little girls.


5 posted on 08/26/2021 9:31:16 AM PDT by albie
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To: BenLurkin
Whistling is part of the Brooklyn dialect
6 posted on 08/26/2021 9:33:15 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (Joe Biden is a squinty-eyed turnip brain)
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To: BenLurkin

I’ve been speaking in whistles too, ever since I lost that front tooth.


7 posted on 08/26/2021 9:35:24 AM PDT by I want the USA back (We have more to fear from our government than from the bug that the chicoms made for us. )
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To: rdl6989

Bookmark


8 posted on 08/26/2021 9:39:04 AM PDT by rdl6989 ( )
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To: I want the USA back

Mr. Herbert on “Family Guy” speaks with whistles, too, but I think it’s because his dentures don’t fit.


9 posted on 08/26/2021 9:39:56 AM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: escapefromboston

“I used to talk to women with whistles…”
******************************************
I still talk to my dogs with whistles.


10 posted on 08/26/2021 9:40:44 AM PDT by House Atreides
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To: escapefromboston

>>I used to talk to women with whistles but now I guess they call that sexual harassment

lol, beat me to it.


11 posted on 08/26/2021 9:43:12 AM PDT by qwerty1234
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To: BenLurkin

Something tells me that these are not the most advanced cultures on the planet.

IOW, not expecting a whistled “Hamlet” or “Twelfth Night” anytime soon.


12 posted on 08/26/2021 9:45:06 AM PDT by proud American in Canada ("Fear is a reaction; courage is a decision." Winston Churchill)
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To: BenLurkin
Everybody beat me to it, but a picture helps...


13 posted on 08/26/2021 9:45:06 AM PDT by PLMerite ("They say that we were Cold Warriors. Yes, and a bloody good show, too." - Robert Conquest )
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To: qwerty1234; escapefromboston

LOL. That’s funny. :)

Not being a man, that wasn’t my first thought, but the younger me might have thought of it, having occasionally been on the receiving end of an admiring whistle.

I have mixed feelings about the “wolf whistle.” The younger me might have felt admired, but also maybe a bit afraid, especially if I were walking alone.

The 58 year old me would be flattered and disbelieving. Just as I am if anyone ever calls me “miss.” A young man called me “miss” a while ago and I told him, “You have made my day.”


14 posted on 08/26/2021 9:49:09 AM PDT by proud American in Canada ("Fear is a reaction; courage is a decision." Winston Churchill)
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To: proud American in Canada
Something tells me that these are not the most advanced cultures on the planet.

Yep. Those Greeks were SO primitive and NEVER wrote anything of merit.

Really?

15 posted on 08/26/2021 9:50:19 AM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (I refuse to be afraid. I refuse to bow. I refuse to take any job I do not wish to. So BUZZ OFF!)
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To: proud American in Canada

It’s basically the same as yodeling.


16 posted on 08/26/2021 9:51:38 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: PLMerite

That picture is priceless. If you’ve ever seen “The King of Queens” with Kevin James and Leah Remini—and Jerry Stiller (very funny show), you may have seen the episode where Carrie turns 30.

She freaks out, feeling really old; she told Doug, her husband, that no one at a construction site catcalls her anymore. So he goes over there with a six-pack of beer and asks them to whistle at his wife. The guys refused the beer, saying “we’re not supposed to drink on the job.” And one guy says, “So you’re saying you want us to sexually harass your wife?”

Doug says “Bingo.” :) And Carrie comes home very happy.

We women are really weird about our appearance; always afraid that men won’t find us appealing, whereas one friend of mine said that if a woman is willing to take off her clothes in front of him, he’s quite happy to overlook any tiny flaws she might focus on; he doesn’t even notice them. LOL


17 posted on 08/26/2021 9:55:05 AM PDT by proud American in Canada ("Fear is a reaction; courage is a decision." Winston Churchill)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t read the map very well. I need to put my glasses on.

Of course the Greeks were a foundation of Western Civilization. Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, the list goes on.

I apologize for my stupid error.


18 posted on 08/26/2021 9:56:47 AM PDT by proud American in Canada ("Fear is a reaction; courage is a decision." Winston Churchill)
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To: BenLurkin

There are also multiple ‘click’ languages spoken. The best known is probably the !Kung spoken by the Khoi-san, made famous in the movie “The Gods Must be Crazy”.

One of my instructors spoke enough !Kung so that he could get around when he lived in South Africa.


19 posted on 08/26/2021 9:57:49 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: BenLurkin

Well, that’s what I was thinking; a way to communicate over long distances.

Now I have that “Ricola” commercial stuck in my head. I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember that one, thought it’s not super old. But it’s these guys, I think in lederhosen (sp?) who use those huge horns to blow signals as well as yodeling.


20 posted on 08/26/2021 9:58:48 AM PDT by proud American in Canada ("Fear is a reaction; courage is a decision." Winston Churchill)
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