Whistled language

Whistled languages use whistling to emulate speech and facilitate communication. Generally, whistled languages emulate the intonation, tones or vowel formants, and prosody of a natural language so that speakers of that language can recognize the speech melody of what is being said and thus understand the whistled speech.

Whistled language is rare compared to spoken language, but it is found in cultures around the world. It is especially common in tonal languages where the whistled tones follow the tones of the syllables (tone melodies of the words). This is doubtless because in tonal languages the tonal melody carries more of the "functional load" of the communication and non-tonal phonology carries proportionally less, especially when compared with non-tonal languages which have large phonemic inventories. The genesis of a whistled language has never been recorded in either case and has not yet received much productive study.

Techniques

Whistled languages differ according to whether the spoken language is tonal or not, with the whistling being either tone or articulation based (or both).

Tonal languages are often stripped of articulation, leaving only suprasegmental features such as duration and tone, and when whistled retain the spoken melodic line. Thus whistled tonal languages convey phonemic information solely through tone, length, and, to a lesser extent, stress, and most segmental phonemic distinctions of the spoken language are lost.

In non-tonal languages, more of the articulatory features of speech are retained, and the normally timbral variations imparted by the movements of the tongue and soft palate are transformed into pitch variations (Busnel and Classe 1976: v). Certain consonants can be pronounced while whistling, so as to modify the whistled sound, much as consonants in spoken language modify the vowel sounds adjacent to them.

"All whistled languages share one basic characteristic: they function by varying the frequency of a simple wave-form as a function of time, generally with minimal dynamic variations (but see Cowan 1948 see Mazateco), which is readily understandable since in most cases their only purpose is long-distance communication." (Busnel and Classe 1976: 32)

Different whistling styles may be used in a single language. Sochiapam Chinantec has three different words for whistle-speech: sie³ for whistling with the tongue against the alveolar ridge, jui̵³² for bilabial whistling, and juo² for finger-in-the-mouth whistling. These are used for communication over varying distances. There is also a kind of loud falsetto (hóh³²) which functions in some ways like whistled speech.

The expressivity of whistled speech is likely to be somewhat limited compared to spoken speech (although not inherently so), but such a conclusion should not be taken as absolute, as it depends heavily on various factors including the phonology of the language. For example in some tonal languages with few tones, whistled messages typically consist of stereotyped or otherwise standardized expressions, are elaborately descriptive, and often have to be repeated. However, in languages which are heavily tonal, and therefore convey much of their information through pitch even when spoken, such as Mazatec and Yoruba, extensive conversations may be whistled. In any case, even for non-tonal languages, measurements indicate that high intelligibility can be achieved with whistled speech (90% of intelligibility of non-standardized sentences for Greek (Meyer 2005) and the equivalent for Turkish (Busnel 1970).)

In continental Africa, speech may be conveyed by a whistle or other musical instrument, most famously the "talking drums". However, while drums may be used by griots singing praise songs or for inter-village communication, and other instruments may be used on the radio for station identification jingles, for regular conversation at a distance whistled speech is used. As two people approach each other, one may even switch from whistled to spoken speech in mid-sentence.

Examples

The Silbo on the island of La Gomera in the Canary Islands, maintains the five vowels of Spanish, but reduces its consonants to four.

Other whistled languages exist or existed in such parts of the world as Turkey (Kuşköy, "Village of the Birds"), France (the village of Aas in the Pyrenees), Mexico (the Mazatecs and Chinantecs of Oaxaca), South America (Pirahã), Asia (the Chepang of Nepal), and New Guinea. They are especially common and robust today in parts of West Africa, used widely in such populous languages as Yoruba and Ewe. Even French is whistled in some areas of western Africa.

In Southern Africa

In most societies, whistling only communicates emotions. However, information can be communicated through whistling and it does occur in some parts of South and Eastern Africa.

Most whistle languages, of which there are several hundred, are based on tonal languages.

Only the tone of the speech is saved in the whistle, things such as articulation and phonation are eliminated. These are replaced by other features such as stress and rhythmical variations. However, some languages, like that of the people of Aas in the Zezuru who speak a Shona-derived dialect, include articulation so that consonants interrupt the flow of the whistle. A similar language is the Tsonga whistle language used in the highlands in the Southern parts of Mozambique.

This should not be confused with the whistled sibilants of Shona.

Usage and cultural status

In the Greek village of Antia, only few whistlers remain now (Meyer 2005) but in 1982 the entire population knew how to whistle their speech.

Whistled speech may be very central and highly valued in a culture. Shouting is very rare in Sochiapam Chinantec. Men in that culture are subject to being fined if they do not handle whistle-speech well enough to perform certain town jobs. They may whistle for fun in situations where spoken speech could easily be heard.

In Sochiapam and other places in Mexico, and reportedly in West Africa as well, whistled speech is men's language: although women may understand it they do not use it.

Though whistled languages are not secret codes or secret languages (with the exception of a whistled language used by ñañigos terrorists in Cuba during Spanish occupation (Busnel and Classe 1976: 22)), they may be used for secretive communication among outsiders or others who do not know or understand the whistled language though they may understand its spoken origin. Stories are told of farmers in Aas during World War II, or in La Gomera, who were able to hide evidence of such nefarious activities as milk-watering because they were warned in whistle-speech that the police were approaching (Busnel and Classe 1976: 15).

Ecology

Whistled languages are normally found in locations with difficult mountainous terrain, slow or difficult communication, low population density and/or scattered settlements, and other isolating features such as shepherding and cultivation of hillsides (Busnel and Classe 1976: 27 – 28). The main advantage of whistling speech is that it allows the speaker to cover much larger distances (typically 1 – 2 km but up to 5 km) than ordinary speech, without the strain (and lesser range) of shouting. The long range of whistling is enhanced by the terrain found in areas where whistled languages are used. Many areas with such languages work hard to preserve their ancient traditions, in the face of rapidly advancing telecommunications systems in many areas.

Physics

A whistled tone is essentially a simple oscillation (or sine wave), and thus timbral variations are impossible. Normal articulation during an ordinary lip-whistle is relatively easy though the lips move little causing a constant of labialization and making labial and labiodental consonants (p, b, m, f, etc.) problematical (Busnel and Classe 1976: 3). "Apart from the five vowel-phonemes [of Silbo Gomero] — and even these do not invariably have a fixed or steady pitch — all whistled speech-sound realizations are glides which are interpreted in terms of range, contour, and steepness." (Busnel and Classe 1976: 8)

In a non-tonal language, segments may be differentiated as follows:

Vowels are replaced by a set of relative pitch ranges generally tracking the f₂ formant of spoken language.

Stress is expressed by higher pitch or increased length

Consonants are produced by pitch transitions of different lengths and height, plus the presence or absence of occlusion. ("Labial stops are replaced by diaphragm or glottal occlusions.")

In the case of Silbo Gomero, such strategies produce five vowels and four consonants.

List of whistled languages and speaking ethnic groups

The following list is of languages that exist or existed in a whistled form, or of ethnic groups that speak such languages. In some cases (e.g. Chinantec) the whistled speech is an important and integral part of the language and culture; in others (e.g. Nahuatl) its role is much lesser.

• Americas
  • Mexico: Amuzgo, Chinantec, Ch'ol, Kickapoo, Mazatec, Nahuatl, Otomi, Tepehua, Totonac, Zapotec.
  • Bolivia: Siriono
  • Brazil: Pirahã
  • Alaska: Yupik
• Asia
  • Burma: Chin
  • Nepal: Chepang
  • Turkey: Kuşköy
• Europe
  • France (village of Aas, Pyrenees): Occitan language
  • Greece (village of Antia on the island of Euboea)
  • Spain (La Gomera, Canary Islands): "Silbo Gomero"
• West Africa: Bafia, Bape, Birifor, Bobo, Burunsi, Daguri, Diola, Ewe, Fongbe, Marka, Ngwe, Twi, Ule (among others).
• Oceania
  • New Guinea: Gasup, Binumarien

See also

• Musical language
• Language of the birds
• Solresol
• Sweep (puppet)
• Talking drums

Sources

• Busnel, R-G. and Classe, A. (1976). Whistled Languages. New York: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0-387-07713-8.

• Busnel, R-G. (1970). Recherches experimentales sur la langue sifflée de Kusköy. Revue de Phonétique Appliquée 14/15: 41-57

• Foris, David Paul. 2000. A grammar of Sochiapam Chinantec. Studies in Chinantec languages 6. Dallas: SIL International and UT Arlington.

• Meyer J. (2005) Typology and intelligibility of whistled languages: approach in linguistics and bioacoustics. Pd D dissertation. Cyberthese publication. Lyon 2 University.

External links

• A Ph. D thesis on whistled languages : Meyer J. (2005) "Typology and intelligibility of whistled languages" (summary and pdf)

• An international network of research and defense on whistled languages, whistled speech. With sounds to listen, research articles to download, animations, games The World Whistles Network

• A whistled conversation in Sochiapam Chinantec (SIL-Mexico)

• A concise message on the LINGUIST mailing list summarizing knowledge about whistled languages. Also contains a bibliography.

• A report from National Public Radio, Whistling to Communicate in Alaska, discusses the whistled language used by the Yupik Eskimos of Alaska.