Whistled speech is a form of speech surrogacy in which whistling is used to mimic speech. Speakers of more than 80 languages have been found to practice various degrees of whistled speech, most of them in rugged topography or dense forests, where movement to carry messages is challenging, and whistling expands the distance of communication. The practice is generally threatened by increased modernization and faster roads, but successful conservation efforts are recorded.
Definition A whistled language is a system of whistled communication which allows fluent whistlers to transmit and comprehend a potentially unlimited number of messages over long distances. Whistled languages are different in this respect from free associative whistling, which may be done to simulate music, to attract attention, or, in the case of herders or animal trainers, to transmit simple messages or instructions to animal companions. Generally, whistled languages emulate the tones or vowel formants of a natural spoken language, as well as aspects of its intonation and prosody, so that trained listeners who speak that language can understand the encoded message. Whistled language is rare compared to spoken language, but it is found in cultures around the world. It is especially common in tone languages where the whistled tones transmit the tones of the syllables (tone melodies of the words). This might be because in tone languages the tone melody carries more of the functional load of communication while non-tonal phonology carries proportionally less. The genesis of a whistled language has never been recorded in either case and has not yet received much productive study.
History Because whistled language is so much rarer than standard vocal language or non-verbal physical language such as sign language, historical research on whistled speech is sparse. In early China, the technique of transcendental whistling, or xiao, was a kind of nonverbal language with affinities to the spiritual aspects of Daoist meditation. The development of xiao as a practice and art form can be traced through the works of the Western Zhou dynasty, and it was initially used to convey a sense of grief, or to invoke the spirits of dearly departed loved ones. By the time of the Six Dynasties in Han China, xiao had become a widely used complement to spoken language, irrespective of social class. Due to the shrill tones employed while whistling, xiao was often used to punctuate intense feelings or reactions, such as joy, displeasure, and surprise. In the Melpomene, the fourth book of his Histories, Herodotus makes a passing reference to an Ethiopian tribe who "spoke like bats". While travelling through the territory of an ancient tribe on the southern Black Sea coast in 400 B.C.E, Xenophon wrote in the Anabasis that the Mossynoeci inhabitants could hear one another at great distances across the valleys. The same area encompasses the Turkish village of Kuşköy where whistled speech (kuş dili) is practiced today. In 1982 in the Greek village of Antia on Euboea island, the entire population knew the local whistled speech called sfyria, but only a few whistlers remain now.
Causes of whistled language development
Ecology Whistled languages have naturally developed in response to the necessity for humans to communicate in conditions of relative isolation, with possible causes being distance, noise levels, and night, as well as specific activities, such as social information, shepherding, hunting, fishing, courtship, or shamanism. Because of this usage, they are mostly related to places with mountains or dense forests. Southern China, Papua New Guinea, the Amazon forest, Subsaharan Africa, Mexico, and Europe encompass most of these locations. They have been more recently found in dense forests like the Amazon where they may replace spoken dialogue in the villages while hunting or fishing to overcome the pressure of the acoustic environment. The main advantage of whistling speech is that it allows the speaker to cover much larger distances (typically 1–2 kilometres (0.62–1.24 mi) but up to 5 km (3.1 mi) in mountains and less in reverberating forests) than ordinary speech, without the strain (and lesser range) of shouting. More specifically, whistle speech can reach a loudness of 130 dB, and the transmission range can reach up to 10 km (as verified in La Gomera, Canary Island). The long range of whistling is enhanced by the mountainous 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.
Culture 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. 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, Oaxaca, and other places in Mexico, and reportedly in West and Southern Africa as well (specifically among the VhaVenda), 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 insurgencies in Cuba during Spanish occupation), 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.
Documentation Various documentation, conservation, and revitalization effort are ongoing. In France, the whistling of Aas is being systematically audio-recorded using open source Lingua Libre. Those recordings have been used to create an interactive maps of Occitan villages names.
Characteristics of whistled languages
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