Whistled language Totally Explained

Everything about Whistled Language totally explained

A whistled language is the use of 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's 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 hasn't 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 shouldn't 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 (Kusköy, "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 today's 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, llike that of the people of Aas in the Zezuru who speak a Shona-derived dialect, however, some languages 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. Both of the languages share the common traits of being based on Shona, the method of whistling, the similarity of the signals in the Shona linguistic framework and the functional purpose of the signaling. discussing Shona, describes “whistling,” which. isn't heard in Northern Ndebele, which instead has a unique trademark of click-sound consonants found in all Nguni languages. One of the names that has been absorbed into the mainstream, Western media is Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe. The Pronunciation Unit's recommendation of Tsvangirai's surname is chang-girr-IGH. This recommendation has recently stirred up public and media interest, because of different opinions of how the Shona -tsv cluster should be pronounced in English. In this language, which also largely survived the effects of the Bantu expansion by being adopted by the eventual Bantu conquerers, dates back about 23000 years ago, when San people first dominated the region. The whistled fricatives are in fact double labial alveolar fricatives, made with a palatal whistling position.
   Other consonant clusters include, -SV (.for example, MASVOSVOBWA, which translates 'shooting stars' and MASVOSVE, which translates 'ants').
   -TSV (.for example, TSVAIRA, which translates from Standard Shona to the word, 'sweep').
   -SVW (.for example, MUSVAVEMBASVWI, which translates 'schemer', from the Shangwe, Korekore branch of Shona).
   -ZV (.for example, ZVIZVUVHUTSWA, which literary translates 'gold nuggets', from the Tsunga branch of Zezuru).
   -DZV (.for example, AKADZVA, which translates 'he/she was unsuccesssful' ).
   -ZVW (.for example, HUZVWEVERERE, which translates from the Gova, Korekore branch of Shona to 'emotions').
   -NZV (.for example, NZVENGA, which translates 'dodge' or 'avoid', in Standad Shona).
   -ZVC & SVC (uniquely found in the Ngova, Karanga dialect of Shona, which also has substantial Ndebele influences, hence featuring the dental 'c' click sound, merged with the palatal whistle sounds of Standard Shona. for example, The Karanga words MUZVCAZI and CHISVCAMBA, wich translate to 'The Milky Way Strip' and 'tortoise', respectively).
   Although written with the same Roman alphabet, the -tsv consonant cluster in Shona isn't equivalent to -tsv in English (as in the phrase "its vanguard" minues the "i"); Shona has what are commonly referred to as "whistling" fricatives ("s" and "z"), which sound and are produced differently from English "s" and "z". The "v" doesn't have the same quality as English "v"; for many Shona speakers, the "v" in -tsv is co-articulated; that's to say, the quality of the "v" adjusts to that of the neighbouring consonants.

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 don't 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 don't 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 don't 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 [ofSilbo Gomero] — and even these don't 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 (for example Chinantec) the whistled speech is an important and integral part of the language and culture; in others (for example 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
- Myanmar: Chin
- Nepal: Chepang
- Turkey: Kuskoy
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

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