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Whistled language is telecommunication by whistling, with or without a whistle. These are not separate languages or even codes but rather realizations of the local language in whistled sounds.
These differ according to whether the spoken language is tonal or not, being either tone or articulation based. Tonal languages are stripped of articulation, leaving only prosodic features (duration and pitch), and when whistled consist of the original melodic line transposed up. In non-tonal languages some of the articulatory features of speech are retained, though the normally timbral variations created by the movements of the tongue and soft palate impart are transformed into pitch variations. (Busnel and Classe 1976: v) Thus whistled languages ignore phonemes and communicate solely based on tone, length and, much less so, stress. "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]), whcih is readily understandable since in most cases their only purpose is long-distance communication." (ibid: 32)
Languages communicated by whistling are extremely rare among the world's languages, but are known around the world. One example is the Silbo on the island of La Gomera in the Canary Islands; others exist or existed in all parts of the world including Africa, Turkey (Kusköy "Village of the Birds"), France (Aas in the Pyrenese), Mexico (Oaxaca), South America and Asia. Languages which are whistled include Pirahã, many African languages, including Yoruba and Ngwe , and some dialects of ZapotecZapotec refers to a native people of Mexico, their language, and their historic culture and traditions. The Zapotec people are centered in Oaxaca, to the south of central Mexico. In Pre-Columbian times they were one of the Mesoamerican civilizations.. FrenchFrench le francais la langue francaise is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered only by Spanish and Portuguese. French is the 11th most spoken language in the world, spoken by about 77 million people (called Francophones) as a mother to is whistled in some areas of western Africa, and Silbo is a whistled dialect of SpanishThis article is about the international language known as Spanish. For other languages spoken in Spain see Languages of Spain Spanish is an Iberian Romance language, and the third or fourth most spoken language in the world. It is spoken as a first langua. Mazateco , a tonal language spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico, is also whistled. This last was first described by G. Corman (1948).While continental African versions use a whistle, the others whistle with the mouth alone. As the expressivity of whistle sound is limited compared to ordinary speech, whistled messages are typically short and standard and often have to be repeated. In Africa whistled language is used only by men and in Mazateco adult women do not use whistled language.
Whistled languages are found and used in locations with similarly abrupt relief created by difficult mountainous terrain, slow or difficult communication (no telephones), low population density and/or scattered settlements, and other isolating features such as sheepherding and cultivation of hillsides (ibid: 27-8). The main advantage of whistling speech is that it allows to cover much larger distances (typically 1-2 km but up to 5 km) than ordinary speech, and this is assisted by the relief found in areas where whistled languages are used.
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 labio-dental consonants (p, b, m, f, etc.) impossible (ibid: 3). "Apart from the five vowel-phonemes--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." (ibid: 8)
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 (ibid: 22)), they may be used for secretive communication among outsiders or other who do not know or understand the whistled language though they may understand its spoken origin. Supposedly, in Aas during the 1939-1944 war farmers were caught red-handed watering down their milk but police were unable to find any evidence as the farmers were warned by whistled messages of the cops approaching and were able to prepare. There are similar stories of La Gomera (ibid: 15).
See also: Solresol