5 ms·

Quite a similar thing exists on the Canary Islands in Spain, where I grew up [1]. It was even taught in school, though I joined in too late and never managed to

by x3ro 7y ago

Quite a similar thing exists on the Canary Islands in Spain, where I grew up [1]. It was even taught in school, though I joined in too late and never managed to get the basic whistling parts, which made the rest quite impossible to learn :/ [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silbo_Gomero https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silbo_Gomero

gpvos 7y ago
I knew about that one (I've been to La Gomera, wonderful island), but remembered wrongly that it was its own language; but indeed, it is apparently a kind of whistled Spanish.
- x3ro 7y ago
  The origins are, as far as I know, unknown but probably based on Guanche which was spoken there before the Spanish arrived. It was later adapted to Spanish. While I could never use Silbo actively myself, understanding it was not too difficult.
aivisol 7y ago
So you are a gomero ? What a diverse community is this HN !
journalingfs 7y ago
This is a fascinating part of linguistics that I never knew existed. I wonder if it would be possible to get a whistling system like this to work for English. I wonder if the feasibility of these systems to represent their respective languages is tied to how many sounds are in those languages. I looked it up, and both Spanish and Turkish have fewer sounds than English, but in the case of Turkish, it isn't too many fewer (36 vs 31 according to the source I found).
- gnulinux 7y ago
  That doesn't sound right. English, being a Germanic language, has bizarre amounts of vowels. Some interpret English to have >20 vowels alone, up to low 30s, highly depending on the dialect. And then it has ~24 consonants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phonology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phonology English has all consonants Turkish has, except [1] /c/ and /ɟ/ (also the highly debated Turkish phoneme /ɰ/ which does exist in some English accents). But English has many more consonants such as 2 dental fricatives. There are some Turkish accents with velar nasal (ng in siNG) but most Turkish accents lost this phoneme (only some southeast ones have it). And Turkish has only 8 vowels. But note that, I think this is a bad example. English is a language spoken in a large geography and thus has many dialects. Turkish has fewer accents and thus less variability in phonology. [1] Note that even /c/ and /ɟ/ exist in some dialects. Such as k in 'keen' can be pronounced as /c/
- avh02 7y ago
  > I wonder if it would be possible to get a whistling system like this to work for English. I'd find it interesting for any language as it'd probably work just as well for people without a voice box - kind of makes you wonder why we evolved one. Speed?
  - frobozz 7y ago
    The larynx allows us to firmly shut off our airway (far better than lips alone) in both directions (unlike the epiglottis that just prevents inhalation). By firmly shutting off our airway, we can stiffen our bodies to facilitate lifting. The larynx is also a secondary safeguard against things getting past the epiglottis.

by x3ro 7y ago

gpvos 7y ago

I knew about that one (I've been to La Gomera, wonderful island), but remembered wrongly that it was its own language; but indeed, it is apparently a kind of whistled Spanish.

x3ro 7y ago
The origins are, as far as I know, unknown but probably based on Guanche which was spoken there before the Spanish arrived. It was later adapted to Spanish. While I could never use Silbo actively myself, understanding it was not too difficult.

aivisol 7y ago

So you are a gomero ? What a diverse community is this HN !

journalingfs 7y ago

This is a fascinating part of linguistics that I never knew existed. I wonder if it would be possible to get a whistling system like this to work for English. I wonder if the feasibility of these systems to represent their respective languages is tied to how many sounds are in those languages. I looked it up, and both Spanish and Turkish have fewer sounds than English, but in the case of Turkish, it isn't too many fewer (36 vs 31 according to the source I found).

gnulinux 7y ago
That doesn't sound right. English, being a Germanic language, has bizarre amounts of vowels. Some interpret English to have >20 vowels alone, up to low 30s, highly depending on the dialect. And then it has ~24 consonants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phonology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phonology English has all consonants Turkish has, except [1] /c/ and /ɟ/ (also the highly debated Turkish phoneme /ɰ/ which does exist in some English accents). But English has many more consonants such as 2 dental fricatives. There are some Turkish accents with velar nasal (ng in siNG) but most Turkish accents lost this phoneme (only some southeast ones have it). And Turkish has only 8 vowels. But note that, I think this is a bad example. English is a language spoken in a large geography and thus has many dialects. Turkish has fewer accents and thus less variability in phonology. [1] Note that even /c/ and /ɟ/ exist in some dialects. Such as k in 'keen' can be pronounced as /c/
avh02 7y ago
> I wonder if it would be possible to get a whistling system like this to work for English. I'd find it interesting for any language as it'd probably work just as well for people without a voice box - kind of makes you wonder why we evolved one. Speed?
- frobozz 7y ago
  The larynx allows us to firmly shut off our airway (far better than lips alone) in both directions (unlike the epiglottis that just prevents inhalation). By firmly shutting off our airway, we can stiffen our bodies to facilitate lifting. The larynx is also a secondary safeguard against things getting past the epiglottis.