Whistled Languages: Long-Distance Conversation Guide

Whistled languages can replace spoken languages when face-to-face conversations are impossible. Whistled speech abstracts spoken discourse into whistles. Speech community members can understand these whistle languages.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

languages are found worldwide:

Yupik (Alaska and Russian Far East),

Mazatec languages (mostly northern Oaxaca, Mexico),

Greek,

Turkish,

Akha, spoken in southern China, eastern Myanmar, northern Laos, and northern Thailand,

Called Banen in Cameroon.

Long-Distance Chats

In mountain ranges or dense jungles, where rough terrain may need long-distance communication, language appears.

Many whistled languages contain tone (a grammatical characteristic; see below). None of Greek, Turkish, or Spanish (whistled by two groups) have tone. Most languages with whistled speech depend on tone, which is the grammatical element that makes them viable.

Tone encodes meaning in languages through pitch, the degree of highness or lowness of a sound. Thai, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, most Bantu languages, Zapotec languages, and others have at least one tone for each word. Tone marks words, inflections, and other grammatical features.

In Sochiapan Chinantec, spoken in north-central Oaxaca, Mexico, the high-pitched ta asks, ‘will we arrive?’

Ta with a midtone implies ‘we arrive,’ and low pitch means ‘foot’.

Whistling mimics tones, vowel length, and intonation. This is used for long-distance communication. However, not all whistles are speech.

The message in speech can likewise be spoken. English’s high-low-high whistle doesn’t correspond to any spoken message.

The spoken equivalent of the ‘high-low-high’ whistle is probably “hey!” but not with that tone. Unlike speech, which mimics spoken language pitches and tones.

Mexican Whistled Speech Languages

Whistle whole discussions in Sochiapan Chinantec. Whistled speech languages and drum languages, along with cell phones and the internet, address long-distance communication. Whistled languages are typically found in mountainous areas with scarce cell phone connections

This culture only allows men to whistle, but everyone who speaks the language can comprehend. This gender distinction is found in southern Mexican whistled languages like Mazatec.

Whistled Language Examples

Francisco (F) tells Marcelino (M) he’s going to work on his farm today in the whistling dialogue.

Marcelino asks Francisco to bring him some oranges and asks about his crops. Francisco accepts, and Marcelino asks him over later that evening, stating he’s staying.

Sochiapan Chinantec speech can hold spontaneous conversations beyond a few learned lines.

This short documentary explores conversations in Sochiapan Chinantec.

Whistled speech is remarkable since people evolved it independently on every continent.

Whistled speech, like language, serves long-distance and non-face-to-face communication. Many of our human ancestors faced this issue and solved it.

Some West and Central African languages employ talking drums or drum language to relay messages across distances between towns.

Talking Instruments and Drum Language

Yoruba, a toned language spoken largely in Benin and Nigeria, uses drums that simulate spoken language to communicate. In Hausa (spoken in southern Niger and northern Nigeria), flutes, trumpets, and horns are utilized alongside drums.

Kele (Democratic Republic of the Congo) people used drum language to announce births, deaths, marriages, and other cultural occasions. Unfortunately, the Kele language no longer uses this method.

Endangered Languages

Turkish and Greek whistled speech is also disappearing. The forms of Mazatec, Chinantec, and other endangered language groups are also vulnerable.

Whistled speech languages and drum languages, along with cell phones and the internet, address long-distance communication. Whistled languages are typically found in mountainous areas with scarce cell phone connections.”

Free, properly tailored for their context, whistled languages are used worldwide without equipment. Perhaps this old technology fits a niche that newer ones can never fill.