Running head: WHISTLING

The Communication of Whistling Jennifer Glen University of Colorado Denver

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It was a perfect night for a train. The occasional whistle told Louis of all the farewells he had ever known. -Charles Turner

A whistle. It is a sound that can be made by humans, animals, even inanimate objects. We whistle to call our animals, recall the melody of a song, and cheer for our favorite sports teams when screaming is just not loud enough. Were told by the Seven Dwarves to whistle while we work. We whistle to let someone of interest know that we find them attractive. The above quote shows us that this sound, a sound that might seem insignificant, can actually communicate memory and emotion. Surely there must be more to this sound than it is given credit for! The communication of a whistle has not always been relegated to merely exist as an addition to spoken language, nor is it something devoid of meaning or emotion, even in our society today. First, I will discuss the historical background of human whistling, focusing on whistled communication and whistled languages, noting a likely explanation for why they are so rare today. Next, I will discuss relevant scholarly resources as they pertain to the act of whistling, focusing on phonetic aspects of whistling, parts of the brain that are activated through whistled communication, and the influence of emotion and culture in whistling as a behavior. Finally, I will discuss the role whistling as a communication technology has had in transforming our society today. To begin, a distinction must be made between whistled language and other whistled communication. Anne Rialland stated the following in her article, Phonological and Phonetic Aspects of Whistled Languages, A whistled language is a system of whistled communication which allows fluent subjects to transmit and exchange a potentially unlimited set of messages over long distances (2005, p. 237). She goes on to explain that this distinction sets whistled

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language apart from other systems of whistled communication (such as those employed by herders and animal trainers) based on the limited set of meaning-filled messages (2005). The following quote is found in the article When People Whistle, by Peter F. Ostwald: While there is almost no written information about whistling, one can assume that ancient tribes whistled (Wellesz, 1957, as cited by Ostwald, 1959, p. 137). Ostwald goes on to describe various instruments used for whistling by cultures in Mesopotamia, China, and South America, including pipes, bamboo tubes, cane whistles to be blown with the nose, clay whistles in the form of various animals, and whistle-pots, consisting of two communicating earthenware vessels, half filled with water (p. 138). If these ancient cultures used these instruments and tools to whistle, how and why did it come about that the human voice became an instrument for the same purpose, and from there, the development of whistled communication? One argument: Whistling lends itself to playing with melodies, and whistled speech may have developed from the whistling of purely musical phrases (Haviland, Prins, McBride, &Walrath, 2010, p. 123). Another possible reason for the development of both whistled communication and whistled language is the need to pass messages over long distances. Because whistling overcomes other noises in the environment more effectively than the human voice, it retains a higher level of intelligibility as the distance of communication increases. In short, whistling has a greater range of audibility than talking (Haviland et al., 2010, p.123). An aspect which further differentiates true whistled languages from other forms of whistled communication is that whistled languages encode some auditory features of spoken languages by transposing key components of speech sounds (Rialland, 2005, p. 237). This

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developed whistled language would typically deal with recurring actions and everyday activities of people sharing a culture, and so whistled speech would therefore allow members of that culture to exchange pertinent information in a somewhat abridged form of their spoken language (Haviland et al., 2010). Though abridged, a whistled language can still be quite expansive: Encoding that information in what might be described as a whistled shorthand, the vocabulary can be considerable. In Silbo, for instance, traditionally used by Spanish-speaking inhabitants of La Gomera off the northwest African coast, islanders can whistle some 2,000 words (Haviland et al, 2010, p. 123). Ostwald too mentions Silbo as the only whistled language in existence today, dating back to the 15th century (Ostwald, 1959). The 30,000 inhabitants of LA Gomera, one of the Canary Islands, communicate by whistling, often to the exclusion of speech (Classe, 1957, as cited by Ostwald, 1959, p. 138). The Silbo language is audible for several miles, and is used for greetings, the exchange of messages, and for the telling of jokes, with the pitch of the whistle alone changed to indicate different words (Ostwald, 1959). It seems that the terrain in which these cultures lived played a large role in the development of whistled language, as many texts on the topic list distance and rough, mountainous terrain as factors in why whistling was preferred over spoken language. Silbo Gomero is a whistled language that is a rare and endangered surrogate of Spanish, used by shepherds on the island of La Gomera in the Canary Islands for communication over long distances on difficult terrain (Carreiras, 2005, p. 31).

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We see then, that whistled language enables communication over great distances, despite background noise of rural environments (Meyer, 2008). If whistled language appears to be useful in these environments, why dont we see more cultures utilizing whistled communication? Haviland et al. (2010) offer a likely explanation for why whistled speech is so rare: Like the talking drum, whistled speech is an endangered tradition disappearing in part because the communities where the practice once thrived are no longer isolated or because the ancestral lifeways are vanishing or already gone. Moreover, the everexpanding reach of mobile phones and other electronic telecommunication technologies has contributed to the demise of whistled language. (Meyer & Gautheron, 2006, as cited by Haviland et al., 2010, p. 123) Much of the scholarly work written on the topic of whistling as a communication technology is focused on how the brain processes whistling, as well as the acoustic and phonetic aspects of whistling in comparison to spoken language. It seems that the regions of the human brain that process language are able to adapt to a wide range of signaling forms; in this case, whistled speech: The traditionally recognized language areas in the left temporal and inferior frontal lobes of the brain are not exclusive to speech processing (Carreiras, 2005, p. 31). Julien Meyer, in the article Typology and Acoustic Strategies of Whistled Languages: Phonetic Comparison and Perceptual Cues of Whistled Vowels, writes about how whistled language is specific to the spoken language it was derived from: Whistling is used as a sound source instead of vocal fold vibration. The resulting acoustic signal is characterized by a narrow band of frequencies encoding the words (Meyer, 2008, p. 69). Meyer goes on to explain that the severe reduction of the voices frequency spectrum gives the reason why whistled speech is

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spoken language-specific: development of whistled language utilizes selected salient features of the language it came from. Whistled speech is therefore not a substitute for language, as it does not contain its own rules for syntax or rely on an intermediary code (Meyer, 2008). When a Gomero or a Turk whistles, he is in effect still speaking, but he modifies one aspect of his linguistic activity in such a way that major acoustic modifications are imposed upon the medium (Busnel & Class, 1976, p. 107, as cited by Meyer, 2008, p. 70). Silbo reduces the full phonemic inventory of Spanish to two phonologically contrasting vowels and four consonants (Trujillo, 1978, as cited by Carreiras, 2005, p. 31). Carreiras continues: Whistled words are formed by recoding the vowels and consonants of individual Spanish words into whistles that vary along a pitch dimension (high to low) and which differ with respect to the character of the melodic line (continuous or interrupted). Although this leads to phonological mergers and hence potential ambiguities, in practice users rely on repetition and context for the communication of short and simple, routine messages. The compositional, formant-like glides of Silbo can therefore function as a form of linguistic communication, provided that listeners know the rules of the whistled codification and can interpret the semantic content in the shared cultural context. (2005, p. 31) Meyer goes on to conclude this argument with, However, for a fluent whistler, a spoken sentence transposed into whistles remains highly intelligible in several languages, and whistled

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languages therefore represent a valuable source of information for phoneticians (Meyer, 2008, p. 69). Beyond the necessity of whistled language as primarily a communicative tool, what other reasons or motivations are there to whistle? Emotion and superstition come into play frequently, it would seem; feelings or emotions that go along with whistling appear to result from wishful thinking or magical thoughts (Ostwald, 1959). Whistling as a connection to personality development in infants is another area of note: Whistling, because it involves the production of wordless sounds, may bring back memories of that very early period during which the child could not distinguish between those sounds which came from the outside world and those sounds which came from his own body (Ostwald, 1959, p. 140). Whistling has also played a part in some cultural and spiritual rituals: Whistling is also prominent among the Indians and their descendants in Iquitos, Peru, where it is believed that during the ayahuasca healing sessions, whistling is the means by which the nature spirits and the guardian spirit of the ayahuasca vine are conjured up (Katz & Dobkin de Rios, as cited by May, 1983, p. 373). More connections between culture and the communication of whistling exist in the magical connotations related to whistling: There is an old myth among mariners to the effect that to whistle for a wind will bring a fresh and vigorous breeze to fill the sails. Tales about whistles are numerous in the folklore of various cultures (Ostwald, 1959, p. 140). This aspect of whistling is an interesting one; if culture plays a part in how whistling is viewed, what part is our culture playing in how whistling is viewed today?

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I mentioned that I would conclude by talking about how the communication of whistling has transformed our society today. I would instead like to discuss how our society today has transformed whistling as communication. Weve lost nearly all aspects of whistled language in our world; theres little need for such a complex dialect when we have so many shiny, simple alternatives around. There is one aspect of whistling that we havent lost, however, though it might be difficult to see at times, with the amount of distractions we choose to lose ourselves in. When whistling occurs intentionally, it is usually for a singular purpose: to call an animal, to cheer a sports team, or to flirt. What about when whistling occurs unintentionally? We rarely catch ourselves whistling when were upset, sad or angry. No, we find ourselves whistling when were walking down the street on a sunny day, or when weve just received good news; we whistle when were happy. It could be said, then, that theres an aspect of whistling that releases something in us; an aspect of this mindless action that expresses something that cant be expressed with words or through some other non-verbal communication tool. Unlike crying, which can communicate both happiness and sadness; whistling is a direct communication tool (though often an unintentional one). Its a tool that seems to communicate just one thing: happiness. Many of us have probably caught ourselves asking someone why he or she is so happy, simply because theyre whistling. It cant be because we saw him or her smiling; clearly the mouth was otherwise occupied! No, its as if whistling rises above conscious thought to communicate happiness; its as if our subconscious is acting on a need that we cant even see, let alone articulate through other means.

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Peter Ostwald wrote: Whistles are sounds much easier to hear than words. They tend to be pure tones which concentrate sound energy into a narrow segment of the frequency spectrum instead of spreading it as in speech over a wide area. Furthermore, they occur most often in the frequency range of 1,000 to 4,000 cycles per second, to which the human ear is most sensitive. Thus the whistler can be sure to be heard by random listeners, even at a considerable distance. Alone in the woods, or on a prairie, for example, he can signal to birds and other animals. Most people seek companionship and may be rewarded with the pleasant company of a pet or a child if they whistle. In addition to making contact with another being by whistling, the whistler can expect whistling to evoke a sympathetic reaction. Non-verbal signals like yawns, laughs, or cries lead to immediate emotional rapport; whereas words, which have to be translated and interpreted by the receiver, result in delayed or symbolic behavior. (1959, p. 140) Were surrounded by people, surrounded by ways of communicating, but we are at the same time isolated. Our need for communication with others is superficially satiated by the technological society we drown ourselves in. We need that whistle in the woods to comfort us; to remind us that we are not alone, but we dont recognize that need. We are alone in the woods, this forest full of endless distractions and pleasures that we ourselves planted and helped to flourish, and with it, we have lost sight of our need for real human interaction. What will it take to realize it? Perhaps the faint whistle of a train, bringing to mind all the farewells weve ever known, will someday remind us that we need a few new hellos.

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References Carreiras, M. (2005). Linguistic perception: Neural processing of a whistled language. Nature, 433(7021), 31-32. Haviland, W. A., Prins, H. E. L., McBride, B., Walrath, D. (2010). Cultural anthropology: The human challenge. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Julien, M. (2008). Typology and acoustic strategies of whistled languages: Phonetic comparison and perceptual cues of whistled vowels. Journal Of The International Phonetic Association, 38(1), 69-94. May, E. (1983). Musics of many cultures: An introduction. California: University of California Press. Ostwald, P. F. (1959). WHEN PEOPLE WHISTLE. Language & Speech, 2(3), 137-145. Railland, A. (2005). Phonological and phonetic aspects of whistled languages. Phonology, 22(2), 237-271.