https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0CIRCjoICA
Occasionally, I'm sure many of us wonder what life was like without cell phones, or even home phones for that matter; before long distance communication was fast and simple. That is something that the speakers of Sylbo never had to worry about. Sylbo is a language that is thousands of years old and native to an island off of the West coast of Africa called La Gomera.
Surprisingly, all the language really is is sounds made by whistling that copy the phonetic sounds of Spanish. The cavernous topography of the island allows speakers to communicate up to 7 kilometers away from each other.
Due to the advance in communicative technology, the language is not nearly as common around the island any more. There are still people who use it because they refuse to pay for cell phones, like the guy at the end of the video.
This makes me wonder how many(if any at all) other languages have this and how common it is. I don't think I would be compelled to learn how to speak it, but I would be interested to learn more about it.
Wow, this is amazing, to use language with a whistle, that bring me back old memories when I used to communicate with my neighbor almost the same way using word in the whistle, it was really fun. I never knew that exist until now thanks for sharing..
ReplyDeleteThat is really interesting. It is amazing to see how people used language to help a specific set of circumstances. It would be unrealistic to use a whistling language where there are many buildings that could distort the sound, but in a remote island like that, it is the ideal way to communicate long distances without having to travel them. Pretty awesome.
ReplyDeleteThis video is really interesting, as I have never heard of Sylbo. I would have to practice long and hard to be able to whistle like that..my whistling skills are not that great! I hope the language is preserved in the future, it seems like such an important aspect of their culture. Plus, no need to buy a cellphone!
ReplyDeleteHey Scott, you were telling about this in class, and now seeing the video it truly is p awesome! A whole language composed of different pitches, it was interesting how they stuck their fingers in their mouth to help alter the sounds. And how they taught it in schools. Imagine if someone took up the task of transferring this language into written words? I am imagine it have to be done with music sheets! Which would be pretty cool, and super complicated!
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