[HN Gopher] More than eighty cultures still speak in whistles
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       More than eighty cultures still speak in whistles
        
       Author : bryanrasmussen
       Score  : 182 points
       Date   : 2021-08-24 13:02 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.smithsonianmag.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.smithsonianmag.com)
        
       | Dumblydorr wrote:
       | I use whistling daily. I discovered my dog responds best to
       | whistling, whenever he hears my whistle, he knows it's me and
       | comes running. Now, I use that to my partner ironically, if I
       | don't want to shout and hurt the vocal cords, just whistle and
       | she knows her presence is requested.
        
         | vanattab wrote:
         | >Now, I use that to my partner ironically, if I don't want to
         | shout and hurt the vocal cords, just whistle and she knows her
         | presence is requested.
         | 
         | Or you know... you COULD walk over to where she is.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | France_is_bacon wrote:
           | Or, you know...she COULD walk over to where he is.
        
           | VBprogrammer wrote:
           | Yeah, my partner's family have a "family whistle" which is
           | often employed to find one another. It's useful but also
           | feels a little disrespectful.
        
             | agitator wrote:
             | This made me realize that my dad has a specific whistle
             | that he would use throughout my childhood and even today as
             | an adult, to get the attention of my brother and myself if
             | we were out somewhere. Like a "Hey, we're leaving. Let's
             | go"
        
             | ckosidows wrote:
             | My dad used to whistle at us all the time as children and
             | he probably still does when I see him. I probably picked it
             | up from him.
             | 
             | I whistled to an ex SO and they considered it
             | disrespectful. I'm not sure I yet understand why it's
             | disrespectful, not that I consider either opinion more or
             | less correct. I just don't really understand that opinion.
             | 
             | Maybe someone can expand on it?
        
             | Baeocystin wrote:
             | My parents had a 'if you hear this whistle, come here',
             | which, depending on the sequence of tones, meant anything
             | from '5 minute heads up before it is time to go' to
             | 'literally drop what you are doing and run to this
             | position'.
             | 
             | It wasn't disrespectful at all. It was a great way to
             | communicate over wider distances than is possible with
             | regular voice, and in retrospect it was impressive how
             | little translation it took for all of us kids to understand
             | which meaning was being conveyed.
        
         | calvinmorrison wrote:
         | I whistle at my SO all the time in the grocery store etc.
         | Nobody else does it so if we're a few aisles apart usually i
         | can just do the whistle and then we find eachother. Beats
         | yelling like a moron
        
           | sethammons wrote:
           | I text my wife to find them in the store; sometimes the
           | received text sound lets me know where they are :)
        
         | dugmartin wrote:
         | If you want to see some fun dog training with whistles search
         | for videos of sheep dogs or waterfowl retrievers.
         | 
         | My cousin trained a couple of black labs to be waterfowl
         | retrievers. I saw him in training throw out a training "duck"
         | and hold the labs at this side with just a look. Then he
         | whistled and they took off. About 5 feet from the "duck" he
         | whistled again and they stopped. The dogs wanted to get to the
         | "duck" so bad they looked like they were vibrating. He kept
         | them there for a good 30 seconds before whistling again to
         | signal for them to retrieve it. It was pretty cool to watch.
         | 
         | Not quite as cool but we have a "shock" collar on our cat to
         | keep him off the neighbor's porch furniture. Our neighbor is
         | very, very allergic to cats. It is activated by a 10' diameter
         | transmitter placed under their furniture and beeps like crazy
         | for 10 seconds before it does anything - a couple of beeps sets
         | my cat running.
         | 
         | For some reason (maybe after seeing my cousin do it?) I started
         | doing a specific whistle pattern when the cat comes in the
         | house with the collar on. That will now stop the cat dead in
         | his tracks and he will wait for me to take it off. The reverse
         | is true also - if he sneaks out of the house without it on I
         | can do the same whistle and he will stop and wait for me to put
         | it on him.
        
       | 29athrowaway wrote:
       | There are no IPA keys for whistling.
        
         | bradrn wrote:
         | Sure there are: [s] and so on. But really I see no reason why
         | musical notation wouldn't be sufficient.
         | 
         | (I should note that's not [s]; it's [s] with an arrow below it.
         | It's hard to tell the difference with the font on my screen.)
        
           | bitdivision wrote:
           | That's interesting thanks! There's not much on wikipedia [0]
           | about that character, but it does appear to be for whistled
           | speech!
           | 
           | 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%CD%8E
        
       | johnorourke wrote:
       | Captain Crunch called, said make that 81.
        
       | DaiPlusPlus wrote:
       | > "still speak in whistles"
       | 
       | "still"?
       | 
       | Why is having _more_ degrees of expressiveness in a vocal
       | language considered an anachronism?
        
         | 1123581321 wrote:
         | Read the article and you'll have a better idea how to preserve
         | this form of communication.
        
         | citrus1330 wrote:
         | If you read the article you would know.
         | 
         | "Despite their interest to both linguists and casual observers,
         | whistled languages are disappearing rapidly all over the world,
         | and some -- such as the whistled form of the Tepehua language
         | in Mexico -- have already vanished. Modernization is largely to
         | blame, says Meyer, who points to roads as the biggest factor.
         | "That's why you still find whistled speech only in places that
         | are very, very remote, that have had less contact with
         | modernity, less access to roads," he says."
        
           | newsbinator wrote:
           | > Modernization is largely to blame
           | 
           | I'd replace "blame" with "thank": the simpler languages can
           | become, and the fewer of them in daily use we can get to
           | globally, the better for the entire species.
           | 
           | I'd love an expressive and terse baseline human language.
           | 
           | No problem if people still use other languages too, for
           | cultural or historical reasons.
        
             | xj9 wrote:
             | more language diversity is more fun. common languages are
             | boring. folks should learn more languages, rather than
             | less. its good for your brain too. here's to another babel
             | moment!
        
               | newsbinator wrote:
               | Learning a lot of complicated things is good for your
               | brain, like programming in various languages or playing
               | various musical instruments. It's fun too.
               | 
               | But having a multilingual globe comes at a massive,
               | immeasurable cost.
               | 
               | One of the greatest forces to improve economic
               | opportunity and equality in the history of the world
               | would be if everybody suddenly agreed on one simple,
               | terse, expressive human language and switched to it, in
               | all contexts except home life and shared spiritual or
               | community services.
               | 
               | No more IELTS tests, no more spelling bees, no more "why
               | is 'wherefore art thou' not about Romeo's location?", no
               | more notarized translation costs everywhere in the
               | world... everybody gets equal access to all media created
               | in all places (although of course there'll still be
               | place-specific references in that media), etc
               | 
               | If you were designing an ideal human world, the last
               | thing you'd want to do is build a Tower of Babel on it.
        
               | InitialLastName wrote:
               | > one simple, terse, expressive human language
               | 
               | I suspect this is one of those "pick two, at best"
               | situations.
        
         | brink wrote:
         | Soon we will learn how to eradicate these so-called
         | "whistlers".
        
           | mc32 wrote:
           | In NYC construction workers are having their whistling curbed
           | because most of it was the of sexist kind or at least a
           | sufficient number of recipients didn't want them.
        
         | dang wrote:
         | " _Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of
         | what someone says, not a weaker one that 's easier to
         | criticize._"
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        
         | mypastself wrote:
         | Your interpretation of the title is not supported by the
         | article's content. In fact, you're agreeing with it.
        
           | addingnumbers wrote:
           | They call whistling languages "vestiges," a "protolanguage,"
           | and baselessly speculate that they originate from less-
           | evolved primates. The writer's tone keeps reverting to subtly
           | dismissive and colonialist.
        
             | citrus1330 wrote:
             | The article actually says the exact opposite. Can you read?
             | Here's the quote:
             | 
             | "That doesn't mean that modern whistled speech is a
             | vestigial remnant of those protolanguages, Meyer cautions.
             | If whistling preceded voiced speech, those earliest
             | whistles wouldn't have needed to encode sounds produced by
             | the vocal cords. But today's whistled languages do, which
             | means they arose later, as add-ons to conventional
             | languages, not forerunners of them, Meyer says."
        
               | sethammons wrote:
               | Your post would still work if you removed "Can you read?"
               | but would be less hostile
        
               | addingnumbers wrote:
               | Yes, clearly they recognized the need to backpedal
               | somewhat from their long string of intimations that these
               | languages have savage and primal qualities.
               | 
               | Did you think that passage was a total non-sequitur? Are
               | they cautioning you from believing something you would
               | have no reason to believe? Or do you think they were
               | aware they had unduly created that impression.
        
               | pcrh wrote:
               | On the contrary, they stress that using whistling to
               | discover fundamentals of communication using sound does
               | not imply that whistling was the original form of
               | communication by sound.
        
               | addingnumbers wrote:
               | They could have achieved the same effect by never
               | suggesting that whistling languages are primal or
               | antiquated in the first place.
               | 
               | I suppose if I say "we shouldn't assume people who
               | comment on HN posts are sad, lonely, and grumpy" I'm not
               | being offensive or disrespectful. After all, I never said
               | outright that anyone was any of those things. On the
               | contrary, it actually says the exact opposite
               | 
               | It's a trick of language called insinuation.
        
               | pcrh wrote:
               | I think the point they are trying to make is that proto-
               | language spoken by our ancestors would likely have had
               | fewer components and reduced sophistication, as does
               | whistling.
               | 
               | So identifying the _minimum_ requirements for
               | comprehensible, yet sophisticated, communication by sound
               | would possibly shed light on what paleo-speech was
               | like...
        
         | mkotowski wrote:
         | Probably they worded it this way (assuming good intentions, of
         | course) because whistle-based language forms were created as a
         | tool to combat communication hurdles in a challenging terrain.
         | With the development of long-range communication, I would dare
         | to say it is amazing that there are still practitioners of
         | whistled speech.
        
           | beardyw wrote:
           | I remember walking in Andalusia an coming across a shepherd
           | sitting on a grass bank, holding his head in his hands,
           | talking to his sheep. It seemed I had stepped back in time
           | and felt it was a very special moment.
           | 
           | Looking back I saw he was actually on his mobile phone.
           | 
           | Other forms of communication are available.
        
             | momirlan wrote:
             | The shepherd i met in Romania had 2 cell phones. One for
             | each side of the mountain
        
         | dr_dshiv wrote:
         | Because languages gradually lose phoenetic features over time.
         | Phonetic diversity is a primary method for determining the age
         | of a language. Hawaiian is a recent language with just 8
         | consonants and !Kung is ancient with over 50 consonants. The
         | same phenomenon occurs with DNA diversity. Here is an article
         | with explanation:
         | 
         | https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/bad-linguistics/phonemi...
        
           | rvense wrote:
           | > Because languages gradually lose phoenetic features over
           | time
           | 
           | I don't think this is accurate. While it certainly does
           | happen, new phonemic distinctions can certainly arise as
           | languages change.
           | 
           | The article you link to does not support the idea either, in
           | fact it explicitly contradicts it:
           | 
           | "Moreover, there is no bias towards decreasing the size of
           | phonemic inventory over time as human populations moved out
           | of Africa, as phonemes may be added as well as eliminated."
        
         | emodendroket wrote:
         | For the same reason you don't see a lot of carrier pigeons
         | anymore: it's been supplanted by something easier requiring
         | less training.
        
       | estebarb wrote:
       | This is extremely cool!!! Also I find surprising that, as a
       | Spanish speaker with no whistle-spanish training, I was able to
       | understand most of the whistles.
        
         | bradrn wrote:
         | Interesting! Spanish isn't a tonal language, so how do you
         | 'translate' the words into whistles? (And do you think you
         | could do it without subtitles?)
         | 
         | (I should note I haven't actually managed to watch the video
         | yet, because my audio seems to be broken. Perhaps it would be
         | obvious if only I could hear the whistles...)
        
           | yosito wrote:
           | To me it literally just sounded like Spanish, but in a high
           | pitched whistle. Some of the sounds don't reproduce 1:1 in a
           | whistle, but the whistling is adapted to still sound similar
           | and comprehensible. I thought I would be able to do this
           | myself by whistling out Spanish words, but it appears that it
           | takes some practice to make all of the correct sounds. I
           | tried in English, Spanish and Hungarian and I'm only able to
           | produce musical notes, not distinguishable letters.
        
           | chestertn wrote:
           | Spanish speaker here. Also surprised that I understand the
           | whistles, in particular the second video.
           | 
           | Does it happen to you that when you think of a word in
           | English, even if you don't vocalize, some of your vocal cords
           | become tense or move? Well, these whistles feel the same.
        
             | bradrn wrote:
             | > when you think of a word in English, even if you don't
             | vocalize, some of your vocal cords become tense or move
             | 
             | Oddly enough, I _haven't_ ever perceived this, but I can
             | consciously trigger it, and I do think I understand what
             | you mean.
        
         | citrus1330 wrote:
         | I'm not even a native Spanish speaker and I was surprised to
         | find that I could follow along pretty well using the subtitles.
        
       | mr-wendel wrote:
       | If you can find it, this documentary is a lot of fun:
       | Pucker Up - The Fine Art of Whistling
       | 
       | There is a short, but great segment where this is demonstrated
       | with two men whistling across mountain tops to communicate.
       | 
       | The film is filled with gems like one guy explaining as a
       | compulsive whistler he got in trouble once for whistling a tune
       | at a funeral.
        
       | peter303 wrote:
       | The version I read on Pocket had several audio clips of whistled
       | English. It is understandable. Once you learn the conventions for
       | representing fricatives as whistles, you can pretty much whistle
       | English.
        
         | nate00 wrote:
         | That sounds so interesting!
         | 
         | Do you still have a link to it? I wasn't able to find any
         | examples by Googling.
        
       | bitdivision wrote:
       | Does anyone know if there are any examples of people whistling
       | English? I'd find it fascinating to see if I could understand
       | anything intuitively.
        
       | mrxd wrote:
       | This is going to be a real headache for localization.
        
       | yoloyoloyoloa wrote:
       | Its quite common in some hoods in South Africa to use whistling
       | to communicate if the police or enemy gang are coming. Im pretty
       | sure this isnt unique to South Africa though
        
         | allenu wrote:
         | You're probably right. I've just started watching The Wire and
         | in season 2, the loading dock workers whistle to each other to
         | let them know cops are around.
        
       | sweettea wrote:
       | If you find the notion of whistled languages fascinating, as do
       | I, there is an app on the Play Store for Whistled Turkish:
       | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ec.self.whistl... .
       | Last time whistled languages came up, someone else here dropped a
       | link to this app.
        
       | eeshanagarwal95 wrote:
       | eeshan
        
       | eatonphil wrote:
       | There's an episode of one of my favorite anthropological tv
       | series (In the Americas with David Yetman) on the Chinantecan
       | people in Oaxaca, Mexico.
       | 
       | All of the episodes in this series are freely available online
       | and on Amazon Prime.
       | 
       | https://intheamericas.org/works/210-whistles-in-the-mist-whi...
        
       | mensetmanusman wrote:
       | I was just thinking about the 2-3 whistle communications common
       | in the U.S. and I have no idea how one goes about transcribing
       | them in text.
       | 
       | How would one even generate a language to show whistle modes, you
       | would almost have to use sheets of music :)
        
         | etskinner wrote:
         | Elsewhere in the thread, someone used 'high low high' to mean
         | the whistle you use to get someone's attention, and 'low high
         | low' meaning "I'm over here".
        
       | strict9 wrote:
       | Not the same as emulating vowels and consonants, but my dad used
       | to whistle by with two fingers on his lips and making the loudest
       | whistle. Either to get the dog's attention or my attention as a
       | child.
       | 
       | It was a rural area and he used it to communicate (come back
       | home, usually) and as a child I could tell by the sound if it was
       | a normal 'come home' or one where I was in trouble 'come home
       | right now!'
       | 
       | I now have a child of my own and kind of wish I could whistle
       | like that, though the utility would be much less living in a city
       | with endless forms of electronic communication.
        
         | bradrn wrote:
         | Apparently that sort of whistling is also used for
         | communication, at least if Wikipedia is to be believed [0] (or
         | if I could track down the source, which I don't feel like doing
         | just right now):
         | 
         | > Sochiapam Chinantec has three different words for whistle-
         | speech: _sie3_ for whistling with the tongue against the
         | alveolar ridge, _jui32_ for bilabial whistling, and _juo2_ for
         | finger-in-the-mouth whistling. These are used for communication
         | over varying distances.
         | 
         | [0]
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Whistled_language...
        
       | France_is_bacon wrote:
       | Here in the USA, just this past weekend, I spoke in a whistle to
       | someone. They had their driver's side car door open, and they
       | were in a parking space in a parking lot. Someone drove up and
       | wanted to park in the open space next to them. The person with
       | the open car door didn't see them. I whistled. They looked at me
       | and I pointed with my chin to the waiting car. The person waved
       | at me and closed her door.
       | 
       | Maybe my whistle wasn't a regularly used and defined "word" per
       | se, but it was a clear and complete conversation.
       | 
       | Now that I think about it, I have different whistles depending on
       | the situation. A high-pitched short whistle is usually "watch
       | out". A short high-low-high whistle is usually reserved for
       | friends to say "Hey, dude, look over here, I have something to
       | say to you" usually followed by a non-verbal sign language, like
       | pointing somewhere - "go over here" or "check that out". A low-
       | high-low is for friends to more get their attention and let them
       | know "I'm over here." The super loud whistle with your fingers in
       | your mouth is "F-ing awesome" when you're in a crowd and the
       | music group is playing a great song. It also has other uses. But
       | mostly when there's a big crowd or the person you want to talk to
       | is a long distance away. A bunch of high pitched whistles in a
       | row usually means "danger/watch out."
       | 
       | There are other whistles, too. Just giving a few to illustrate
       | how whistles are used right here in the good ole USA for
       | communication purposes.
       | 
       | These are used infrequently, but I find most people understand
       | what I'm whistling about and the different meanings of each
       | whistle.
        
         | wheels wrote:
         | That's very, very different from whistled languages. In Silbo
         | Gomero, one of the main examples here, there's a whistled
         | equivalent to each sound in Spanish. The difference is
         | approximately as far as waving-hands-to-indicate-something vs.
         | full-on sign language (though sign-languages are genuinely
         | separate languages, whereas this is just a different register
         | of an existing language).
         | 
         | As it were, I've actually spent around a year on the small
         | island of La Gomera, where Silbo Gomero comes from. All kids
         | have it in school as an attempt to preserve it.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | As someone that's been a soccer referee, you can tell a lot by
         | the ref's whistle. Just a short hit is usual for an obvious
         | start or restart. For a serious foul, it's a long hard hit.
         | Just from the whistle, you can tell the ref has intentions of
         | issuing a card. My favorites are when the player refuses to
         | acknowledge the ref to "come get your card" whistle calls when
         | the ref is also "I'm not chasing you down". There's entire
         | conversations conveyed by hitting that little whistle.
        
           | spockz wrote:
           | This happens exactly the same in volleyball. There are the
           | almost perfunctory whistles for all the regular things like
           | out of bounds. Then there are the stronger whistles for when
           | someone makes a net fault and it interrupts the game flow.
           | The quick double whistle to get the attention of the players.
           | Then there is the boldness and the number of whistles which
           | signal the seriousness of the infraction. Or the "come on,
           | quit stalling" whistle.
           | 
           | It is such an awesome compact language.
           | 
           | I'm still sad I never learned to use my fingers to whistle.
        
         | nathias wrote:
         | You didn't speak to someone with a whistle, you communicated to
         | something with a whistle without using a whistle (or other
         | human language).
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | noobly wrote:
           | What if his whistles really speak to me?
        
           | France_is_bacon wrote:
           | You say potato, I say potato. You say tomato, I say tomato.
           | 
           | If you never heard it, this is where it came from:
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbncTUZiGk
           | 
           | or this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRrw2hDjnl4
           | actually.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | exdsq wrote:
       | Not sure if it counts as a whistle but I always find it amusing
       | how my wife, who's a Swedish speaking Finn, inhales sharply to
       | say "yes".
        
         | iandioch wrote:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingressive_sound gives some
         | details about that. I knew that some Irish English speakers
         | inhale when saying "yes", but it seems fairly widespread across
         | Europe...
        
         | teddyh wrote:
         | That is a regional peculiarity specific to the northernmost
         | parts of Sweden, and, I guess, the northernmost Swedish-
         | speaking minority of Finland. Note: Sweden is very unevenly
         | populated; the overwhelming majority of the population lives in
         | the south half of the country, where also its three major
         | cities are located. The northern parts of Sweden mostly consist
         | of vast stretches of wilderness, forests, mountains, and people
         | who talk funny.
        
           | exdsq wrote:
           | I think it's a little more common purely for fun, almost like
           | slang, among some Swedish-speaking Finns in Helsinki (where
           | she's from)."Ja" is still more common, but it's fun to inhale
           | sometimes
        
         | ithinkso wrote:
         | If anyone is interested, [0] is what OP is talking about I
         | think
         | 
         | [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URgdIAz4QNg
        
       | Taylor_OD wrote:
       | Anyone learn to whistle, in any way or form, later in life? I've
       | always wanted to but never been able to. I've tried a few types
       | of whistles. The closest I've gotten is some quasi duck calls
       | using my hands and whistling with the help of an acorn.
        
         | mypastself wrote:
         | I actually did, from a Reddit thread that guided me through the
         | process step by step. I'm having trouble finding the exact link
         | at the moment, but it starts with slowly breathing out the
         | letter "Q".
         | 
         | It's not a loud, booming sound or anything, but I went from
         | blowing soundless air for 20-odd years to actually whistling.
        
           | akiselev wrote:
           | _> I'm having trouble finding the exact link at the moment,
           | but it starts with slowly breathing out the letter "Q"._
           | 
           | Thank you! That tip was all I needed to figure it out :)
        
             | mypastself wrote:
             | Ha, glad to be of help!
        
         | Dumblydorr wrote:
         | Here's how I whistle. Suck in your cheeks, like you're
         | puckering for a kiss. Make sure the lips are a tad moist. Blow
         | through the lip hole. It helps if you keep a tightness, or
         | ambiture (sp?) which is how a horns or winds player would
         | describe lip/cheek tightness. Inside, the tongue is resting
         | against front teeth and a very light stream of abdominal air is
         | supplying the whistle. Any luck?
        
           | dmoy wrote:
           | > It helps if you keep a tightness, or ambiture (sp?) which
           | is how a horns or winds player would describe lip/cheek
           | tightness.
           | 
           | Yea I went from being a mediocre whistler to crazy good at it
           | when I played wind instrument seriously for a decade. But
           | that was decades ago so now I'm back to mediocrity.
           | 
           | Also the word you are looking for is "embouchure"
        
         | qnsi wrote:
         | Curious, any reason why you think it might be different later
         | in life?
         | 
         | I think it just takes a lot of practice and patience
        
           | Topgamer7 wrote:
           | Don't forget that you have to repeatedly do it so much you
           | feel like you're going to faint from lack of oxygen! Remember
           | that when learning to whistle as a youngin :)
        
         | onionisafruit wrote:
         | I gradually lost the ability to whistle in my 30s. I never
         | whistled very loud, but now it's almost nothing.
        
           | mikestew wrote:
           | I lost that ability in my 30s thanks to Bell's Palsy. I
           | mostly recovered, but the nerves on the right side didn't
           | completely recover enough for me to seal my lips well enough
           | to do it anymore. After I wasted $35 on a chanter, my wife
           | and neighbors were relieved to find out that I won't ever be
           | able to play the bagpipes, either.
        
         | jbluepolarbear wrote:
         | I can whistle 3 ways: the typical pucker you lips whistle, use
         | your fingers whistle, and a third that I've only seen my
         | brother and I do. For the third curl your upper lip towards
         | your nose, bring the bottom lip up flat, move your tongue all
         | the back and down, and try and direct the air into the split
         | part of your inner upper lip. It's a very loud piercing whistle
         | that can be heard much farther than the typical finger whistle.
        
         | lexapro wrote:
         | Like everything else, practice. When I learned it, first few
         | days no sound would come out. Then the occasional "accidental"
         | half-whistle. Now I can whistle songs.
        
         | indrax wrote:
         | I was never able to whistle well until I learned to do it while
         | _inhaling_ which came out much louder and helped me learn a
         | better mouth shape for whistling while exhaling.
        
         | hycaria wrote:
         | I cannot. I did practice on my commute for two years and still
         | cannot whistle. People tried to teach me and that failed. From
         | time to time a get a note but not very loud and I cannot make
         | it last.
        
         | bynkman wrote:
         | If you can't whistle, there's a way to use an acorn or a bottle
         | cap to do so. I can whistle, but not that loud, and often use a
         | bottle cap to whistle loudly at venues.
         | https://youtu.be/tydJLavu8Fc
        
       | JoeAltmaier wrote:
       | Maybe an app that changes any spoken recording into a whistled
       | one?
        
       | dcolkitt wrote:
       | The biggest downside I see is that it makes language much harder
       | for young children. It's rare to see someone under 6 be able to
       | whistle.
        
       | Igelau wrote:
       | I love the lilt of that whistled _buenoooo_.
        
       | 0xdeadb00f wrote:
       | Slightly related: I've always loved the clicking sounds used in a
       | number of (South) African languages. Xhosa for example has 6
       | different clicking sounds [0].
       | 
       | It's so surprising to me that English and most other languages
       | don't make use of any clicking sounds whatsoever.
       | 
       | 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_language
        
         | gfaure wrote:
         | English does use clicks, as paralinguistic sounds. The first
         | paragraph of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_consonant has
         | a couple of examples.
        
       | Teracotage wrote:
       | In Syria, whistling has been essential to those hobbyists who
       | raise birds, to communicate and command them ""Hemeimati (Pigeon
       | fancier)" If you have ever visited Damascus and its countryside,
       | Homs, Aleppo or any other Syrian city, you should have noticed
       | swarms of pigeons hovering over the city, swaying right and left,
       | up and down responding to the signs of a person standing on a
       | roof.
       | 
       | This person would be carrying a long stick in his hand with a
       | black or white piece of cloth on its tip, waving it, as if
       | telling the flying swarm to fly higher or fly down towards him,
       | often with a "whistle"
       | https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2016/08/mysterious-w...
        
         | yellow_lead wrote:
         | Cool video in that article: https://youtu.be/MaIKWtSCx0M?t=110
         | 
         | It doesn't show them doing what you mentioned, but they all go
         | into their coop on command
        
       | TheGigaChad wrote:
       | Savages.
        
       | question000 wrote:
       | I honestly would love if we stopped trying to square the circle
       | with speech recognition and just built a phonetic signal based
       | system for computer interaction. Words are overrated, I'd rather
       | whistle at my speakers like I'm R2D2.
        
         | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
         | I would also happily go for that, but I suspect that most
         | people do not want to learn a new way to communicate just to
         | talk to their computers.
        
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       (page generated 2021-08-24 23:00 UTC)