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<DIV>Fascinating!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This is for real; the web site of the La Gomera tourism
office includes some information on El Silbo (see below).</DIV>
<DIV>AF</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.gomera-island.com/turismo/silbo.htm">http://www.gomera-island.com/turismo/silbo.htm</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>El Silbo<BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>En una isla
pequeña y de relieve muy accidentado como La Gomera, las distancias se medían en
el pasado por el tiempo y esfuerzo invertido en recorrer los senderos, y no por
el número de Km. existente entre dos lugares, que nunca es elevado. El
desplazamiento de una orilla a otra de un valle o barranco, descendiendo por una
ladera para cruzar por el fondo y ascender por la otra, podía suponer varias
horas para el caminante, aunque el recorrido apenas sumase algunos centenares de
metros. En este ámbito geográfico, el silbo gomero es un medio de comunicación
especial, que permite enviar mensajes sencillos de un lugar a otro, a condición
de que llegue el sonido. Esta curiosa forma de comunicación tiene origen
prehispánico y no constituye una lengua en el sentido técnico de la palabra,
sino una modalidad de habla que deletrea las sílabas mediante el silbo, con la
ayuda de las dedos introducidos en la boca- Al desaparecer la sociedad rural que
utilizaba este lenguaje e introducirse otros medios de comunicación como el
teléfono, el silbo gomero apenas se utiliza fuera de las exhibiciones o
demostraciones, por lo que quedan cada vez menos personas que saben
usarlo.</FONT> <BR></DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>----- Original Message ----- </FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>From: "Francis M Hult" <</FONT><A
href="mailto:fmhult@dolphin.upenn.edu"><FONT face=Arial
size=2>fmhult@dolphin.upenn.edu</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial
size=2>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>To: <</FONT><A
href="mailto:lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu"><FONT face=Arial
size=2>lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial
size=2>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Sent: Monday, November 17, 2003 10:18
PM</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Subject: Whistle Language?</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><BR><FONT size=2></FONT></FONT></DIV><FONT face=Arial
size=2>Does anyone know more about this? Is it for real? If so, any ideas
on where to <BR>look for research about it?<BR><BR>Francis<BR><BR></FONT><A
href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=624&e=1&u=/ap/"><FONT
face=Arial
size=2>http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=624&e=1&u=/ap/</FONT></A><BR><FONT
face=Arial size=2>20031116/ap_on_sc/save_the_whistle_1<BR><BR>By SARAH ANDREWS,
Associated Press Writer <BR><BR>SAN SEBASTIAN, Canary Islands - Juan Cabello
takes pride in not using a cell phone <BR>or the Internet to communicate.
Instead, he puckers up and whistles. <BR><BR><BR>Cabello is a "silbador," until
recently a dying breed on tiny, mountainous La <BR>Gomera, one of Spain's Canary
Islands off West Africa. Like his father and <BR>grandfather before him,
Cabello, 50, knows "Silbo Gomero," a language that's <BR>whistled, not spoken,
and can be heard more than two miles away. <BR><BR><BR>This chirpy brand of
chatter is thought to have come over with early African <BR>settlers 2,500 years
ago. Now, educators are working hard to save it from <BR>extinction by making
schoolchildren study it up to age 14. <BR><BR><BR>Silbo ¡ª the word comes from
Spanish verb silbar, meaning to whistle ¡ª features <BR>four "vowels" and four
"consonants" that can be strung together to form more than <BR>4,000 words. It
sounds just like bird conversation and Cabello says it has plenty <BR>of uses.
<BR><BR><BR>"I use it for everything: to call to my wife, to tell my kids
something, to find a <BR>friend if we get lost in a crowd," Cabello said.
<BR><BR><BR>In fact, he makes a living off Silbo, performing daily exhibitions
at a restaurant <BR>on this island of 147 square miles and 19,000 people.
<BR><BR><BR>A snatch of dialogue in Silbo is posted at </FONT><A
href="http://www.agulo.net/silbo/silbo.mp3"><FONT face=Arial
size=2>http://www.agulo.net/silbo/silbo.mp3</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=2>
and <BR>translates as follows: <BR><BR><BR>"Hey, Servando!" <BR><BR><BR>"What?"
<BR><BR><BR>"Look, go tell Julio to bring the castanets." <BR><BR><BR>"OK. Hey,
Julio!" <BR><BR><BR>"What?" <BR><BR><BR>"Lili says you should go get the kids
and have them bring the castanets for the <BR>party." <BR><BR><BR>"OK, OK, OK."
<BR><BR><BR>Silbo was once used throughout the hilly terrain of La Gomera as an
ingenious way <BR>of communicating over long distances. A strong whistle saved
peasants from trekking <BR>over hill and dale to send messages or news to
neighbors. <BR><BR><BR>Then came the phone, and it's hard to know how many
people use Silbo these days. <BR><BR><BR>"A lot of people think they do, but
there is a very small group who can truly <BR>communicate through Silbo and
understand Silbo," said Manuel Carreiras, a <BR>psychology professor from the
island of Tenerife. He specializes in how the brain <BR>processes language and
has studied Silbo. <BR><BR> <BR><BR><BR><BR>Since 1999, Silbo has
been a required language in La Gomera's elementary schools. <BR>Some 3,000
students are studying it 25 minutes a week ¡ª enough to teach the <BR>basics,
said Eugenio Darias, a Silbo teacher and director of the island's Silbo
<BR>program. <BR><BR>"There are few really good silbadores so far, but lots of
students are learning to <BR>use it and understand it," he said. "We've been
very pleased." <BR><BR>But almost as important as speaking ¡ª sorry, whistling
¡ª Silbo is studying where <BR>it came from, and little is known. <BR><BR>"Silbo
is the most important pre-Hispanic cultural heritage we have," said Moises
<BR>Plasencia, the director of the Canary government's historical heritage
department. <BR><BR>It might seem appropriate for a language that sounds like
birdsong to exist in the <BR>Canary Islands, but scholarly theories as to how
the archipelago got its name make <BR>no mention of whistling. <BR><BR>Little is
known about Silbo's origins, but an important step toward recovering the
<BR>language was the First International Congress of Whistled Languages, held in
April <BR>in La Gomera. The congress, which will be repeated in 2005, brought
together <BR>experts on various whistled languages. <BR><BR>Silbo-like whistling
has been found in pockets of Greece, Turkey, China and Mexico, <BR>but none is
as developed as Silbo Gomero, Plasencia said. <BR><BR>One study is looking for
vestiges of Silbo in Venezuela, Cuba and Texas, all places <BR>to which Gomerans
have historically emigrated during hard economic times. <BR><BR>Now, Plasencia
is heading an effort to have UNESCO (news - web sites) declare it an
<BR>"intangible cultural heritage" and support efforts to save it. "Silbo is so
unique <BR>and has many values: historical, linguistic, anthropological and
aesthetic. It fits <BR>perfectly with UNESCO's requirements," he said.
<BR><BR>Besides, says Cabello, it's good for just about anything except for
romance: <BR>"Everyone on the island would hear what you're saying!"
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