Re: Silbo, a whistled language

> grandsire wrote:
>
> > Does anyone knows about Silbo or other whistled languages? Or about
> > ther kinds of languages that are meant to be heard, but are not spoken
> > (like Solresol, but here I'm talking about natural languages). Do you
> > know other whistled languages that would not be related to spoken
> > languages, unlike Silbo? And finally, did anyone of you make whistled
> > conlangs or things like that?
>
> Most whistled "languages", including Silbo, are quite general: anything
> can be whistled that can be spoken, not just the local language
> (Spanish).  The whistling is usually done with a finger or two
> in the mouth, and can carry for several kilometers.
>
> Mazateco whistling, though, is lip whistling and can carry only
> 200 meters or so.  It represents the tones of spoken Mazateco, and
> needs a lot of circumlocution to disambiguate it.  Other languages
> cannot be transmitted.  African drumtalk uses the same principles.
I've seen a demonstration of Hmong music using an instrument like a jaw harp
which is supposedly understandable to anyone who speaks Hmong; how exactly
it works I'm not sure, but I think the tones are the important information
that are conveyed in this case as well.