1 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:05,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 2 00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:14,239 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey are you welcome to Stuff to Blow 3 00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:17,200 Speaker 1: Your Mind? My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, 4 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:19,520 Speaker 1: and today we're going to be kicking off a multi 5 00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:24,200 Speaker 1: part series about whistling. This is one of those topics 6 00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:27,640 Speaker 1: I hope in in classic Stuff to Blow Your Mind fashion, 7 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:30,840 Speaker 1: we will be able to really surprise you how much 8 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:33,840 Speaker 1: weird and interesting stuff there is to learn about whistling 9 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:36,519 Speaker 1: around the world. That's right, I mean we will. We 10 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:39,560 Speaker 1: will make it weird. We will be weird in episode one, 11 00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:43,720 Speaker 1: so strap in. Yeah. So. One of the first things 12 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:45,800 Speaker 1: that I wanted to talk about, and I think this 13 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:47,960 Speaker 1: is something we'll have to revisit in multiple parts of 14 00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:53,280 Speaker 1: this series is the idea of whistled languages. Much to 15 00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:56,720 Speaker 1: my surprise after reading about this subject, there are multiple 16 00:00:56,760 --> 00:01:00,720 Speaker 1: examples from around the globe of whistled languages, or at 17 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:06,360 Speaker 1: least whistled alternate versions of an existing spoken language and two. 18 00:01:06,360 --> 00:01:08,639 Speaker 1: So to kick us off, I wanted to talk about 19 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:12,720 Speaker 1: one particular example of a whistled language. I was reading 20 00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:16,320 Speaker 1: about this in a classic linguistics paper from nineteen forty 21 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:21,640 Speaker 1: eight by George M. Cowen called Maso Teco Whistle Speech. 22 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:25,959 Speaker 1: This was published in the journal Language in nineteen forty eight. Uh. 23 00:01:25,959 --> 00:01:28,480 Speaker 1: It's by this scholar named George M. Cowan who lived 24 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:33,120 Speaker 1: nineteen sixteen through seventeen. He was an expert on linguistics. 25 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:37,080 Speaker 1: He was associated with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, and 26 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:40,200 Speaker 1: apparently this paper is one of his most important contributions 27 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:45,680 Speaker 1: to the field. So it's an article documenting this fascinating 28 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:50,240 Speaker 1: type of communication practiced by the Mazo tech people living 29 00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:53,960 Speaker 1: in Wahaca, Mexico. So what we're talking about here is 30 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:58,200 Speaker 1: an alternate form of the maze Teco language that is 31 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:02,880 Speaker 1: based entirely on whistles. Cowen writes that as of the 32 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:07,480 Speaker 1: nineteen forty Mexican Census, there were approximately sixty thou people 33 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:11,680 Speaker 1: in the Mazatec tribe, and almost fifty six thousand of 34 00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:15,200 Speaker 1: them were mono lingual speakers of of the ma Azotecan languages. 35 00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:19,280 Speaker 1: The Mazotecan languages are part of what Cowen here calls 36 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:22,520 Speaker 1: the Popa Loca Mezteco language family, so part of a 37 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:27,440 Speaker 1: broader association of languages found in this area. So Cowen 38 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:31,080 Speaker 1: spent several winters in the nineteen forties living among speakers 39 00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:36,160 Speaker 1: of the Mezoteken languages to document uh these languages and 40 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:39,200 Speaker 1: eventually the whistle speech. And I want to begin by 41 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:43,919 Speaker 1: reading an anecdote that he just observed during his time there. Quote. 42 00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:47,920 Speaker 1: Eusebio Martinez was observed one day standing in front of 43 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:51,440 Speaker 1: his hut whistling to a man a considerable distance away. 44 00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:54,680 Speaker 1: The man was passing on the trail below, going to 45 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:57,080 Speaker 1: market to sell a load of corn leaves, which he 46 00:02:57,160 --> 00:03:01,080 Speaker 1: was carrying. The man answered Eusebio's whist with a whistle. 47 00:03:01,400 --> 00:03:05,359 Speaker 1: The interchange was repeated several times with different whistles. Finally, 48 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:08,520 Speaker 1: the man turned around, retraced his steps a short way, 49 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:12,079 Speaker 1: and came up the footpath to U. CBO's hut. Without 50 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:15,040 Speaker 1: saying a word, he dumped his load on the ground. U. 51 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:18,240 Speaker 1: Sabio looked the load over, went into his hut, returned 52 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:21,120 Speaker 1: with some money, and paid the man his price. The 53 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:24,480 Speaker 1: man turned and left. Not a word had been spoken. 54 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:27,560 Speaker 1: They had talked, bargained over the price, and come to 55 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:31,840 Speaker 1: an agreement satisfactory to both parties, using only whistles as 56 00:03:31,880 --> 00:03:36,760 Speaker 1: a medium of communication. And this is not an isolated incident. Uh. 57 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 1: The author here writes that the Mazotec people frequently hold 58 00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:44,920 Speaker 1: entire conversations and express an extremely broad and versatile set 59 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:49,120 Speaker 1: of ideas, all using whistles. As he puts it, quote, 60 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:52,280 Speaker 1: the Maso Teco is frequently conversed by whistling to one another. 61 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:56,600 Speaker 1: The whistles are not merely signals with limited semantic value, 62 00:03:56,760 --> 00:04:00,320 Speaker 1: arrived at by common agreement, but are parallel to spoken 63 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:04,960 Speaker 1: conversations as a means of communication. And so to to 64 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:08,720 Speaker 1: try to uh elucidate that a little bit, what this 65 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:12,160 Speaker 1: means is that the whistle speech is not a code 66 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:15,080 Speaker 1: like you may have heard, you may have seen in movies, 67 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:17,880 Speaker 1: I don't know, like like soldiers crawling around and they 68 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:20,080 Speaker 1: sort of like whistle codes at each other, And you 69 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:23,440 Speaker 1: get the idea that maybe they've agreed on a handful 70 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:26,440 Speaker 1: of whistled signals in advance, like you know that one 71 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:30,280 Speaker 1: whistle means a stop, another one means go forward, And 72 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:34,040 Speaker 1: but there's probably a very limited array of those whistles, 73 00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:36,720 Speaker 1: and you had to work on agreeing to them beforehand, 74 00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:40,279 Speaker 1: right right. Also in contrast to how the sort of 75 00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:43,120 Speaker 1: every day and in our world you will encounter. You know, 76 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:45,760 Speaker 1: a handful of uses of whistles that have sort of 77 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:48,719 Speaker 1: agreed upon meaning sort of a whistle that is an 78 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:51,799 Speaker 1: attention grabber, and a whistle that might be a little 79 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:55,200 Speaker 1: more scandalous, and then a whistle that is it seems 80 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:59,359 Speaker 1: to say say whoa, uh, like that's a big truck 81 00:04:59,839 --> 00:05:02,799 Speaker 1: h something of that nature. But but it's not really, 82 00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:05,520 Speaker 1: it's nothing at all like a robust language of whistles. 83 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:08,880 Speaker 1: It's just a few basic whistle signals that seem to 84 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:11,480 Speaker 1: be commonly used. Yeah, that's right, I would say, Like 85 00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:14,920 Speaker 1: in the standard American English speaking context, there are a 86 00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:19,040 Speaker 1: few sort of significant whistles. You you basically know what 87 00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:20,760 Speaker 1: they mean when you hear them, but there's only a 88 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:23,280 Speaker 1: handful of them, and you certainly can't make sentences out 89 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:27,000 Speaker 1: of them. Exactly the opposite is true of the Mazo 90 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:31,240 Speaker 1: Teco whistle speech. Uh. This is a a full equivalent 91 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:35,840 Speaker 1: to the standard spoken Meso Teco language. The whistles can 92 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:40,159 Speaker 1: be recorded and translated by anybody familiar with the whistle speech, 93 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:44,760 Speaker 1: producing the same specific translations with a couple of uh, 94 00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:48,280 Speaker 1: certain kinds of ambiguities. I'll get into that later. So 95 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:51,320 Speaker 1: it's not a kind of loose suggestive code. It's not 96 00:05:51,400 --> 00:05:54,040 Speaker 1: something that's to be agreed on ahead of time. It's 97 00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:57,720 Speaker 1: just an equivalent of a spoken language with all the 98 00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:01,520 Speaker 1: freedom of degrees of expression and lexical richness found in 99 00:06:01,560 --> 00:06:04,279 Speaker 1: the spoken language. And I thought this was just amazing. 100 00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:06,560 Speaker 1: So I guess I want to explore a few more 101 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:09,880 Speaker 1: things that the Cowen documents that he observed about the 102 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:14,440 Speaker 1: whistle speech during his time in Wahaka in the nineteen forties. 103 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:17,839 Speaker 1: So he says also that um the mesa teco people 104 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:21,880 Speaker 1: use the whistle signals when communicating with animals. For example, 105 00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:25,080 Speaker 1: there's a sort of slow up gliding whistle to keep 106 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:28,280 Speaker 1: burrows moving when on the trail, or whistles to call 107 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:32,200 Speaker 1: out to dogs. But these whistles don't have a translatable 108 00:06:32,279 --> 00:06:36,479 Speaker 1: language equivalent. So there is whistling that is language. But 109 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:40,520 Speaker 1: then there's also a whole set of like whistle sounds 110 00:06:40,520 --> 00:06:44,320 Speaker 1: that are useful day to day but are not words. Yeah, 111 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:48,440 Speaker 1: they just they want to be translated. They'd be like hey, yeah, 112 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:53,800 Speaker 1: or keep walking, keep going another thing. Not everybody whistles, 113 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,200 Speaker 1: and not everybody who whistles whistles the same amount. Cowen 114 00:06:58,240 --> 00:07:03,440 Speaker 1: writes that while everyone seems to have listening fluency with 115 00:07:03,520 --> 00:07:08,120 Speaker 1: the whistled speech, generally only men whistle, and especially men 116 00:07:08,320 --> 00:07:11,800 Speaker 1: between the ages of boyhood and middle age. So he 117 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:15,920 Speaker 1: says old men rarely whistle conversationally. It seems to fade 118 00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:21,160 Speaker 1: out over the lifespan, and women and girls understand what 119 00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:23,840 Speaker 1: is whistled by the men and boys, but usually do 120 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:27,480 Speaker 1: not whistle themselves. So he talks about observing a bunch 121 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:31,520 Speaker 1: of interactions where like a boy would whistle something to 122 00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:34,360 Speaker 1: a girl his age, and the girl would reply with 123 00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:37,920 Speaker 1: spoken language, so she understands the whistles, but she doesn't 124 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:41,760 Speaker 1: use them herself. He even talks about one specific example 125 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:44,559 Speaker 1: of like a boy teasing a girl and he didn't 126 00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:47,840 Speaker 1: realize what was happening because he he just observed the 127 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:50,760 Speaker 1: boy whistling. He didn't realize it was speech, and suddenly 128 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:52,840 Speaker 1: the girl lashed out and hit the boy with the 129 00:07:52,960 --> 00:07:56,000 Speaker 1: broom because of what he'd been saying to her, except 130 00:07:56,040 --> 00:07:59,720 Speaker 1: he hadn't been using the spoken language. Interesting, Okay, so 131 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:04,560 Speaker 1: the former we have perhaps a physical reason for the limit, 132 00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:07,400 Speaker 1: but possibly cultural, and then the second one seems to 133 00:08:07,400 --> 00:08:09,960 Speaker 1: be definitely cultural. Yeah, I don't know if there's a 134 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:12,960 Speaker 1: if there's like a biological limitation on on older men 135 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:15,720 Speaker 1: whistling either, I mean, it seems like this is probably 136 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:18,960 Speaker 1: all cultural convention. Yeah. I think with older men, based 137 00:08:18,960 --> 00:08:20,680 Speaker 1: on what I've been reading, it would be it would 138 00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:22,720 Speaker 1: be kind of a case to case situation. You certainly 139 00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:27,040 Speaker 1: have older gentlemen who are profound whistlers, but there are 140 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:30,000 Speaker 1: there's certainly cases even in younger people where if there 141 00:08:30,080 --> 00:08:34,880 Speaker 1: changes to one's mouth uh, due to injury, due to 142 00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:38,400 Speaker 1: just changes in dental health, then that could impact one's 143 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:40,840 Speaker 1: ability to whistle. Well. So a big question here would 144 00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:44,400 Speaker 1: be why. I mean, this is an interesting and beautiful 145 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:47,040 Speaker 1: thing about this language that it has the you know, 146 00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:50,760 Speaker 1: the spoken language and then it's whistled twin. But like, 147 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:54,480 Speaker 1: what would cause a whistled version of a language to 148 00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:57,400 Speaker 1: develop like this? And I think one good way to 149 00:08:57,480 --> 00:08:59,560 Speaker 1: get some insight into that is to look at what 150 00:08:59,760 --> 00:09:03,360 Speaker 1: are the common occasions for people to use the whistled 151 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:06,760 Speaker 1: version of their language instead of the spoken version. And 152 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:08,520 Speaker 1: one of the big answers here is pretty clear. The 153 00:09:08,520 --> 00:09:11,280 Speaker 1: author here says that the most frequent use of the 154 00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:14,559 Speaker 1: whistle speech was observed when the speakers were at a 155 00:09:14,640 --> 00:09:19,400 Speaker 1: distance from each other, he writes quote. Men scattered widely 156 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:22,240 Speaker 1: over a mountain side, each working in his own plot 157 00:09:22,280 --> 00:09:25,320 Speaker 1: of ground, will often talk to one another with whistles. 158 00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:28,480 Speaker 1: Travelers on the trails will keep in touch with one 159 00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:33,080 Speaker 1: another by whistling, though separated by considerable distance. When wishing 160 00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 1: to call or get the attention of someone, even though 161 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:39,440 Speaker 1: he be within easy speaking distance, the masa tecos will 162 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:43,640 Speaker 1: often whistle his name. The village shoemaker often calls passers 163 00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:45,680 Speaker 1: by into his shop with a whistle to chat with 164 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:48,120 Speaker 1: him while he works. A man may come to a 165 00:09:48,160 --> 00:09:51,200 Speaker 1: friend's hut on a visit. While approaching, or when he 166 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:53,160 Speaker 1: has actually arrived at the door of the hut, he 167 00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:57,120 Speaker 1: will frequently whistle rather than call his friend's name. If 168 00:09:57,160 --> 00:09:59,760 Speaker 1: the friend is home, he may respond from within with 169 00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:02,560 Speaker 1: a whistle, then come out to greet his visitor, or 170 00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:05,520 Speaker 1: he may remain inside and whistle to his visitor to 171 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:09,920 Speaker 1: come in. Fascinating Okay, so communicating at a distance seems 172 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:13,640 Speaker 1: to be a big one, or also initiating communication at 173 00:10:13,679 --> 00:10:16,840 Speaker 1: the start of an encounter, which I think it's interesting 174 00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:19,679 Speaker 1: that even when we're not at a distance, we often 175 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:23,320 Speaker 1: use language that we employ at a distance. Like to 176 00:10:23,360 --> 00:10:26,160 Speaker 1: get somebody in a spoken language. To get somebody's attention 177 00:10:26,200 --> 00:10:28,120 Speaker 1: from far away, what do you do? You yell hey 178 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:30,400 Speaker 1: at them? But also what do you do when you 179 00:10:30,520 --> 00:10:32,880 Speaker 1: walk up and and see somebody you know, your two 180 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:34,880 Speaker 1: feet away from them? You say, oh hey? And there 181 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:36,600 Speaker 1: might be some sort of a wave or something in 182 00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:38,679 Speaker 1: there as well, And I could I can imagine, I 183 00:10:39,160 --> 00:10:41,320 Speaker 1: don't know if it so sure, I can imagine where 184 00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:43,640 Speaker 1: if whistling could maybe take the place of some of 185 00:10:43,679 --> 00:10:49,040 Speaker 1: the otherwise necessary waving or gesticulating that would be required 186 00:10:49,080 --> 00:10:52,080 Speaker 1: to get somebody's attention and say, hey here, I am, 187 00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:55,520 Speaker 1: there you are, let's converse right, So okay, So you've 188 00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:59,319 Speaker 1: got communicating at a distance, you've got initiating communication at 189 00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:01,559 Speaker 1: the start of a of a meeting, and then along 190 00:11:01,559 --> 00:11:04,160 Speaker 1: the same lines. Uh. He writes here that the whistle 191 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:06,800 Speaker 1: is sometimes used as a warning, such as when someone 192 00:11:06,920 --> 00:11:09,960 Speaker 1: unknown is seen approaching on the trail, you kind of 193 00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:12,680 Speaker 1: whistle to let all of your friends nearby know that 194 00:11:12,760 --> 00:11:15,880 Speaker 1: something's up, you know, to get their attention. Though again 195 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:18,800 Speaker 1: he says the most common occasion is talking at a distance, 196 00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:21,600 Speaker 1: and he writes that in these cases, men working in 197 00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:24,120 Speaker 1: the field seem to be able to communicate easily with 198 00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:27,040 Speaker 1: people a full quarter of a mile away, like on 199 00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:30,840 Speaker 1: the opposite mountain side using the whistle speech. But also 200 00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:33,400 Speaker 1: and I found I found this next part really interesting. 201 00:11:34,040 --> 00:11:39,120 Speaker 1: Count says that sometimes, especially boys will hold a whistle 202 00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:43,959 Speaker 1: conversation if they're trying to talk while older people are 203 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:48,319 Speaker 1: also nearby carrying on a spoken conversation or even singing together. 204 00:11:48,840 --> 00:11:53,199 Speaker 1: And he calls these sort of simultaneous whistled conversations subdued 205 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:57,080 Speaker 1: whistles and says that they're that they're quite audible, and 206 00:11:57,160 --> 00:12:01,520 Speaker 1: yet they are able to happen simultaneous lee without seeming 207 00:12:01,559 --> 00:12:04,880 Speaker 1: too much interfere with the spoken conversation of the adults. 208 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:08,120 Speaker 1: And I don't know that one seems really interesting to me. 209 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:11,800 Speaker 1: I mean, it reminds me of of being a kid 210 00:12:11,880 --> 00:12:13,959 Speaker 1: and wanting to talk to other kids while they're I 211 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:15,880 Speaker 1: don't know, while you're in class or something, when you're 212 00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:19,040 Speaker 1: not supposed to be doing that. Uh, And and there 213 00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:22,400 Speaker 1: there's just an obvious sort of clash between two sets 214 00:12:22,400 --> 00:12:25,240 Speaker 1: of spoken words going on at the same time. And 215 00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:27,640 Speaker 1: this gets the ire of the adults, not only because 216 00:12:27,640 --> 00:12:31,080 Speaker 1: you're not paying attention, but because you're distracting others. Yet 217 00:12:31,160 --> 00:12:35,280 Speaker 1: somehow I could imagine that. Yeah, maybe having like a 218 00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:39,079 Speaker 1: different form of the language. If you're speaking your language 219 00:12:39,080 --> 00:12:42,319 Speaker 1: based on whistles instead of with the normal of phonetic syllables, 220 00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:48,200 Speaker 1: that could allow a kind of simultaneity without so much conflict. Yeah, 221 00:12:48,320 --> 00:12:51,040 Speaker 1: a way to speak while the adults are speaking without 222 00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:54,520 Speaker 1: interfering with what they're doing. Now, the example of of 223 00:12:54,640 --> 00:12:57,120 Speaker 1: using the whistles to communicate saying, in the case of 224 00:12:57,120 --> 00:13:01,120 Speaker 1: a path, uh, you're in the woods, someone's coming. That 225 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:04,280 Speaker 1: reminds me that I And I'm making an assumption here, 226 00:13:04,320 --> 00:13:08,680 Speaker 1: But if one were to say, hey, Carl, there's somebody 227 00:13:08,679 --> 00:13:12,280 Speaker 1: coming and call out, well, not only are communicating to Carl, 228 00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:16,439 Speaker 1: but you're communing communicating something about yourself. I wonder if 229 00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:20,960 Speaker 1: whistling language in specific scenarios like this allow you to 230 00:13:21,080 --> 00:13:25,280 Speaker 1: communicate without tipping your hand at all regarding like who 231 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:28,000 Speaker 1: you are, like what your age is, what your gender is, 232 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:31,440 Speaker 1: et cetera. Oh huh, that I didn't think about that. 233 00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:34,240 Speaker 1: That's interesting. Um. Well, another thing I would say along 234 00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:38,120 Speaker 1: those same lines is, again I haven't done experiments to 235 00:13:38,160 --> 00:13:40,199 Speaker 1: confirm this, but I would just say, as a baseline, 236 00:13:40,280 --> 00:13:44,439 Speaker 1: I might assume that whistling can more easily blend in 237 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:48,000 Speaker 1: with nature than than spoken language. That like you hear 238 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:51,280 Speaker 1: spoken language, you instantly know a person is nearby you 239 00:13:51,320 --> 00:13:53,079 Speaker 1: hear a little whistle. I don't know that could be 240 00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:55,880 Speaker 1: a bird or something like that if you're not tuned 241 00:13:55,920 --> 00:13:59,000 Speaker 1: into it as a linguistic signal. And I think that's 242 00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:02,200 Speaker 1: where and that's certainly where my assumption come comes into play, 243 00:14:02,240 --> 00:14:05,480 Speaker 1: is that I'm not sure what it would be like 244 00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:08,400 Speaker 1: for someone who who has lived in the world of 245 00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:10,920 Speaker 1: this kind of whistling. If you're used to it, then 246 00:14:10,920 --> 00:14:14,200 Speaker 1: maybe you just you have heightened susceptibility to recognizing it 247 00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:17,080 Speaker 1: and and telling the difference between it in the natural world. 248 00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:20,280 Speaker 1: And likewise, perhaps if you're used to it, you can 249 00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:23,760 Speaker 1: definitely tell the difference between a man's whistling a boy's 250 00:14:23,760 --> 00:14:32,240 Speaker 1: whistle than well. So to round out the things that 251 00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:35,920 Speaker 1: the Cowen talks about in this article, he says, um uh, 252 00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:38,840 Speaker 1: that there are no lexical limitations on the whistle speech. 253 00:14:39,200 --> 00:14:42,040 Speaker 1: Sort of already got to this, but basically anything you 254 00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:44,840 Speaker 1: can express in spoken language you can express in the whistles. 255 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:50,040 Speaker 1: Um However, there are some ambiguities caused by the whistle speech, 256 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:55,200 Speaker 1: and this is because of the basic phonetic features of it. 257 00:14:55,600 --> 00:15:00,360 Speaker 1: So the massive Taken languages are tonal languages. This would 258 00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:03,880 Speaker 1: mean they're similar to like Mandarin, where you can have 259 00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:07,840 Speaker 1: a syllable and you can have maybe four different versions 260 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:10,800 Speaker 1: of that syllable, and in English they would all be 261 00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:14,000 Speaker 1: the same syllable to us, Like maybe the classic example 262 00:15:14,040 --> 00:15:17,640 Speaker 1: in Mandarin is four different ways of saying ma, but 263 00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:21,320 Speaker 1: pronounced in each case with a different tone, So you 264 00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:23,560 Speaker 1: would you know, and if you're trying to write them 265 00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:26,000 Speaker 1: out phonetically in English, they would all be m A. 266 00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:29,320 Speaker 1: But one might be a kind of gliding up tone 267 00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:32,800 Speaker 1: and one is a falling tone and so forth. Yeah, well, 268 00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:35,160 Speaker 1: them as a taken languages are like this too. They 269 00:15:35,200 --> 00:15:39,240 Speaker 1: have tones in the speech, and the tones are what 270 00:15:39,440 --> 00:15:43,240 Speaker 1: eventually becomes the whistle speech. The whistle speech is based 271 00:15:43,320 --> 00:15:47,680 Speaker 1: on the tonal features of the spoken language. But if 272 00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:51,040 Speaker 1: you have, say, two different phrases that in the spoken 273 00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:55,160 Speaker 1: language have the exact same sequences of tones, these can 274 00:15:55,240 --> 00:15:57,880 Speaker 1: of course cause ambiguity in the whistle speech, and that 275 00:15:57,920 --> 00:15:59,880 Speaker 1: has to be resolved. You might have to say, what 276 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:03,080 Speaker 1: do you mean? Uh. Colin writes that one of the 277 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:05,800 Speaker 1: most common sources of ambiguity and whistled speech is just 278 00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:08,120 Speaker 1: proper names, because there are a lot of proper names 279 00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:11,160 Speaker 1: that have the same sequence of tones. But despite this 280 00:16:11,280 --> 00:16:14,400 Speaker 1: limitation that you know, you you don't have spoken syllables, 281 00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:18,480 Speaker 1: you're just turning the language entirely into sequences of tones. Uh. 282 00:16:18,880 --> 00:16:20,960 Speaker 1: You can communicate a lot, and most of the time 283 00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:24,000 Speaker 1: people understand each other just fine. Another thing I thought 284 00:16:24,040 --> 00:16:26,440 Speaker 1: was interesting is that he says there don't appear to 285 00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:31,240 Speaker 1: be any limitations on whistled speech mingling with spoken language. 286 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:33,520 Speaker 1: Like it's not like you go into one mode and 287 00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:35,720 Speaker 1: then you're supposed to stay there and back and forth, 288 00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:38,520 Speaker 1: and like he says that a conversation might start at 289 00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:41,640 Speaker 1: a distance as whistles as whistles, and then switch to 290 00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:44,000 Speaker 1: normal speech when the parties get closer to each other, 291 00:16:44,640 --> 00:16:46,240 Speaker 1: or you might just go back and forth. You might 292 00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:52,400 Speaker 1: be speaking and then suddenly whistling, and then and so forth. Interesting. This, um, this, 293 00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:55,440 Speaker 1: this is not not a perfect comparison, but I and 294 00:16:55,520 --> 00:16:58,440 Speaker 1: I can't help but think of the astro mac droids 295 00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:02,120 Speaker 1: and star Wars. You know, how they speak with the 296 00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:07,320 Speaker 1: kind of whistling UM language uh and and generally when 297 00:17:07,320 --> 00:17:11,080 Speaker 1: they're talking to somebody like Luke Skywalker or whoever, Luke 298 00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:14,760 Speaker 1: understands the astro Mec language and then speaks back in 299 00:17:14,840 --> 00:17:19,040 Speaker 1: English and UH or whatever we're calling English UM in 300 00:17:19,080 --> 00:17:22,919 Speaker 1: the Star Wars universe. And at times when I'm watching this, 301 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:25,440 Speaker 1: I'm always I'll stop and I'll think. And of course 302 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:26,720 Speaker 1: i'm you know, caught up in the flow of it, 303 00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:29,960 Speaker 1: so it ultimately doesn't matter. But if I'm over analyzing it, 304 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:32,320 Speaker 1: I'm I'm thinking about the fact that they're they're speaking 305 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:35,680 Speaker 1: in two different languages to each other and there doesn't 306 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:38,199 Speaker 1: seem to be any problem. But an example like this 307 00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:40,800 Speaker 1: from the real world makes me think, well, no, this 308 00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:44,200 Speaker 1: is entirely believable. You have both parties know the language, 309 00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:46,680 Speaker 1: but the astro Mec of course can only speak one 310 00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:49,960 Speaker 1: of those languages, and Luke Skywalker can also only speak 311 00:17:49,960 --> 00:17:53,480 Speaker 1: one of those languages, but both can understand. Yeah, that's interesting. 312 00:17:53,480 --> 00:17:56,360 Speaker 1: I have often thought about that too, about the how 313 00:17:56,400 --> 00:18:00,200 Speaker 1: exactly the R two D two communication goes on um 314 00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:02,240 Speaker 1: a boat. But I just wanted to say also that 315 00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:04,639 Speaker 1: like um, this isn't something of the past that the 316 00:18:04,640 --> 00:18:07,719 Speaker 1: Massa teco whistle speech is still in use today, certainly 317 00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:10,959 Speaker 1: by people in Wahaka and maybe elsewhere as well. If 318 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:12,520 Speaker 1: you want to hear what it sounds like, I would 319 00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:15,959 Speaker 1: highly recommend looking up videos. There are videos you can 320 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:19,679 Speaker 1: find online of native speakers demonstrating the Messa teco whistle 321 00:18:19,720 --> 00:18:23,720 Speaker 1: speech and it's it's it's totally worth looking up. Absolutely yeah, 322 00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:27,440 Speaker 1: it's it's. It's quite beautiful. But as I alluded to earlier, 323 00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:29,719 Speaker 1: this is not the only case in the world. This 324 00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:32,320 Speaker 1: is just one example I picked. There are other examples 325 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:34,040 Speaker 1: and I might get into them in in part two 326 00:18:34,119 --> 00:18:39,000 Speaker 1: of this series of whistled languages popping up, especially it 327 00:18:39,119 --> 00:18:43,280 Speaker 1: seems in in mountainous and forested regions around the world. 328 00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:45,320 Speaker 1: And there's a paper I want to talk about in 329 00:18:45,359 --> 00:18:48,000 Speaker 1: the next part of the series about what are some 330 00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:51,199 Speaker 1: of the common features that may cause whistled versions of 331 00:18:51,280 --> 00:18:54,679 Speaker 1: languages to arise. It's very interesting to think about, like 332 00:18:54,760 --> 00:18:59,600 Speaker 1: what are the pressures and environmental characteristics that tend to 333 00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:05,600 Speaker 1: give rise to certain characteristics of language. Absolutely now in 334 00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:10,399 Speaker 1: discussing whistling here uh. When we first started looking into 335 00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:15,080 Speaker 1: this topic, I was thinking, well, what is whistling and 336 00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:17,560 Speaker 1: I at first I was thinking, well, this has to 337 00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:20,120 Speaker 1: be one of those questions that shouldn't be too complicated, right, 338 00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:23,080 Speaker 1: in part because for many of us, a whistle is 339 00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:25,520 Speaker 1: literally as close as our own breath. We can produce 340 00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:28,679 Speaker 1: a whistle without giving it too much thought, and we 341 00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:32,480 Speaker 1: can generally pick out the sound of whistling rather easily. 342 00:19:32,520 --> 00:19:35,639 Speaker 1: Maybe not, you know, as as quickly as we were 343 00:19:35,640 --> 00:19:37,960 Speaker 1: discussing in our previous example compared to other things. But 344 00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:40,440 Speaker 1: here it for a second, and you'll say, yeah, yeah, 345 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:42,679 Speaker 1: somebody's whistling, and then maybe you can pick out the tune. 346 00:19:43,359 --> 00:19:45,800 Speaker 1: But yeah, we know it when we hear it, and 347 00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:48,760 Speaker 1: we know it when we produce it. So I honestly 348 00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:51,680 Speaker 1: expected to kind of springboard past the basic what is 349 00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:54,320 Speaker 1: a whistle question here and so get more into some 350 00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:58,639 Speaker 1: of the meteor stuff. But then I read this definition 351 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:01,840 Speaker 1: of whistling from the paper The Physiology of Oral Whistling 352 00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:04,399 Speaker 1: by A. Zola at All, published in the Journal of 353 00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:11,239 Speaker 1: Applied Physiology. Quote. Experimental models support the hypothesis that the 354 00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:15,640 Speaker 1: sound in human whistling is generated by a helm Holtz resonator, 355 00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:19,720 Speaker 1: suggesting that the oral cavity acts as a resonant chamber 356 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:24,119 Speaker 1: bounded by two orifices, posteriorly by raising the tongue to 357 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:28,119 Speaker 1: the hard palate and anteriorly by pursed lips. So I 358 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:31,200 Speaker 1: don't know about you, but when I heard that that 359 00:20:31,280 --> 00:20:34,639 Speaker 1: instantly it made me realize, Okay, it's a little more 360 00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:39,080 Speaker 1: complicated than I had perhaps realized at first. And uh, 361 00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:41,359 Speaker 1: I I don't think I had actually heard of a 362 00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:44,040 Speaker 1: helm Holtz resonator before, and when I heard that, I 363 00:20:44,119 --> 00:20:47,080 Speaker 1: instantly thought of like the Holtzman effect in Dune. But 364 00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:50,440 Speaker 1: this has nothing to do with personal shields and suspensers. Well, yeah, 365 00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:53,159 Speaker 1: I think that's interesting too, that it's like not a 366 00:20:53,200 --> 00:20:58,480 Speaker 1: fully settled question how exactly the physics of of whistling work. 367 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:00,200 Speaker 1: But I do think it's clear and you can sort 368 00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:03,960 Speaker 1: of test this in your own body. Uh. That part 369 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:07,720 Speaker 1: of what's happening with whistling is you are relocating the 370 00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:13,600 Speaker 1: primary resonating chamber that's producing the vibrations the sound when 371 00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:16,359 Speaker 1: you whistle, as opposed to when you produce regular speech. 372 00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:19,400 Speaker 1: Because if you just feel it in your body while 373 00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:22,240 Speaker 1: you're talking, you can kind of feel least I can 374 00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:25,560 Speaker 1: that the vibrations sort of seemed to be coming from 375 00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:27,920 Speaker 1: the throat. It's also sort of happening in the mouth 376 00:21:27,960 --> 00:21:31,280 Speaker 1: a little bit um. But then when you whistle, at 377 00:21:31,320 --> 00:21:34,280 Speaker 1: least what I feel is I feel the vibration beginning 378 00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:38,959 Speaker 1: in my mouth. Yeah. I would certainly advise everyone as 379 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:40,840 Speaker 1: you're whistling, and you may be whistling right now, to 380 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:43,239 Speaker 1: sort of test this out, like, really focus in on 381 00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:46,720 Speaker 1: how it feels, Focus on how you feel the air 382 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:52,719 Speaker 1: flowing through your mouth. You'll find these lateral air passages 383 00:21:52,800 --> 00:21:55,720 Speaker 1: between cheek and molars. Uh. And it's it's really quite 384 00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:57,919 Speaker 1: quite fascinating because again, it's easy to just take this 385 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:00,919 Speaker 1: for granted, it's not something for most of us. Is 386 00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:02,840 Speaker 1: certainly after after a point, you don't really have to 387 00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:04,800 Speaker 1: think about it. You don't have to have to look 388 00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:07,199 Speaker 1: up and read instructions for how to do it. You 389 00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:10,840 Speaker 1: just your mouth assumes the form necessary to create the whistle, 390 00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:14,439 Speaker 1: and you whistle as a total sidetrack. I'm sorry, but 391 00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:17,400 Speaker 1: I I found the title of that paper, The Physiology 392 00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:20,960 Speaker 1: of Oral Whistling, very funny because it immediately made me think, 393 00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:25,240 Speaker 1: are there other types of whistle? Is there ocular whistling? Well? There, 394 00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:27,520 Speaker 1: I mean, I guess there may be some sort of 395 00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:30,720 Speaker 1: nasal variety. I mean, I'm instantly reminded of the various 396 00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:34,800 Speaker 1: nasal flutes that exist in different cultures. So, uh, the 397 00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:37,119 Speaker 1: airflow from the mouth is not the only way that 398 00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:40,440 Speaker 1: we have to produce a sound. So um. But yeah, 399 00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:44,600 Speaker 1: when you say whistling, you tend to think oral whistling. Now, 400 00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:47,920 Speaker 1: I want to come back to the Helmholtz resonator here. 401 00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:52,280 Speaker 1: So this is named for important German physicist and physician 402 00:22:52,520 --> 00:22:56,800 Speaker 1: Herman von Helmholtz, who lived eighteen twenty one through If 403 00:22:56,840 --> 00:23:00,480 Speaker 1: you if you're studying anything about sound and sound generation, 404 00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:05,080 Speaker 1: you'll generally find out find something about von Helmholtz. For instance, 405 00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:10,600 Speaker 1: after we had started this particular topic, I was in Asheville, 406 00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:13,600 Speaker 1: North Carolina, and I went to the mog Museum there, 407 00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:16,879 Speaker 1: the synthesizer Museum, and Helmholtz his name comes up in 408 00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:19,040 Speaker 1: some of the materials there because it's just it's hard 409 00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:21,520 Speaker 1: to avoid him when you get into the science of sound. 410 00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:24,920 Speaker 1: So the helm Holtz resonator is a kind of spherical 411 00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:28,520 Speaker 1: chamber with an aperture at the top or at one 412 00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:32,760 Speaker 1: end called the nipple, and tapering there for insertion into 413 00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:36,000 Speaker 1: the ear, and then has another larger aperture on the 414 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:41,080 Speaker 1: other end of this sphere. So each Helmholtz resonator has 415 00:23:41,119 --> 00:23:44,840 Speaker 1: a known fixed volume size and therefore is made to 416 00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:48,040 Speaker 1: pick up on a particular tone there there there's no 417 00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:51,080 Speaker 1: mechanical parts in this. It's essentially it's kind of like 418 00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:55,480 Speaker 1: a very finely engineered seashell. Pick one up. You place 419 00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:57,520 Speaker 1: the nipple in your ear, and you can pick out 420 00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:00,760 Speaker 1: a particular frequency, and you generally will have a selection 421 00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:04,800 Speaker 1: of these to analyze complex sounds. Joe, for your benefit, 422 00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:09,080 Speaker 1: I included a photo here of various helm Holtz resonators, 423 00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:11,040 Speaker 1: and if you do a Google search out there of 424 00:24:11,119 --> 00:24:14,840 Speaker 1: helm Halt resonators, you'll see selections like this. They're often 425 00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:17,280 Speaker 1: made out of some sort of metal. You know. I 426 00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:21,480 Speaker 1: think of myself as an adventurous secret of of experiences. 427 00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:23,840 Speaker 1: But somehow I don't want to put the big ones 428 00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:27,399 Speaker 1: of these in my ear. That just I would fear 429 00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:31,080 Speaker 1: I would fear oral injury. Well, the nipples the same 430 00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:33,880 Speaker 1: size on all of them. Okay, nipple that is inserted 431 00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:37,080 Speaker 1: into your ear. I guess I'm just I guess what 432 00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:39,600 Speaker 1: I mean is I'm afraid it looks like it would 433 00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:42,280 Speaker 1: suddenly produce an incredibly loud sound. But I guess the 434 00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:45,320 Speaker 1: size of the resonator cavity is not actually about the volume, 435 00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:48,280 Speaker 1: but about the pitch. So these resonators, they have various 436 00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:52,200 Speaker 1: applications in engineering, architecture, and music. But when it comes 437 00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:55,439 Speaker 1: to studying and describing the mechanisms of human whistling, something 438 00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:59,399 Speaker 1: that the aforementioned authors say isn't done enough, and again 439 00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:02,399 Speaker 1: it is not made fully understood. The Helmholtz resonator is 440 00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:04,960 Speaker 1: apparently a good model of what seems to be going 441 00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:08,320 Speaker 1: on inside of our head, inside of our you know, 442 00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:12,000 Speaker 1: our head and face when we whistle. And Joe I 443 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:15,480 Speaker 1: included an illustration from that paper that I thought was 444 00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:19,280 Speaker 1: was very useful. This kind of takes uh the airflow, 445 00:25:19,359 --> 00:25:23,120 Speaker 1: those lateral air passages were described, describing the as well 446 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,679 Speaker 1: as the central resonance chamber, and illustrates those inside of 447 00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:29,800 Speaker 1: this This drawing of of of of a human female 448 00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:33,679 Speaker 1: who is supposedly whistling, and it makes whistling look like 449 00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:38,240 Speaker 1: some sort of strange organ inside the mouth. Yeah, it 450 00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:40,800 Speaker 1: looks like, well, you've got your regular liver down below, 451 00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:42,879 Speaker 1: and then you've got your whistling liver, and that's up 452 00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:47,239 Speaker 1: somewhere underneath the nose. Right now, going back to that 453 00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:49,800 Speaker 1: paper by A. Zola at All, I want to read 454 00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:53,000 Speaker 1: this quick quote that sums a lot of this up quote. 455 00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:56,080 Speaker 1: The results of this study indicate that the acoustic mechanism 456 00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:59,920 Speaker 1: in human pursed lip whistling follows a Helmholtz resonator model. 457 00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:04,000 Speaker 1: The oral cavity acts as the resonant chamber, and the 458 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:07,440 Speaker 1: anterior posterior movements of the tongue play a major role 459 00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:11,120 Speaker 1: in changing the volume and thus the whistle frequency produced 460 00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:14,760 Speaker 1: for their studies, performed with high resolution measurements may help 461 00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:19,560 Speaker 1: elucidate the contribution of changes to other parameters of the 462 00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:22,879 Speaker 1: Helmholtz equation. Okay, so this is sort of in line 463 00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:26,840 Speaker 1: with what I was at least guessing based on the 464 00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:29,680 Speaker 1: feelings inside my head. When I whistle, it feels like 465 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:33,199 Speaker 1: the vibrations are coming from the mouth when I whistle. 466 00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:36,080 Speaker 1: And here they're saying that, yes, when you whistle, the 467 00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:39,480 Speaker 1: oral cavity is what's acting as the resonant chamber. It's 468 00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:43,480 Speaker 1: sort of acting as a Helmholtz resonator, right, And it 469 00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:45,680 Speaker 1: is stressing though that, Yeah, there's a lot going on here. 470 00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:48,280 Speaker 1: And even though it may feel pretty natural for most 471 00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:49,919 Speaker 1: of us to whistle, we don't have to again put 472 00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:52,479 Speaker 1: a lot of thought into it. Uh though though if 473 00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:55,200 Speaker 1: you may be overthinking it now and finding yourself having 474 00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:58,359 Speaker 1: to to think more about doing it, but uh, you 475 00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:01,840 Speaker 1: still have to have the proper preusit prerequisites in place. Uh. 476 00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:04,120 Speaker 1: Some people lack the ability to whistle for a few 477 00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:07,000 Speaker 1: different reasons. It's also something that does have to be 478 00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:12,040 Speaker 1: initially learned and can get really good with practice. So uh, 479 00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:13,919 Speaker 1: it's like it's one of those scenarios like when you 480 00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:17,320 Speaker 1: hear somebody do it really well. Uh, it has an 481 00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:21,280 Speaker 1: almost otherworldly beauty to it. Uh. Some of those uh 482 00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:24,120 Speaker 1: examples earlier in the whistling speech definitely have this quality 483 00:27:24,160 --> 00:27:27,320 Speaker 1: to them. But also I think of whistling used in 484 00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:30,000 Speaker 1: music sometimes I think of the whistling of say, Leon 485 00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:34,680 Speaker 1: Redbone whistle during some of his performance so amazing whistler. 486 00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:37,520 Speaker 1: My whistle is nothing like that, um And and a 487 00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:39,920 Speaker 1: large part of that just may simply be practiced. I 488 00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:43,120 Speaker 1: I have not applied the hours of whistling that Leon 489 00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:46,960 Speaker 1: Redbone applied during his lifetime to achieve that that level 490 00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:55,760 Speaker 1: of art. Thank so off, Mike, we were talking about 491 00:27:55,760 --> 00:28:01,840 Speaker 1: our favorite examples of music that features whistling. One example 492 00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:04,880 Speaker 1: that immediately comes to my mind is there's a there's 493 00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:09,280 Speaker 1: a great Bolivian folk song called Orando ce Foe and 494 00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:13,359 Speaker 1: the band, the experimental rock band Sun City Girls do 495 00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:16,320 Speaker 1: a cover of that song. I think their cover is 496 00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:18,840 Speaker 1: called the Shining Path, and there's a part usually before 497 00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:22,159 Speaker 1: the lyrics come in that I think on earlier recordings 498 00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:24,479 Speaker 1: of this song is done on a flute, but they 499 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:28,359 Speaker 1: whistle this part, and the whistling is just intense. It 500 00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:31,520 Speaker 1: sounds very much the comparison a lot of people seem 501 00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:33,160 Speaker 1: to make. I think Seth said the same thing when 502 00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:35,280 Speaker 1: we played it for him earlier, is that it feels 503 00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:38,760 Speaker 1: like Ennio Morricone feels like a kind of a very dramatic, 504 00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:44,760 Speaker 1: dangerous Western scene. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, there's something about the 505 00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:48,200 Speaker 1: the West cinematically that that makes me think of whistling, 506 00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:49,960 Speaker 1: And a big part of it is, you know, probably 507 00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:54,680 Speaker 1: uh Morricone scores, but also the score by Carter Burwell 508 00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:59,680 Speaker 1: for um A Raising Arizona, the Colin Brothers film, So good, 509 00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:04,320 Speaker 1: fabulous score that includes a lot of like yodeling and banjo, 510 00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:08,280 Speaker 1: but also whistling, really powerful, like pure whistling that sounds 511 00:29:08,280 --> 00:29:10,920 Speaker 1: like it's from just it's from straight from heaven. But 512 00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:13,760 Speaker 1: the other one Seth reminded, uh, reminded me of was 513 00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:16,840 Speaker 1: the Peter Bjorn and John song that was popular. I 514 00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:20,320 Speaker 1: think that was like really big my last year in college. 515 00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:22,560 Speaker 1: It was like two thousand eight or so. Yeah, yeah, 516 00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:25,400 Speaker 1: that's a great example. Another one that I think Seth 517 00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:27,479 Speaker 1: and I both thought of at the same time was 518 00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:29,920 Speaker 1: Otis Redding sitting on the dock of the bay. That 519 00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:32,320 Speaker 1: is a wonderful whistling part in it. Well, you know, 520 00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:34,360 Speaker 1: I was trying to think, based on all these examples 521 00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:37,200 Speaker 1: we just brought up, whether there are sort of common 522 00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:41,400 Speaker 1: connotations to whistling in music. But I guess not really 523 00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:44,120 Speaker 1: because in some of these examples we've talked about, the 524 00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:48,680 Speaker 1: whistling feels very very happy and languid. It's a relaxed 525 00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:50,360 Speaker 1: kind of sound. I think of sitting on the dock 526 00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:53,479 Speaker 1: of the bay, whereas in uh, in the first example 527 00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:57,440 Speaker 1: I mentioned, it's it's a fiery, intense, you know, uh, 528 00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:01,960 Speaker 1: danger rising from from the canyon kind of sound. Yeah. Yeah, 529 00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:04,800 Speaker 1: I'm glancing at a list right now, and oh this 530 00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:07,760 Speaker 1: is a big one. Winds of Change by the Scorpions. 531 00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:12,200 Speaker 1: That's some that's some powerful whistling in there. Feel it, 532 00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:15,400 Speaker 1: Feel it in your bones. Golden Years by David Bowie. 533 00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:19,240 Speaker 1: That's another good one. Games Without Frontiers by Peter Gabriel. 534 00:30:19,480 --> 00:30:21,840 Speaker 1: Oh I know that one. Yeah, Yeah, that's a great one. 535 00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:25,920 Speaker 1: War Without Tears. Yeah. Yeah. They're a bunch of them. 536 00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:27,880 Speaker 1: And I'm not going to go through this whole list, 537 00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:29,720 Speaker 1: but I'd love to hear from folks out there if 538 00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:36,040 Speaker 1: you have particularly favored examples of songs with whistling in them, 539 00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:39,520 Speaker 1: or or favorite whistling performers. Oh like, here's another great one. 540 00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:42,120 Speaker 1: Always Look on the bright Side of Life from Monty 541 00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:46,120 Speaker 1: Python's The Life of Brian. Great stuff. There's walk Like 542 00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:49,320 Speaker 1: in Egyptian by the Bengals. I did not remember the 543 00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:53,640 Speaker 1: whistling in that. Yeah, don't worry, be happy. Bobby McFerrin. Oh, 544 00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:55,640 Speaker 1: I don't know if I remember the I remember this song, 545 00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:57,680 Speaker 1: but I don't remember whistling Me and Julio down by 546 00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:04,160 Speaker 1: the schoolyard Paul Simon. Oh yeah, uh uh, I shouldn't 547 00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:08,360 Speaker 1: do that too much. Love is a Battlefield Pat Benatar, 548 00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:12,160 Speaker 1: great song. Uh, I don't remember the whistling, you know, 549 00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:15,000 Speaker 1: coming back to the idea of whistled language is part 550 00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:18,200 Speaker 1: of me, thinks, Oh, man, I it would be difficult 551 00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:19,920 Speaker 1: for me living in a culture like that because I 552 00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:22,120 Speaker 1: feel like I don't whistle very well. But then again, 553 00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:24,360 Speaker 1: I guess it's a it's a skill that you develop 554 00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:27,880 Speaker 1: with practice, like other language skills, and that unless you 555 00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:32,000 Speaker 1: have some kind of like anatomical reason that's interfering with 556 00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:34,800 Speaker 1: your ability to whistle. And imagine it's largely a function 557 00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:37,360 Speaker 1: of how much you do it, how much you you 558 00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:39,920 Speaker 1: practice it, and how much you learned at an early age. 559 00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:42,080 Speaker 1: But but yes, I am one of those who I 560 00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:45,480 Speaker 1: don't whistle great. Uh Yeah, my whistling is it's okay 561 00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:48,880 Speaker 1: for my own purposes, but it is not a performance 562 00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:52,440 Speaker 1: level whistle. So I will catch myself occasionally whistling a 563 00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:57,440 Speaker 1: particular tune. But I'm also just as just as inclined 564 00:31:57,480 --> 00:32:00,760 Speaker 1: to maybe sing a little bit from a particular song, 565 00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:04,120 Speaker 1: or to hum a little bit, uh did to use 566 00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:08,680 Speaker 1: those more or less in tandem. But pure whistling. Yeah, 567 00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:13,400 Speaker 1: I've never really applied myself to it, uh, because because 568 00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:15,240 Speaker 1: I felt like my whistling, yeah, it's good enough for me, 569 00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:17,920 Speaker 1: not so much for anybody else I'm around. I did 570 00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:20,600 Speaker 1: get into a habit a while back of when I 571 00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:22,760 Speaker 1: would be singing a song and I would start getting 572 00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:24,880 Speaker 1: up to the high notes that I couldn't sing, I 573 00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:28,800 Speaker 1: would just switch to whistling them. Yeah, as we were 574 00:32:28,800 --> 00:32:30,920 Speaker 1: researching this, I was, of course, like a lot of 575 00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:33,840 Speaker 1: you out there listening to the episode, I was a 576 00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:36,200 Speaker 1: little I was hyper conscious of my own whistling, so 577 00:32:36,280 --> 00:32:38,040 Speaker 1: I was I was trying it out, and I and 578 00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:40,440 Speaker 1: I decided, well, what if I tried to whistle better, 579 00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:42,680 Speaker 1: or you know, what have I? What have I sort 580 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:46,520 Speaker 1: of really concentrate on it and try and see what 581 00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:48,960 Speaker 1: happens when I change the shape of my mouth a 582 00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:51,720 Speaker 1: little bit. And I was feeling that. I found that 583 00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:56,280 Speaker 1: I was able to make a stronger whistle, but it 584 00:32:56,360 --> 00:32:59,480 Speaker 1: was also I felt it straining, uh, like muscles in 585 00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:02,880 Speaker 1: my face and in my head that I maybe don't 586 00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:05,240 Speaker 1: strain that much when I do my default whistle. And 587 00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:06,760 Speaker 1: then I was able to go back to my default 588 00:33:06,800 --> 00:33:10,240 Speaker 1: whistle and it felt more natural. So I kind of 589 00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:12,720 Speaker 1: took that as an indicators like, Okay, this is this 590 00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:15,240 Speaker 1: is kind of a gateway to better whistling. If I 591 00:33:15,280 --> 00:33:19,600 Speaker 1: wanted to actually pursue this probably, but I'm not going 592 00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:22,640 Speaker 1: to do that. Oh well, uh, this makes me think 593 00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:25,360 Speaker 1: of how Actually, to some degree, the same thing is 594 00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:27,880 Speaker 1: true about spoken language. Like I find at least if 595 00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:31,640 Speaker 1: I think too hard about what my body is doing 596 00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:35,240 Speaker 1: while I'm producing words with my mouth, suddenly they become 597 00:33:35,280 --> 00:33:37,880 Speaker 1: a lot harder to produce. Like if I'm thinking about 598 00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:41,120 Speaker 1: my lungs and my larynx and my mouth. Uh, the 599 00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:44,800 Speaker 1: syllables become kind of strange. You get that. Actually, I 600 00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:47,880 Speaker 1: would say it's a feeling kind of similar to semantic satiation, 601 00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:50,960 Speaker 1: where when you say a word too many times in 602 00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:53,680 Speaker 1: a row, you start like the words starts to feel 603 00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:56,959 Speaker 1: strange and it loses its association with the with the 604 00:33:57,760 --> 00:34:01,120 Speaker 1: with the meaning that it signifies. Uh. In a way, 605 00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:03,880 Speaker 1: it's kind of like if you're riding a bicycle and 606 00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:07,280 Speaker 1: you suddenly start thinking really hard about how you were 607 00:34:07,360 --> 00:34:10,560 Speaker 1: riding the bicycle, how this is being retained, and maybe 608 00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:12,800 Speaker 1: don't do that, Maybe just just just ride the bicycle, 609 00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:16,040 Speaker 1: think about something else, because everything is in motion, it's 610 00:34:16,080 --> 00:34:20,440 Speaker 1: it's working. Just don't don't second guess it. But as 611 00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:23,040 Speaker 1: we were saying, though, it's by second guessing it that 612 00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:26,680 Speaker 1: we are able to potentially improve it as well. Um, 613 00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:28,719 Speaker 1: we can certainly fall into a habit of whistling a 614 00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:31,920 Speaker 1: certain way. Uh, and then there are conceivably ways to 615 00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:34,879 Speaker 1: improve upon that whistle. But uh, you've got to want 616 00:34:34,920 --> 00:34:36,640 Speaker 1: to do that or have some reason to do that. 617 00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:40,120 Speaker 1: And certainly communication would be a big one. If you're 618 00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:42,880 Speaker 1: engaging in some sort of whistling communication with people, then 619 00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:45,279 Speaker 1: there's going to be sort of a whistling standard. I 620 00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:48,200 Speaker 1: imagine you're gonna you're gonna hear other people use it, 621 00:34:48,239 --> 00:34:51,800 Speaker 1: and there is going to be a positive social pressure 622 00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:55,239 Speaker 1: to improving your whistle to match the whistles of those 623 00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:59,160 Speaker 1: around your right. Well, maybe we need to call part 624 00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:02,759 Speaker 1: one of Whistling series here, but we've got so much 625 00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:05,400 Speaker 1: more interesting stuff to talk about in subsequent parts. We're 626 00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:08,759 Speaker 1: going to talk about religious uses of whistling. We're going 627 00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:14,080 Speaker 1: to talk about whistling superstition, whistling psychology, whistling technology. That 628 00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:16,680 Speaker 1: there are a lot of monsters in this closet. All right, 629 00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:18,560 Speaker 1: we'll join us for that when we come back, and 630 00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:21,880 Speaker 1: certainly go ahead and send in your messages regarding your 631 00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:24,759 Speaker 1: own experience with whistling. We would love to hear from 632 00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:28,319 Speaker 1: you as a reminder. 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