A unique way of ancient communication: La Gomera Whistling Island

An old English proverb says, "Necessity is the mother of invention".

On La Gomera Island in the Canary Islands of Spain, local residents need to communicate with each other about the steep natural landscape of the island.

Because of this need, before the Spanish colonized the Canary Islands in the15th century, a people named Guan Qi lived in Lago Mero, and they invented a language called Silbo Gomero or Ersil Bo, which means "Gomeland Whistle" and "Whistle" respectively.

Silbo Gomero is a form of attention whistle, which is believed to have been invented by the indigenous people in the Canary Islands.

However, in the17th century, the language of concern disappeared, and people knew little about it except a few words recorded in travel magazines. In addition, the Spanish form of the island also includes some other words.

It is believed that the car-closing language has a simple phonetic system and can be adapted into whistle language, that is, the narrow valley of Lagomela.

After the colonization of the Canary Islands, islanders began to use Spanish as their spoken language.

For practical reasons, La Gomera people began to turn Spanish into whistles, just like their ancestors.

In La Gomera's whistle, every vowel or consonant is replaced by a whistle-two different whistles instead of five Spanish vowels and four whistles instead of consonants.

According to the change of pitch, it can be distinguished whether the whistle is intermittent or continuous, and any information can be transmitted between one user and another. Whistling can be heard in the following short film: In the past, whistling was spread through direct contact between the host and the students, usually at home.

This ensured its survival for centuries.

In the 1930s and 1950s, whistles were a means of resisting the authorities.

Some people of the older generation said that in those decades, Guardia citizens often used trucks to take local people to the places where fires broke out on the island to help put out the fire.

The residents of the island do not welcome this forced fire fighting action (although the parliament and the mayor have received paid funds, their hard work has not been paid), so they will whistle to warn each other.

Because Guardia people don't know the language of whistling, they often can't find the locals, because when Guardia people arrive in their village, they have already gone into hiding.

Credit card: However, in 1950s, economic difficulties forced many Lagomela locals to emigrate from their hometown to neighboring Tenerife and even Venezuela.

As a result, the whistle began to weaken.

Lagomela's growing road network and the subsequent invention of mobile phones further reduced the demand for whistle language by the island residents. By the end of the 20th century, the users of whistle language were few and almost extinct.

Fortunately, in 1999, Silbo Gomero was listed as a compulsory course for primary schools in the whole island.

In addition, the Canary Islands Ministry of Education spent about 654.38 million+Euros (about 654.38+00.

60,000 dollars) on the Silbo Gomero project to keep the language alive.

Therefore, whistling is being revived, and about 3000 students are studying at school.

The photo depicts the modern usage of the ancient whistle Silbo Gomero.

Tino Prieto /Flickr, in 2009, whistle language was included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List, and this unique legacy of La Gomera Island gained international recognition. Theme picture: La Gomera Gatekeeper Museum shows Ah and Tenerife.

Wikimedia public resources, reference materials, Henn, S., 2007. Spain: Whistling on La Gomera Mountain.

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[online] website: BBC/news/magazine-20953138, The Culturetrip, 20 15.

Speaking at the whistle in La Gomera.

[Online] Website: The Culture Trip/Africa/Canary Islands/Articles/Wheeled Speech/,UNESCO, 20 12.

Whistling language in the Canary Islands.

[Online] Website: UNESCO.

Org/culture/ich/rl/00172, Upton, 20 13. This language consists entirely of whistles.

[Online] You can buy it here, lagomera.

Tourism, 20 15. Whistle. [Online], website: la gomera.

Travel/canal islands/la gomera/en/about/the whistle of la gomera/,by wty, I am a college student with a bachelor's degree in archaeology.

My interests range from "traditional" to "radical" interpretation of archaeological/text/picture data sets.

I believe that the knowledge input from two extreme advocates will help to read Mor.