Whistled Languages

R. G. Busnel

ISBN 10: 3642463371 / ISBN 13: 9783642463372

Published by Springer, Springer Mär 2012, 2012

About this Item

Neuware -This monograph deals with curious and little-known acoustic systems of commun ication based on whistling that are in use at the present time in many parts of the world and have had, on the evidence available, even greater currency in the past. In spite of their wide distribution, they have not so far received the attention they might have been expected to attract: linguistically and in other ways they are most interesting. For it should be realized that they are much more than mere codes or conventional systems of signals; they function in exactly the same way as speech (in the sense we normally use the term), being in fact rather extraordinary realizations of the languages spoken in the re gions where they occur. They utilize the vocabulary, grammar and, in many cases to a large extent, the phonology of the local speech. However their phonetic system is profoundly modified acoustically and (in some cases less so) from the point of view of articulation, because the glottal tone of every day communication, the 'voice', is repl aced by a whistl e which carries the in formation. The advantage of this procedure, from the point of view of the user, is a vastly increased range as well as, under certain circumstances, a degree of secrecy. It will be shown that whistled languages appear in two main, very different forms.

Seller Inventory # 9783642463372

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Whistled Languages
• Publisher: Springer, Springer Mär 2012
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3642463371
• ISBN 13: 9783642463372
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 244W x 170H x 8D millimeters 244 millimeters width by 170 millimeters height by 8 millimeters depth
• Weight: 242 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This monograph deals with curious and little-known acoustic systems of commun­ ication based on whistling that are in use at the present time in many parts of the world and have had, on the evidence available, even greater currency in the past. In spite of their wide distribution, they have not so far received the attention they might have been expected to attract: linguistically and in other ways they are most interesting. For it should be realized that they are much more than mere codes or conventional systems of signals; they function in exactly the same way as speech (in the sense we normally use the term), being in fact rather extraordinary realizations of the languages spoken in the re­ gions where they occur. They utilize the vocabulary, grammar and, in many cases to a large extent, the phonology of the local speech. However their phonetic system is profoundly modified acoustically and (in some cases less so) from the point of view of articulation, because the glottal tone of every­ day communication, the "voice", is repl aced by a whistl e which carries the in­ formation. The advantage of this procedure, from the point of view of the user, is a vastly increased range as well as, under certain circumstances, a degree of secrecy. It will be shown that whistled languages appear in two main, very different forms.