A couple weeks ago, Gökhan sent me a video on Facebook about a community in northern Turkey that have developed a bird language, which is based off of WHISTLING (link shared below). I was completely amazed because I have never heard of anything like this in my life. I already struggle with whistling, so I can’t imagine being able to communicate this way. I think I’m going to stick with Turkish now and maybe learn some greetings in the bird language haha. Around 10,000 people use the language to communicate from far distances in the mountainous region. Interestingly however, the United Nations claim that the language is endangered because of the growing presence of cell phones in the region. I hope that they find a way to preserve the language!
Also, I found another video on YouTube about the Black Sea (karadeniz, northern) region of Turkey and it looks absolutely stunning! The link is shared below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQmF7kbOrmE
Comments
Interesting post. Whistling is also used linguistically in parts of Mexico- namely around Oaxaca: https://vimeo.com/57291304#. Adam, do you happen to know the name of the bird language used in China?
Protection of endangered language has always been a bog topic in today's world. This video reminds me of China. In China we once had a bird language, but it dies out because nobody is using it anymore. In the meantime, many Chinese dialects are facing the danger of disappearance as well. I really hope they find a way to protect these culture heritages!