Sunday, 2 June 2013

Three languages that you would need more than a tourist phrasebook for....

3: Silbo.

Unique, and oddly beautiful to hear, Silbo is a language from the Spanish coast made entirely out of whistles......



Video above: Speakers of Silbo.
 

I can't whistle, so I'm staying away from this one...

2: !Xóõ.

Pronounced 'Taa' (more or less), !Xóõ (which is spoken in parts of Namibia) has one hundred and sixty four consonants, and it gets worse from there: One hundred and eleven of those consonants are just clicking noises.


Video above: Audio only sample of !Xóõ'. 
 
And that's just the 'West !Xóõ' dialect....

1: Piraha.

Where !Xóõ has too much of some things, Piraha seems to be missing quite a bit: For example it has no words for numbers - the closest it gets are words for 'many' and 'few'. It has no words for colours, though it does have 'light' and 'dark'. It involves only twelve sounds, and is sung or hummed as much as it is spoken.


Video above: Piraha speaking tribes people....


Linguists believe that much of the 'missing meaning' in Piraha lies hidden in its musical structure....

Honourable mention: Sentinelese.

In an age of interweb and massive interconnectedness, no one knows anything about this language.

 
The best close up most people get of the Sentinelese. Well the best anyone gets who also gets to live....

This is because it is spoken only on one tiny island in the Indian ocean, by a tribe who kill everyone who comes within earshot.....

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