Silbo Gomero
It was historically used to communicate across the deep ravines and narrow valleys that radiate through the island and enabled messages to be exchanged over a distance of up to five kilometres.The language's earlier survival had been caused by its role in overcoming distance and terrain, in addition to the ease with which it is learned by native speakers.Many people in La Gomera speak Silbo Gomero, but their expression of the language deviates in minor ways that show the speaker's origins.According to a 2009 UNESCO report, all of La Gomera's inhabitants understand the language, but only those born before 1950 and the younger generations who attended school since 1999 can speak it.A combination of initiatives from the La Gomeran community and policies implemented by the authorities saw Silbo Gomero being revitalized and maintained as a cultural asset.These revitalization efforts were well-documented by UNESCO as part of the proceedings for the selection of the 2009 Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.[4] In a bid to preserve Silbo Gomero for the island's youth, expert whistlers sought to obtain permission to teach the language on a free and voluntary basis at a dedicated centre.On 26 June 1997,[4] the Parliament of the Canary Islands approved a motion calling on the government to include Silbo Gomero as part of the school curriculum.Students of the Island School work to become capable of teaching Silbo Gomero not only to their fellow citizens, but also to tourists who visit La Gomera.Thereafter, the Ministry of Education, Universities, Culture and Sport of the Canary Islands developed a staff training plan in order to ensure that the elderly expert whistlers can be replaced in the near future by qualified professional teachers with relevant diplomas.[4] Besides the implementation of education policies, the authorities also sought to strengthen the corpus of Silbo Gomero by developing a project to digitize all recorded audio material.Silbo Gomero uses the tongue, lips and hands and so differs greatly from conventional language, which uses the mouth cavity to blend and contrast several acoustic frequencies.[9] Trujillo's 2005 collaboration with the Gomeran whistler Isidro Ortiz and others revised his earlier work, found that four vowels are indeed perceived[8]: 63 and described in detail the areas of divergence between his empirical data and Classe's phonetic hypotheses.The four main consonants in a 1978 analysis are listed as follows:[4] The documentation on the official Silbo Gomero page on the UNESCO website is in line with Trujillo's 1978 study.[12] The filmmaker and photographer Francesca Phillips wrote and directed a 26-minute documentary on the usage of Silbo Gomero in La Gomera, Written in the Wind (2009).When quickly spoken, Yoruba vowels are assimilated and consonants elided and so linguistic information is carried by the tone system, which can therefore be transposed into talking drums.
La GomeraCanary IslandsLanguage familyIndo-EuropeanItalicLatino-FaliscanRomanceItalo-WesternWestern RomanceIberianIbero-RomanceWest IberianCastilianSpanishCanarian SpanishISO 639-3GlottologUNESCO Intangible Cultural HeritagewhistledregisterphonemeSpanish phonologyphonemesUNESCOMasterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of HumanityGuanche languageGuanchesEl HierroTenerifeGran Canarialanguage revitalizationintangible cultural heritagelanguage acquisitionrevitalizationRepresentative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of HumanitybajadasVirginpatron saintsGarajonay National ParkRamón TrujilloUniversity of La Lagunaharmonicformant/t͡ʃ/continuitydentalpalatalfricativeaffricatesalveolarpharyngeallabialliquidUniversity of Washingtonfunctional magnetic resonance imagingdocumentaryAnthropologyQinghaiRomanianCorneliu PorumboiuThe WhistlersFrenchYorubaassimilatedelidedtalking drumsSpringer-VerlagTrujillo Carreño, RamónBBC NewsJournal of the International Phonetic AssociationPhonologyCiteSeerXNatureBibcodeWayback MachineCultural domainBimbachePre-colonial timesConquestTreaty of AlcáçovasFirst Battle of AcentejoLordship of the Canary IslandsBattle of AguereSecond Battle of AcentejoBattle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1657)Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1797)Spanish transitionAutonomous communityCanarian ParliamentGuancheCanarianAchamánAchuguayoAchuhucanacChaxiraxiChijorajiGuayotaMaxiosTibicenaBienes de Interés Cultural (Las Palmas)Bienes de Interés Cultural (Tenerife)Castillo de San JoséCaves of ValeronFour Doors caveGuayadeque ravineLas Palmas CathedralEl Maipés NecropolisMuseo CanarioPainted Cave, GaldarChurch of San Juan BautistaArchaeological Museum of Puerto de la CruzAtlantic Center of Modern ArtCastle of San Cristóbal (Santa Cruz de Tenerife)Centro de Fotografía Isla de TenerifeElder Museum of Science and TechnologyMuseum of the History of TenerifeMuseo de la Naturaleza y ArqueologíaMuseo Municipal de Bellas Artes de Santa Cruz de TenerifeMuseum of Science and the CosmosTenerife Espacio de las ArtesCuisineAlmogroteCanarian arepaCanarian wrinkly potatoesMalvasiaMajorero