Learning a Wordless Language on La Gomera

In La Gomera, which belongs to the Canary Islands, people are able to communicate through a wordless language, which they call “silbo Gomero.” Instead of words, they use a variety of whistles, which consist of four consonants and four vowels. “Silbar” is the Spanish verb that means “to whistle” and in the island of La Gomera, this is what they commonly use to communicate across distances.

Silbadors

In recent years, the silbadors (whistlers) have been becoming rare but the art of wordless communication that is part of the culture in La Gomera is being revived, with “silbo” being a required subject in school. The four consonants and four vowels that silbadors use can be strung together, enabling them to produce over 4,000 words. These “words” can be heard over distances of up to two miles.

Whistles and other forms of wordless communication

Whistling as a form of communication is not unique to La Gomera although theirs is different. The Mazateco Indians in Oaxaca, Mexico also use whistling to communicate. However, their form is not a code or a language exactly. They use whistling for the pitch and rhythms of ordinary speech instead of words. Similar language forms are found in China, Turkey and Greece.

In other places, wordless communication use other instruments. The Malenesians bang on tree roots and in Burma, the Northern Chin use xylophones. The Kele tribe in Congo have their talking drums or ntumpane. Xhosa, an official Bantu language of South Africa have words where the consonants are formed by clicks.

Compulsory subject

The residents of La Gomera do not want this ancient language to disappear that is why it is now a compulsory subject in primary school. It was an initiative that started late in the 1990s. The origin of the language form is not known but many presupposes that it came from the first settlers on the island in the 15th century, who were of North African origin and adopted it to Spanish when the Spaniards came.

Locals recall that silbo Gomero was widely used during the 1940s and the 1950s. They used it as their way of alerting others. Some of the older locals related stories of how the Guardia Civil would round them up to put out fires in the mountains. Therefore, to alert others to hide from the civil guards, they use their whistling language, which the Spaniards do not understand. It was not because they shirked their duty to the community but because they do not get paid to put out the fires whereas the mayors and the members of the councils received payment. They also learned the language out of necessity because the distance between houses were great.

The initiative was met with mixed feelings among the residents. Some think that whistling is a language fit only for peasants, whereas others think that teaching silbo Gomero will jeopardize the learning of other languages.

Image credit: Demostración de silbo gomero, La Gomera, España taken by Diego Delso under Public Domain.