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Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education DEPARTMENT FOR CURRICULUM, RESEARCH, INNOVATION AND LIFELONG LEARNING Directorate for Learning and Assessment Programmes Track 3 Educational Assessment Unit Annual Examinations for Secondary Schools 2018 YEAR 11 ENGLISH LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION TEXT E. COMPREHENSION Read the following text and then answer the questions on the Language Paper. Whistled Languages Imagine living high on a mountain with no mobile phone or fixed line. What’s the best way to tell your dad, who is at the bottom of the mountain, to buy some milk? By whistling, of course! That’s how some communities around the world communicate – through a whistled language. Before electronic communications became a universal part of people's lives, rural villagers created 5 whistled versions of their native languages to speak from hillside to hillside, or even house to house. Languages communicated by whistling are relatively rare, but they developed in different places around the world. Whistled languages are normally found and used in locations with difficult mountainous terrain, slow or difficult communication due to lack of telephones, low population density and/or scattered settlements, and other isolating features such as sheepherding 10 and cultivation of hillsides. Nowadays, many areas with such languages are working hard to preserve their ancient traditions, in the face of rapidly advancing telecommunications systems. Linguists believe there are about 70 whistled languages still in use today. The main advantage of whistling speech is that it allows the speaker to cover much larger distances than ordinary speech (typically 1–2 km, but up to 5 km is 15 possible). The whistler also has the benefit of reaching a number of people at once. Although this is not practical for those wanting a private conversation, it is a convenient and efficient way to spread news fast. Most whistled languages are based on actual spoken languages and are not secret codes. There are whistles for different letters of the alphabet or different syllables. As two people approach each 20 other, one may even switch from whistled to spoken speech in mid-sentence. Several hundred years ago, the people of the small mountainous island of La Gomera in the Canary Islands developed a whistled language called ‘El Silbo’. The name comes from the Spanish verb silbar which means ‘to whistle’, and it developed out of the islanders’ need to communicate over inaccessible valleys and towering cliffs. This language is surprisingly easy to 25 learn. Islanders are so skilled that messages are successfully spread from one end of the island to the other. Traditionally, when one person hears a message, he passes it on. El Silbo has played a vital role in the island’s history. It was the main form of communication during invasions, wars and immigration. With the advent of modern forms of communication such as the telephone and mobile phone, though, the use of this whistled language is slowly declining. 30 Today, El Silbo is rarely used in everyday communication. However, it is still used to announce community events among the farming communities. In order to protect the language from dying out, the authorities in La Gomera have made El Silbo a part of the school curriculum. The young have embraced the idea of learning the language and even see some advantages in it. “It’s less English – Comprehension Text – Year 11 – Track 3 – 2018 Page 1 of 2 expensive than a mobile phone and it’s fun,” says nine-year-old Andrea. 35 The same pride seen in La Gomera for their whistled language can be seen in Kuskoy, Turkey – known as the ‘bird village.’ About 1000 residents in and around the village use a whistled language to communicate across the rocky valleys. Whistling is essential to the survival of the farming community. The whistled language is a direct translation of Turkish words and has been passed down from generation to generation in this rural community. Locals are determined not to 40 let their bird language die out as they face the onslaught of modern technology. “Most people here are farmers and still whistle across the valleys to communicate with their neighbours,” explains one of the residents. The village even holds an annual festival for the best whistler. It’s an event that brings out the entire community to celebrate their unique linguistic heritage. The message from Kuskoy is simple: despite all the advances that have been made in the field of 45 communication, sometimes the old ways are still the best. Other whistled languages exist or existed in France (the village of Aas in the Pyrenees), Mexico (the Zapotecs of Oaxaca), South America (Piraha), Asia (the Chepang of Nepal), and New Guinea. Whistled languages are especially common today in parts of West Africa. Interestingly enough, in Africa and indigenous Mexican communities, the whistled language is used only by men, 50 although women may understand it. Though whistled languages are not secret codes or secret languages, with the exception of a whistled language used by terrorists in Cuba during the Spanish occupation, they may be used for secretive communication among outsiders or others who do not know or understand the whistled language, though they may understand its spoken origin. Stories are told of farmers in Aas 55 during World War II, and in La Gomera, who were able to hide evidence of such nefarious activities as milk-watering because they were warned in whistle-speech that the police were approaching. Adapted from three sources: http://www.crystalinks.com/whistledlanguage.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistled_language and Prime Time. English – Comprehension Text – Year 11 – Track 3 – 2018 Page 2 of 2 .
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