Here we don’t speak, here we whistle: designing a language support system for the Silbo Gomero MATOS, Sónia / PhD / Edinburgh College of Art / United Kingdom Language / Intangible cultural heritage / Didactic materials / tion not only valorises the linguistic form but has also supported Vernacular and embodied knowledge local educational efforts. This paper presents the design of a didactic application for a Here lies what will be the main thrust of this contribution: how whistled form of language known as the Silbo Gomero (Island might didactic materials be designed that will support the wealth of La Gomera, Canarian Archipelago). After fifty years of almost of skills so that they can be transmitted from one generation to total extinction this form of communication has been revived. As the other. Such interest is intimately tied to a close study of the a response to this transformation, the need to develop didactic Gomeran educational community, one that has shown a concern materials is presented as one of the main challenges encoun- for expanding the Silbo’s educational resources and learning tered by the community. methodologies (Brito et al. 2005). However, and considering that the learning of the Silbo Gomero has shifted from a form of apprenticeship characteristic of non-literate societies to being 1. Introduction subject of contemporary educational paradigms, understanding A hundred kilometres off the coast of Morocco and the Western the wealth of such skills becomes more pertinent than ever. Sahara one can find the small island of La Gomera, the home to a whistled form of language known as the Silbo Gomero. Even though the historic origins of this linguistic form are difficult to 2. What is a Whistled Form of Language? trace, most islanders attribute this practice to the Guanches, a pre-Hispanic people who were the original inhabitants of this Atlantic region until the XVth century, period during which they were largely driven to the brink of extinction by the Spanish colo- nization (Crosby 1986: 80-82). Despite the apparent total isola- tion of this ethnic group until this time, this linguistic form has much in common with other whistled languages that span the globe1. These places have nothing in common except particular geographical features: all characterised by being either moun- tainous or densely forested (Meyer 2005). This geographical diversity tends to suggest that whistled languages are sophis- ticated linguistic techniques largely used as telecommunica- tion systems (Busnel & Classe 1976: 13-31) and bearing a cor- relation with their local spoken languages (Meyer 2005; Trujillo Figure 1. Students whistling (video still from the documentary ‘Aqui no se Habla, 1978, 2006). Aqui se Silba’ by Sónia Matos). According to bioacoustician Julien Meyer (2005), who docu- Professor Ramón Trujillo, one of the most prominent figures in mented the regions, what distinguishes the Silbo Gomero from the phonetic and phonological study of the Silbo Gomero, has other whistled forms of language across the globe is its active presented this linguistic form not as ‘natural language’ – at least place within everyday life. The Silbo, as most Gomerans call it, not in the orthodox sense – but rather as an independent pho- has slowly, since the 1950’s, shifted from the fields where it was nological system2. One “(...) that contains a reduced number of once used by peasant islanders into the classroom, something phonic-schemes that are used to produce different sonorous which contributes to safeguarding its position within Gomeran substances (...)” (Trujillo 2006: 15). And even though this lin- culture. This shift is tied to a continual disappearance of agri- guistic form might resemble the local spoken Castilian Spanish cultural life, processes of immigration and the introduction of it is not a direct imitation of this linguistic code (Ibid.). Here, it is tourism as the main means of economic sustenance. In fact, the important to understand that this complex system of telecom- attempts that have been made to safeguard this intangible cul- tural form have led to recent recognition of the Silbo Gomero as a 2 A phonological system corresponds to the collection of phonemes used by a given language. Each phoneme corresponds to the smallest segmental unit of significant part of world heritage (UNESCO 2009). Such recogni- sound, a linguistic convention that attempts universally to represent, through a collection of graphical signs, the ‘distinctive sounds’ of each human language. As 1 Especially in Mexico, Greece, Turkey, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Guyana, an example, in the English language one can identify phonemes such /c/ for ‘car’ China, Nepal and Senegal (Meyer 2005). or /k/ for ‘kettle’. (IPA 1999: 27-28) MATOS, Sónia 2012. Here we don’t speak, here we whistle: designing a language support system for the Silbo Gomero. In Farias, Priscila Lena; Calvera, Anna; Braga, Marcos da Costa & Schincariol, Zuleica (Eds.). Design frontiers: territories, concepts, technologies [=ICDHS 2012 - 8th Conference of the International Committee for Design History & Design Studies]. São Paulo: Blucher, 2012. ISBN 978-85-212-0692-7. DOI 10.5151/design-icdhs-046 Here we don’t speak, here we whistle: designing a language spport system for the Silbo Gomero munication would not be possible without refiguring the body by means of a modification of the linguistic medium. Instead of re- 3. Moving Towards and Ecological Approach lying on the lips, the whistled form relies on the interior oral cav- Revealing some of the paradoxes behind the phonological study ity: the tongue must be elevated against the palate or teeth and of the Silbo Gomero (Trujillo 1978, 2006), and its reliance on pho- supported with one or two fingers, or even not supported at all, nological data and spectrographic modes of analyses4, appears according to the desired intensity (Trujillo 1978, Meyer 2005). as a crucial ground for discussion. Particularly, when attempting The process clearly disturbs the local Castilian Spanish without to understand the sorts of skills and the embodied knowledge disturbing its semantics – for this reason it is frequently called that inform the wealth of this linguistic form. Here, the concern a surrogate of the language spoken in the island (Trujillo 1978, shifts from safeguarding the Silbo Gomero as such to establish- 2006). ing a body of research to tackle the wealth of skills that inform local knowledge systems. This concern can be summarised by The limitation of the whistling apparatus is considered to be the the following question: what is really transmitted from one gen- main constraint, which explains why a whistler can only produce eration to the next? Is it simply a surrogate form of language or ‘differences in tonal frequency’ and this limits a vowel to being a complex and embodied auditory culture? While acknowledging ‘grave’ or ‘acute’. While the spoken vowel relies on a different set the Silbo Gomero as surrogate model of speech the researcher of physical resonators the whistled vowel is shaped by and de- will clearly demarcate the code as it is rendered through a spec- pends upon one resonator, the mouth (Ibid.). trographic measuring apparatus. While acknowledging this whistled form of language as situated and embodied phenom- One of the authors to disagree with this separation between ena that stretches the perceptual fabric beyond the delimitation ‘acute’ and ‘grave’ vowels is Annie Rialland (2005). In fact, Profes- of a verbal code, the researcher is drawn to its ecological sig- sor Trujillo writes that, within the Silbo Gomero we can only find nificance. However, and in order to extend this phonological ap- “(...) two ‘whistled vowels’ or groups of frequencies; two blocks proach, one has to extend the unit of analyses and integrate an that behave as they would in ordinary language (...) where func- embodied account of this performative ecology, where whistler tional confusion is impossible from a phonological (...) properties and environment cannot be easily detached from one another. that are always distinctive and those that are not consistently distinctive (depending on the context, the situation or what the This approach is supported by recent contributions made by whistler knows) cannot be considered (...). Obviously, these lat- Julien Meyer (2005). This bioacoustic study has provided an ter properties, which Annie Rialland sometimes calls ‘optional’ insightful resource for the development of an ecological ap- (...) do not form part of the structure of the whistled language be- proach to the study of whistled languages and their surrounding cause they depend on external factors” (Trujillo 2006: 15). Here, environment. This move from an informational to an ecological a paradox seems to emerge. When attending Silbo classes or be- stance, where both subject and environment become key ele- ing in the fields recording withMaestro Isidro Ortiz and Maestro ments, will ultimately reinforce the acknowledgement that the Lino Rodriguez3, I found that whistled languages are in fact highly relation that whistlers establish with the surrounding environ- ‘dependent’ on what a ‘phonological stage’ would call ‘external fac- ment is intrinsic to both performative and learning processes5. tors’. In fact, here, it is important to understand that both Maestro Such an ecological approach has been concurrently supported Isidro and Maestro Lino are able to whistle and perceive at least by work in the field of neuroscience, particularly when it has pur- two further groups of vowels within the grave/acute separation. sued the idea – largely based on fMRI brain scans of local whis- tlers – that the performance and intelligibility of this linguistic In considering the ‘phonological stage’, the ‘acute’ and ‘grave’ form involves recognition of complex pitch and melodic lines, vowels should be completed by the addition of two other groups where linguistic areas of the brain, largely conceived as speech of consonants, the ‘acute/grave continuant’ and the ‘acute/grave dependent, show an incredible adaptability to non-verbal audi- interrupted’. Here, the“(...) whistled consonants are nothing more tory signals (Carreiras et al.