Silbo Gomero and Whistled Languages

There are more than thirty whistled languages in the world. These languages often arise in rugged areas where the landscape makes communication both difficult and necessary. In Gomera, an island in the Canaries, the most studied of these languages still survives despite the threat of extinction. It not only survives, but in fact it is thriving, due in partto UNESCO\u27s designation of it as a masterpiece of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), and the work of the government of the Canaries. These whistled languages are being made obsolete with the increasing development of mobile communication and the loss of rural lifestyles, but they are worth preserving: their study has much to teach us about our species\u27 cultural development and our language. This paper represents an inquiry into the history, phonetics and perception of this phenomenon