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Busuu Silbo Enc
Busuu Silbo Enc
We here at busuu.com, who are committed to contributing to the diversity of languages all over the world, have decided to include a new section in our website to learn a little of this charming language so that we can promote it even more and ensure its preservation.
Why is it used?
Spoken messages can be heard up to a distance of 200 meters but Silbo Gomero can be heard and understood up to a distance of 8 kilometres. In the past it was very useful for communication between shepherds from one mountain to another and for women calling their husbands and sons to come home. It was also very useful to communicate the death or disappearance of a person to the people on the other side of the island as well as a form of communication between courting couples. Nowadays it is still used by many in the hope that this language wont get lost in time.
How it is spoken?
The first time you hear Silbo Gomero it sounds like birdsong but Silbo Gomero is a very precise language proven by the fact that the messages delivered often contain a large amount of specific information. It is thought that the language uses four vowels (a,e,i,o) and four consonants, which can be reduced to the sounds /CHE/, /YE/,/KE/and/GE/. The equivalent sounds of these in Spanish are the following: /CHE/= t, ch, s /YE/= d, n, , l, ll, y, r, rr /KE/= p, k, f /GE/= b, m, g, j The vowels can be either high or low, and the consonants are either rises or dips in the melody line which brings about its rhythm, its intonations and its pauses. The language is actually transcribed directly from a form of Spanish but, while Silbo Gomero is based on the Spanish language, it is used phonetically and so could also be adapted into almost any language.
Become a Silbador
Below you can see some pictures of how to produce the whistling sound:
Step 3: Place the tongue inside the bottom lip like this
We at busuu.com stand for the diversity of languages we will continuously extend the languages offered on our website and plan therefore to do our bit in the hope that beautiful languages such as Silbo Gomero will never die out.
Sources of this document and websites to learn more about Silbo Gomero
EL SILBO GOMERO. Materiales didcticos, Canarias, junio de 2005. CONSEJERA DE EDUCACIN, CULTURA Y DEL GOBIERNO DE CANARIAS Ramn Trujillo Carreo http://www.educa.rcanaria.es/UnidadProgramas/recursos/upload/pconcan_Silbo_Go mero.pdf Website dedicated to Silbo Gomero: http://www.silbogomero.es/silbogomero.php Website dedicated to Silbo Gomero: http://www.vaucanson.org/espagnol/linguistique/lenguas_silbogomero_esp.htm Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silbo_Gomero_language Gomera Island Tourist Board: http://www.gomera-island.com/turismo/index.htm