{"id":1091,"date":"2013-08-26T14:16:42","date_gmt":"2013-08-26T14:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/?p=1091"},"modified":"2021-08-05T19:07:22","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T19:07:22","slug":"stop-texting-start-whistling-a-whistling-language-in-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/stop-texting-start-whistling-a-whistling-language-in-greece\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop texting, start whistling: A whistling language in Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Texting is one of the most popular ways of communicating: we schedule a meet up, check in, share good news and bad news, even start an affair, by means of a mobile phone. Some populations, all around the world, communicate with a more \u201corganic\u201d way: whistling.<\/p>\n<p>The inhabitants of some villages in South Evia (<b><i>\u039d\u03cc\u03c4\u03b9\u03b1<\/i><\/b><b><i> \u0395\u03cd\u03b2\u03bf\u03b9\u03b1<\/i><\/b><b><i>, <\/i><\/b><i>Notia Evia<\/i>) used, together with the Greek language, a whistle language (<b><i>\u03c3\u03c6\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c7\u03c4\u03ae<\/i><\/b><b><i> \u03b3\u03bb\u03ce\u03c3\u03c3\u03b1<\/i><\/b><b><i>, <\/i><\/b><i>sfirihti glossa<\/i>) called <b><i>\u03c3\u03c6\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03ac<\/i><\/b> (sfiria) in order to communicate. Spoken language was not enough, since people had to communicate outdoors over long distances.<\/p>\n<p>The locals share stories about how this way of communication covered all their practical needs Sometimes, even set up weddings were arranged by whistling.\u00a0 Nowadays there are only few whistlers (<b><i>\u03c3\u03c6\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c7\u03c4\u03ad\u03c2<\/i><\/b><b><i>, <\/i><\/b><i>sfyrihtes<\/i>) left. In \u00a0Andia (<b><i>\u0391\u03bd\u03c4\u03b9\u03ac<\/i><\/b>) \u00a0a small village near Kafireas cape or Cavo D\u2019oro, (<b><i>\u039a\u03b1\u03c6\u03b7\u03c1\u03ad\u03b1\u03c2<\/i><\/b><b><i>, \u039a\u03ac\u03b2\u03bf<\/i><\/b><b><i> \u039d\u03c4\u03cc\u03c1\u03bf<\/i><\/b>) only the elderly use the whistling language taught by their ancestors. The \u00a0Municipality of Karystos (\u0394\u03ae\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2 \u039a\u03b1\u03c1\u03cd\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5) has applied for the incorporation of <b>\u03c3\u03c6\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03ac<\/b><b> <\/b>(sfiria) \u00a0into the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Village that Whistles\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/6783515?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Village that Whistles\u201d, by Katerina Zoula (\u00ab\u03a4\u03bf \u03c7\u03c9\u03c1\u03b9\u03cc \u03c0\u03bf\u03c5 \u03c3\u03c6\u03c5\u03c1\u03af\u03b6\u03b5\u03b9\u00bb, \u039a\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03af\u03bd\u03b1 \u0396\u03bf\u03c5\u03bb\u03ac), 2010<\/p>\n<p><strong>Origins of the whistling language:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to one theory, the area was inhabited after the Persian Wars (at the first half of the 5<sup>th<\/sup> century BC). The locals claim that this form of communication dates from Antiquity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Form of the language:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The whistlers used to learn the whistling language at the age of five or six by their fathers.<\/p>\n<p>A study by N. Xiromeritis and H.C. Sfyridis shows that <b>\u03c3\u03c6\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03ac<\/b> (sfiria) is based on the characteristics of the spoken language and follows the same rythm. There\u2019s also an acoustical reduction of vowels: The five vowels of the Greek language [a, \u03b5, i, o, u] are reduced to three [(a, o), (\u03b5, u), i]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Downfall of the language:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The number of whistlers has been reduced: There are only few whistlers left in Andia and all of them are elderly.\u00a0 Since their knowledge is not transmitted, it will soon be extinguished.<\/p>\n<p>The replacement of whistling by other forms of communication: some younger people can decode the whistling, but they prefer to communicate by telephone.<\/p>\n<p>Bad dental conditions: the dentures of the elderly prevent them from whistling.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Additional Resources for those who want to know more:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cAntia\u201d, by Stavros Ioannou <b><i>(<\/i><\/b><b><i>\u00ab\u0391\u03bd\u03c4\u03b9\u03ac\u00bb, \u03a3\u03c4\u03b1\u03cd\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2<\/i><\/b><b><i> \u0399\u03c9\u03ac\u03bd\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5<\/i><\/b>), 1980.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cGreek Odyssey\u201d, Joanna Lumley, 2011. <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u0391\u03bd\u03c4\u03b9\u03ac - \u039a\u03ac\u03c1\u03c5\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 - \u0395\u03cd\u03b2\u03bf\u03b9\u03b1 - 2011 Greek.Odyssey - Joanna Lumleys - ITV\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I6KdTScVGG4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/li>\n<li>Association \u201cLe Monde Siffle\u201d <em>(for francophones)<\/em> http:\/\/www.lemondesiffle.free.fr\/voyage\/grece\/antia.htm<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texting is one of the most popular ways of communicating: we schedule a meet up, check in, share good news and bad news, even start an affair, by means of a mobile phone. Some populations, all around the world, communicate with a more \u201corganic\u201d way: whistling. The inhabitants of some villages in South Evia (\u039d\u03cc\u03c4\u03b9\u03b1&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/stop-texting-start-whistling-a-whistling-language-in-greece\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[230985,292949,292952,292951,292948],"class_list":["post-1091","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","tag-endangered-languages","tag-south-evia","tag-whistle","tag-whistler","tag-whistling-language"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1091"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3751,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions\/3751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}