Did you know that we can hold a conversation while whistling?

In a mountainous region of Turkey, talking to someone doesn’t always mean speaking in an ordinary voice. Agricultural communities use a whistled word: the sounds reproduce words and allow to communicate remotely in a rugged terrain.

It’s not just an agreed-upon signal to say hello. It is a way of carrying the language differently, learned especially in families. The landscape has helped to make this practice useful; the relationships between the inhabitants give it its place in the collective life.

Then comes a tool that solves the same problem: the mobile phone. UNESCO describes this competition as one of the threats to transmission. The difficulty is no longer just to be heard on the other side of the mountain. It becomes that of giving subsequent generations a reason to learn to whistle.