A student who whistles in class is not necessarily disrupting the lesson. In La Gomera, the silbo gomero is part of a school transmission effort. This use transforms the sounds of Spanish into whistles, distinguished in particular by their height and continuity.
UNESCO describes a practice taught in schools since 1999. Learning is not just about making a powerful sound: you have to recognize the distinctions that make it possible to understand messages. Trained people thus have a real means of exchange.
This entrance to school changes the destiny of a knowledge that has long been transmitted directly between practitioners. A mode of communication that one might think condemned by modern means finds another utility: connecting a new generation to the history of his island. The whistling becomes something to learn, rather than noise to silence.
What we know
Silbo transposes a spoken language; it is not a universal language that any whistler would spontaneously understand.
To go to the source
References consulted on September 20, 2026. Linked pages may be in another language.
Signaler une erreur ou apporter une précision
