节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-10-28
难易度:Medium
关键字:overhear, establish, be composed of something, circumstance, pierce
What is the most interesting language that you have ever heard?
In our lesson The Whistlers of Mexico today, we're learning about a certain
group of people who whistle... to communicate with one another.
And of course we learned a little bit about how the Chinantec people... the
Chinantec people of Oaxaca, Mexico.
They established villages and planted crops on steep slopes.
But of course, they live in the mountains.
And sometimes, in order to communicate, it's easier to whistle.
Well, let's continue learning about this now.
(Music).
The Whistlers of Mexico.
Shouting over the mountains can strain one's voice, but whistling does not.
So some Chinantecs developed a language composed entirely of whistles.
It can express almost every word in their spoken language.
Some scholars think this form of communication dates back to the time of the
first languages.
Chinantecs use different styles of whistling at different distances.
The shortest is used face to face.
A medium-range style can be heard up to 200 meters away.
And for long-distance communication, they place their fingers in their mouths
and let out a piercing whistle.
In some circumstances, it can be heard over a kilometer away.
Let's learn some more about this whistling and why they chose it over just
talking.
We read:
Shouting over the mountains can strain one's voice, but whistling does not.
Do you ever feel like when you need to speak very loudly or for a long time,
your throat gets tired, you just don't want to talk anymore?
Oh, totally, Carolyn.
I feel that way sometimes after I'm cheering for a basketball team or something
or if I've spoken a lot.
I can strain my voice if I'm not careful.
And that's a good point for those of you who want to be actors or singers.
There's a proper way to train your voice so that you don't strain it.
So you can see this word "strain" is a noun or a verb.
That's right.
So you don't want to strain your voice or put strain on your voice.
But if you whistle, then you don't have to worry because whistling does not
strain your voice.
And the Chinantecs realize this.
So some Chinantecs developed a language composed entirely of whistles.
Well, this sounds like an interesting language.
Let's take a look at this phrase from our Word Bank: something is composed of
something else.
That means you have the whole, and it has many parts. It is composed of these
different parts.
For example, America is composed of many different ethnic groups, many different
kinds of people.
Or you could say this dish is composed of rice, meat and sauce.
That's right.
And here they have this language that is composed of whistles.
Very, very unique.
Now we continue reading.
It can express almost every word in their spoken language.
Now that is very impressive.
They have a system of whistles that they can use to express almost every word in
their spoken language.
That's right.
And so some scholars think this form of communication dates back to the time of
the first languages, the first languages ever on Earth.
Maybe it dates back all the way to that time.
Well, let's take a look at a phrase in that sentence: if something dates back to
another time.
How can you use that phrase?
Well, if it dates back to something, that means that it goes back to an earlier
time period.
You might say that this clay pot dates back 2,000 years.
That means that the pot is 2,000 years old.
Two thousand years old.
You know, the Christian religion dates back about 2,000 years.
Now we just said it dates back.
But you can also say "dates back to" in another way like this:
The Internet dates back to the 1960s, but the World Wide Web dates back to about
1990.
OK. So something could date back so many years or it dates back to a certain
time period.
That's right.
So there are two different ways you can use this phrase, date back or date back
to.
Well, right now it is time for us to learn with Steve and Ken in the Information
Cloud.
Oh, I'm so close!
Uh, so close to what, Ken?
Well, I'm trying to make an anagram using the words chinantecan whistlers.
And what have you got so far?
When a rich cat listens... but that doesn't make sense.
Plus, I have an extra N I don't know what to do with.
Hmm, keep trying.
Friends, an anagram is a type of word play.
You make one by rearranging the letters in a word or phrase to produce an
altogether new word or phrase.
Now the tricky part is each letter from the original word or phrase may only be
used once.
And it needs to make sense.
Anagrams have been around for centuries.
They've been used by scientists and diplomats to create secret messages.
They've been used by psychiatrists to test patients' memories.
But mostly, anagrams have been used for fun.
The best anagrams have, in some way, a connection with the original word.
For example, dormitory can be turned into dirty room.
See the connection?
Good one!
How about the anagrams "two plus eleven" and "one plus twelve"?
Not only do both use the same letters, they give the same mathematical result -
13!
(Chinese).
Thank you, guys.
Moving on:
Chinantecs use different styles of whistling at different distances.
And we see here the shortest is used face to face.
And a medium-range style can be heard up to 200 meters away.
So a pretty good distance.
And for long-distance communication, they place their fingers in their mouths
and let out a piercing whistle.
All right.
If something is piercing, it is high-pitched, difficult to listen to.
In some circumstances, it can be heard over a kilometer away.
Special circumstances, indeed.
Let's take a look at this word: circumstance.
Now a circumstance is a special situation that you are in.
That's right.
So due to the weather circumstance, we cannot go hiking today.
Or you might say, "Under these circumstances, we can't go hiking." All right.
Well, thank you for joining us now.
And actually, we have something special.
There's a special video about the Chinantec whistling.
Let's take a look.
And then we'll learn something with Michelle in the Language Lab.
Ha...
He said: Dude, what are you going to do tomorrow noon?
Then he replied: Well, nothing.
He eats his lunch and he's going to take a nap.
I'm going to take a nap in the middle of the day.
This is the same sentence, um, whistled.
And this is the same sentence spoken.
Oh, my goodness.
So it's as if they're using the same tone structure speaking and whistling.
Yeah. So this is the whistled speech, and this is the spoken speech.
And you can see how parallel they are.
Um, they even rise, fall in the same place, and the timing is all the same.
And you can actually count the syllables because they're not just whistling the
pitches.
There's um... there's the pitch, there's how many syllables or the structure of
the syllables that there is.
And then there's the stress, um, that's being whistled.
This really simplifies it and shows you why they're able to whistle it.
But also, you can see that they are, in fact, whistling the speech.
That... that demonstrates it.
Gee, in English, if I want to whistle, "I have a dog," I can't do it.
(Background Noise).
Well, that could be anything in the world.
That could be a lot of things.
It can be just anything in the world in Chinanteco.
(Background Noise).
It works this well in tonal languages like this.
And Chinantec is... is very tonal.
It has seven different tones, plus all these stressed contrasts and everything.
There's... there's more than 20 different, um, a lot of contrasts that... that
are being whistled.
Which make all of this impossible for a person like me to learn.
(Background Noise).
Even at this age, they can take what they know about the... the melody of the
language and put it into whistles.
What does the future hold for Sochiapam whistled speech?
I've learned in my interaction with the community here that whistled speech has
gone from something which was everyday and um,
pervasive throughout the community and used all the time, what was normal,
to now being something that could be considered um, ritual or special or
something that's... that... that you hear in much fewer contexts.
Um, how long will it be around?
It'll be around a little while longer.
And how the community responds to valuing whistled speech will determine whether
it's a long while or a little while.
But the way it looks now, it may be gone in this community within 10 years.
OK.
(Chinese).
And now it's time to go back to our teachers.
OK, I'm going to communicate by whistling to Carolyn.
(Background Noise).
Uh, Gabe, I don't understand what you're saying.
I said: Did you enjoy today's lesson, Carolyn?
Oh! Well, yes, I did.
But I'm afraid I don't speak whistle.
Right.
Thank you for joining us today.
We have a lot more to learn about the Chinantec people and their whistled
language tomorrow here on Studio Classroom.
We'll see you then.