Treceți la conținutul principal

“Whistled Languages” Reveal How the Brain Processes Information

Image result for Whistled LanguagesBefore electronic communications became a ubiquitous part of people's lives, rural villagers created whistled versions of their native languages to speak from hillside to hillside or even house to house.

Herodotus mentioned whistled languages in the fourth book of his work The Histories, but until recently linguists had done little research on the sounds and meanings of this now endangered form of communication.

New investigations have discovered the presence of whistled speech all over the globe. About 70 populations worldwide communicate this way, a far greater number than the dozen or so groups that had been previously identified.

Linguists have tried to promote interest in these languages—and schools in the Canary Islands now teach its local variant. A whistled language represents both a cultural heritage and a way to study how the brain processes information.

continuarea articolului, la sursa: Scientific American
By Julien Meyer
sursa foto 
Etichete:

Postări populare de pe acest blog

Cum schimbă limba pe care o vorbeşti lucrurile pe care le vezi? Lingviştii văd lumea diferit

Dacă doi oameni s-ar uita la acelaşi obiect, ei vor vedea lucruri cu totul diferite. Potrivit unui nou studiu realizat de cercetătorii de la Universitatea Johns Hopkins, familiarizarea unei persoane cu un obiect, în special, cu literele alfabetului, va influenţa trăsăturile pe care le observă. Studiind modurile diferite prin care oamenii percep un alfabet, cercetătorii au descoperit că expertiza ajută la sortarea caracteristicilor neînsemnate, lăsând novicii să privească literele ca fiind ceva mai complex. Oamenii de ştiinţă de la Universitatea Johns Hopkins au analizat răspunsurile a 50 de participanţi care au fost rugaţi să stabilească dacă perechile de litere arabe erau diferite sau identice. Participanţii au fost repartizaţi în grupuri a câte 50 de persoane, dintre care 25 erau experţi în arabă, iar alţi 25 nu cunoşteau limba. Cercetătorii au arătat participanţilor 2.000 de perechi de litere, măsurând viteza de răspuns ...
Citiți mai multe

Man Booker prize 2015 longlist: let the 'posh bingo' begin

At midday on Wednesday, the opening list of runners and riders for Britain’s leading books prize is unleashed on the reading world. Who will it be? Who will it be? With less than 24 hours to go before the longlist is announced, we’re starting to wonder who’ll make up this year’s Man Booker dozen – even though offering predictions is, in this game of “posh bingo”, as Julian Barnes put it, a bit like filling in your card before the numbers have been called. In the second year that American authors have been eligible, one obvious contender is Hanya Yanagihara ’s epic tearjerker about love, friendship and the effects of childhood abuse: A Little Life is hot off presses in the UK and currently consuming readers on both sides of the Atlantic. Other US novels to look out for include Marilynne Robinson’s Lila, the third in her Gilead series, published to ecstatic reviews last November ; a strong debut from Atticus Lish exploring poverty and hard graft in an unforgiving post-cra...
Citiți mai multe

Subway Performer Mike Yung - Unchained Melody (23rd Street Viral Sensation)

Citiți mai multe