Rare Turkish 'whistling language' among people in 'bird village' offers insight in communication

The study of the ancient Turkish language which uses a series of whistles for communication has discarded the long-known fact that only the left hemisphere of the brain is used when it comes to the language skills. However, a recent study has shown that the “whistling language” uses both the parts of the human brain.

According to the New Scientist, the whistling language is still used by around 10,000 people residing in the mountains of northeast Turkey. The sound of the whistle can travel up to a distance of five kilometres or 300 feet, through the deep canyons and high mountains. Before the advent of modern technology, Turkish used the whistling language to send across a message to distant villages.

According to the latest study conducted by a team of researchers at the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, the whistling language makes use of the right hemisphere of the brain. This part of the brain was earlier known to have a role in understanding music and the left side of the hemisphere was known to have a role in interpreting a language.

The researchers decided to see whether the melody associated with the whistling language required people to use both the hemispheres of the brain. During the study, the researchers exposed 31 fluent whistlers to the Turkish syllables. Each participant listened to the whistled Turkish and the spoken Turkish in the left and right ear simultaneously.

Considering the fact the left hemisphere of the brain receives input from the right ear, the team found that the subjects were able to understand fragments of the spoken Turkish more easily from their right ear. However, they could understand whistled Turkish equally from both the ears. The complete details of the study have been published in the journal Current Biology.

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