39 thoughts on “a language you can hum? #linguistics #language #pirahã #anthropology”
This is like the whistling "language" in the Canary islands
Pirahã is a weird language. And a weird culture too. For every universal rule in linguistics and anthropology, if there is only one exception, it's always Pirahã. They're very, let's say, minimalist.
"simple" yet endlessly fascinating
Interesting! I have read of the whistling language for hunting but I did not know about the humming! I’m loving your videos so far! Tell me more 💜
Humans are DOPE
That’s fascinating mate, cheers.
Irl jungle villagers from minecraft
In the yoruba language you can also communicate with whistles as well as the regular spoken language but it's not commonly used anymore
It needs be said that virtually everything we know about piraha is HOTLY contested and debated amongst linguists. Features like this are alleged by some but are not universally accepted. There needs to be more research done into it to be fully confident
m^m^
It sounds so pretty honestly. I would love to watch like a whole movie in this language with just subtitles. It's literally music!
It's pronounced "Pi-rah-han" (hard n)
I feel like dogs/other animals understand the way you say things more than what you say, to them our language it prolly 87% tone and volume lmao
i want to know this language omg.
They be speaking Minecraft villager language
And by talking in whistles, they are probably less likely to scare the monkey away, right? They just sound like birds
it’s not just the simple phonetic inventory and the tone! pirahã also has a pretty extensive system of syllable weighting. that basically means that depending on which consonants are in the syllable, you pronounce it with a certain level of emphasis. the closest thing english really has to this might be, for example, the words “bat” and “bad”. they differ by that ending consonant, but the t causes the syllable to be shorter, while the d causes it to be longer, to the point that even if the final consonant is weakly pronounced or totally left out, most english speakers can still determine what word was said. pirahã has something like this, with consonants determining the stress and length of a syllable, but instead of just “short” and “long”, there’s multiple levels from weakest to strongest. that’s part of the reason why just from whistling and humming, the language can still be understood so easily. the syllable weight is still maintained when whistling and humming, so it makes the consonants easier to tell!
Silbo gomero is a transposition of spanish to whistling and seems pretty easy to learn if you know spanish
Ummmm.. I use “mmmm” to say “delicious” , or “mm-mm-m” to mean “idk”, “m-hm” to say “yes” and “m-mk” to say “no” .. 😅
Anyone else? Haha
Is there more I’m missing?? Hmmmm?
There's now at least 3 fast-talking linguistics tiktokers and I don't think it's a coincidence
As a Brazilian his pronunciation of "Ã" hurts my soul (No offense).
I was talking to my sister yesterday about how cool it would be if there was a language that was entirely communicated through humming, and then I found this. That’s seriously so cool
so they are real life minecraft villagers?
What do you mean g~n
I was fully expecting minecraft villager soynds
We have a whistling language in Turkiye too! Specifically in the Black Sea Region. Its called the bird language.
Now thats how birds are communicating..
A language like this is in Dune as well
I think it’s safer to whistle when trying not to scare animals since it may sound like a bird to them so they wouldn’t think it’s a threat, as opposed to having people talking loudly.
The Pirahã people were also so vile that they made Dan Everett lose faith in God. In his book "Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes," he recalls seeing a very young girl give birth for serval hours while the others refused to help and actively prevented him from helping. When she died, the baby survived but they again refused to allow him to help. After arguing for hours, they finally agreed to let him take the baby out of the village to go to a doctor and possibly save its live. When he went to retrieve the baby, he found that they have stuffed its throat with grass and drowned it in alcohol to stop it from crying. Everett said that the worst part wasn't that they murdered an innocent newborn, but that they laughed at him for crying.
The Pirahã are not a good people. Even other tribes in the area have expressed a great hatred of them because of how often they steal from the other tribes, how hard they are to negotiate with, and how they actively try to prevent other tribes from receiving aid from the outside world.
I thought they were whistling until I tried humming with mouth open 😅
There have been a few English langauge memes that have this principle
For example, I can hum "ambatakum"
Cutscene to a monkey is insane
Its not just the Idk mmm in english, m m is no, mhm is yes, hmmm is wondering/thinking, hm? Is can You repeat yourself.
Dont the Canaries also have whistlespeak
Silbo Gomero is another one to look into – it's largely an adaptation of Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands, notable for being able to be parsed down to just whistle pitches for communication over long distance
A language that can be whistled is cool.
I literally just theorized this is my head before opening youtube
This is like the whistling "language" in the Canary islands
Pirahã is a weird language. And a weird culture too. For every universal rule in linguistics and anthropology, if there is only one exception, it's always Pirahã. They're very, let's say, minimalist.
"simple" yet endlessly fascinating
Interesting! I have read of the whistling language for hunting but I did not know about the humming! I’m loving your videos so far! Tell me more 💜
Humans are DOPE
That’s fascinating mate, cheers.
Irl jungle villagers from minecraft
In the yoruba language you can also communicate with whistles as well as the regular spoken language but it's not commonly used anymore
It needs be said that virtually everything we know about piraha is HOTLY contested and debated amongst linguists. Features like this are alleged by some but are not universally accepted. There needs to be more research done into it to be fully confident
m^m^
It sounds so pretty honestly. I would love to watch like a whole movie in this language with just subtitles. It's literally music!
It's pronounced "Pi-rah-han" (hard n)
I feel like dogs/other animals understand the way you say things more than what you say, to them our language it prolly 87% tone and volume lmao
i want to know this language omg.
They be speaking Minecraft villager language
And by talking in whistles, they are probably less likely to scare the monkey away, right? They just sound like birds
it’s not just the simple phonetic inventory and the tone! pirahã also has a pretty extensive system of syllable weighting. that basically means that depending on which consonants are in the syllable, you pronounce it with a certain level of emphasis.
the closest thing english really has to this might be, for example, the words “bat” and “bad”. they differ by that ending consonant, but the t causes the syllable to be shorter, while the d causes it to be longer, to the point that even if the final consonant is weakly pronounced or totally left out, most english speakers can still determine what word was said.
pirahã has something like this, with consonants determining the stress and length of a syllable, but instead of just “short” and “long”, there’s multiple levels from weakest to strongest.
that’s part of the reason why just from whistling and humming, the language can still be understood so easily. the syllable weight is still maintained when whistling and humming, so it makes the consonants easier to tell!
Silbo gomero is a transposition of spanish to whistling and seems pretty easy to learn if you know spanish
Ummmm.. I use “mmmm” to say “delicious” , or “mm-mm-m” to mean “idk”, “m-hm” to say “yes” and “m-mk” to say “no” .. 😅
Anyone else? Haha
Is there more I’m missing?? Hmmmm?
There's now at least 3 fast-talking linguistics tiktokers and I don't think it's a coincidence
As a Brazilian his pronunciation of "Ã" hurts my soul (No offense).
I was talking to my sister yesterday about how cool it would be if there was a language that was entirely communicated through humming, and then I found this. That’s seriously so cool
so they are real life minecraft villagers?
What do you mean g~n
I was fully expecting minecraft villager soynds
We have a whistling language in Turkiye too! Specifically in the Black Sea Region. Its called the bird language.
Now thats how birds are communicating..
A language like this is in Dune as well
I think it’s safer to whistle when trying not to scare animals since it may sound like a bird to them so they wouldn’t think it’s a threat, as opposed to having people talking loudly.
The Pirahã people were also so vile that they made Dan Everett lose faith in God. In his book "Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes," he recalls seeing a very young girl give birth for serval hours while the others refused to help and actively prevented him from helping. When she died, the baby survived but they again refused to allow him to help. After arguing for hours, they finally agreed to let him take the baby out of the village to go to a doctor and possibly save its live. When he went to retrieve the baby, he found that they have stuffed its throat with grass and drowned it in alcohol to stop it from crying. Everett said that the worst part wasn't that they murdered an innocent newborn, but that they laughed at him for crying.
The Pirahã are not a good people. Even other tribes in the area have expressed a great hatred of them because of how often they steal from the other tribes, how hard they are to negotiate with, and how they actively try to prevent other tribes from receiving aid from the outside world.
I thought they were whistling until I tried humming with mouth open 😅
There have been a few English langauge memes that have this principle
For example, I can hum "ambatakum"
Cutscene to a monkey is insane
Its not just the Idk mmm in english, m m is no, mhm is yes, hmmm is wondering/thinking, hm? Is can You repeat yourself.
Dont the Canaries also have whistlespeak
Silbo Gomero is another one to look into – it's largely an adaptation of Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands, notable for being able to be parsed down to just whistle pitches for communication over long distance
A language that can be whistled is cool.
I literally just theorized this is my head before opening youtube
Pirahã is Toki Pona but real