NANNIE FRANCES

The Spanish island that communicates by whistle

in the rugged crags of Barranco de Ávalo, a ravine on the small Canary Island of La Gomera, two local 12-year-olds were practicing their Silbo Gomero, the local whistling language. For an entrancing few minutes, Irún Castillo Perdomo and Angel Manuel Garcia Herrera's lilting warbles reverberated around the barren gorge and soared proudly into the air like eagles in flight.They were accompanied by 70-year-old retired Silbo Gomero teacher Eugenio Darias, whose grandfather used to own and work on this very same land. He told me that the boys' whistled conversation was similar to any they would have over text message or in the playground, but the focus was instead on the six differentiating sounds that make up La Gomera's protected whistle language.While it's true that most children their age would sooner pick up their phone and tap away, this small Canary Island invites them to think differently. Thanks to Darias, their threatened tongue has been a compulsory school subject since 1999 – and almost all 22,000 residents can understand it alongside their mother tongue of Canarian Spanish. "It's important to give students the idea that they can really use it if they need to, like other languages, but also that it's not necessary for everyday use," said Darias, who pioneered the Silbo Gomero learning programme. "Our aim is to give the whistle more importance so that the children can be confident using it together. Importantly, having the whistle protected within our compulsory curriculum prevents extinction altogether." Whistle languages, in varying guises, exist in as many as "70 places", according to local broadcast journalist Francisca Gonzalez Santana. "In Turkey, for example, the whistle began 500 years ago during the Ottoman Empire," she said. "It then spread to all regions of the Black Sea; and in Mexico, we can still find whistled communication in Spanish – Chinantec." Silbo Gomero, which is one of the most studied whistling languages and was officially declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage by Unesco in 2009, uses six condensed sounds to communicate. Two differentiating whistles replace the five spoken vowels in Spanish, while just four replace the 22 consonants. Whistlers elongate or shorten the sounds to mimic the words.Several whistling methods exist on the island, though perhaps the most traditional is demonstrated by local sculptor José Darías. His Whistling Tree sculpture at Mirador de Igualero, a viewpoint in Vallehermoso overlooking a ravine where Silbo Gomero was most active, shows how the index finger should be bent and placed inside the mouth while whistling with an open palm beside it to amplify the sound. Experienced whistlers use different finger methods and can often tell who is calling by the whistle's "accent" alone – but most whistlers will introduce themselves and call the recipient's name. When the message is understood, they whistle back "bueno bueno". Short and simple indeed.