A resident of La Gomera demonstrates the silbo gomero whistling language for Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia of Spain. To make the correct sounds, he must whistle with a finger in his mouth.
Can you imagine being able to communicate just by making whistling sounds? That’s what students on the Spanish island of La Gomera are learning how to do. People of La Gomera want to revive their island’s ancient whistling language. They are making sure that all young people on the island learn the language, so it will not be forgotten.
La Gomera is one of the smallest of the Canary Islands, which are located off the coast of Morocco, in northwestern Africa. The island’s original African people first used the whistling language. After Spanish settlers arrived in the 1400s, they adapted the language to communicate in Spanish. Today, it is known as “silbo gomero,” which is Spanish for “Gomeran whistle.”
To speak in silbo gomero, a person whistles different sounds that represent words in Spanish. The language is a good way to communicate across the island’s deep valleys and ravines. The whistled sounds can travel a distance of about two miles. They can be heard from much farther away than someone shouting in Spanish.
Older Gomerans remember using silbo gomero a lot in the 1940s and 1950s. Back then, people’s homes were farther apart and there were no telephones or roads. If a person didn’t know how to use the language, he or she would have to walk a long distance to deliver a message in person. As times changed and technology improved on the island, the whistling language began to die out from lack of use.
In the late 1990s, the Gomeran people became interested in silbo gomero again. It was made a required subject at the island’s elementary schools. Fernando Mendez, La Gomera’s minister of tourism, hopes that silbo gomero will help bring more tourists to the island. The whistling language is something unique to the island that the people can share with visitors.
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