سيلبو گوميرو

لغة الصفير أو صفير گوميرا (Silbo Gomero ؛ إسپانية: silbo gomero النطق الإسپاني: [ˈsilβo ɣoˈmeɾo]؛ 'صفير گوميرا')، وتُعرف أيضاً بإسم إل سيلبو ('الصفير')، هي لغة مُصفـَّرة ذات سجل للاسبانية يستخدمها سكان لا گوميرا في جزر الكناري، to communicate across the deep ravines and narrow valleys that radiate through the island. It enables messages to be exchanged over a distance of up to 5 kilometres. Due to this loud nature, Silbo Gomero is generally used in circumstances of public communication. Messages conveyed could range from event invitations to public information advisories. A speaker of Silbo Gomero is sometimes referred to in Spanish as a silbador ('whistler'). Silbo Gomero is a transposition of Spanish from speech to whistling. This oral phoneme-whistled phoneme substitution emulates Spanish phonology through a reduced set of whistled phonemes. It was declared as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2009.

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 التاريخ

The narrow valleys of La Gomera.

Little is known of the original Guanche language or the languages of the Canaries, but it is assumed that their phonological system must have been simple enough to allow an efficient whistled language. Used by the island's original inhabitants, the Guanches, the whistled language existed before the arrival of Spanish settlers and was also spoken on el Hierro, Tenerife, and Gran Canaria. Silbo was adapted to Spanish during the Spanish settlement in the 16th century and was widely spoken throughout the period into the following 17th century.^{[بحاجة لمصدر]} In 1976 Silbo barely remained on el Hierro, where it had flourished at the end of the 19th century.

Use of the language declined in the 1950s, one factor being the economic decline, which forced many speakers to move away to seek better jobs to cope financially. Technological developments such as the telephone played a part in reducing the practicality and utility of the language. The language's earlier survival had been due to its role in overcoming distance and terrain, in addition to the ease with which it is learned by native speakers. Most significantly, in the period from the 1960s to 1980s, many people had turned away from agriculture and so many middle class families did not want their children to speak the language as it was negatively associated with the rural peasants.

In the late 1990s, language revitalization efforts began and initiatives from within the community started. By 1999, the revitalization of Silbo Gomero was furthered by education policies and other legislative measures. It now has official protection as an example of intangible cultural heritage.

 المتكلمون

Many people in La Gomera speak Silbo Gomero, but their expression of the language deviates in minor ways which show the different origins of the speaker. As reported in a 2009 UNESCO report, all the people living in La Gomera understand the language, but only those born before 1950 and the younger generations who attended school since 1999 can speak the language. Those born before 1950 were taught the language by their elders in their homes, and those who have attended or are attending school since 1999 were taught the language formally in school. Those born between 1950 and 1980 understand the language but are unable to speak it, as the language was hardly used and negatively viewed during their time of language acquisition.

 تراث ثقافي

Members of the Gomeran community treasure Silbo Gomero as part of the island's identity and use the whistled language in traditional rituals and festivities on the island. One of these includes "bajadas", which are processions dedicated to the Virgin or the patron saints of the community. On 15 March 1999, Silbo Gomero was declared as part of the historical ethnographic heritage of the Canary Islands. The annual celebration of “School Encounters with Silbo Gomero” was also inaugurated in La Gomera. In 2005, the monument to Silbo Gomero was inducted in Garajonay National Park.

 السياحة

Silbo Gomero demonstration at a restaurant in La Gomera.

Silbo Gomero is not only used between Gomerans; visitors to the island have the opportunity to be exposed to the whistled language too, in restaurants which provide whistling demonstrations for tourists. Minister of Tourism of La Gomera, Fernando Mendez, asserted that whistling is essential to the tourism industry of La Gomera.

 السمات

 Vowels

The vowels of Silbo Gomero are described roughly as sustained lines of high and low frequency that are distinct from each other.

Vowels

Pitch	General representation	Vowels of the spoken language represented
High frequency	i	/i/ and e
Low frequency	a	/a/, o, u

The high frequency /i/ vowel represents the /i/, /e/ vowels of the spoken language being whistled, while the low frequency whistle of the dark /a/ vowel represents the vowels /a/, /o/, /u/. It is said that it is not possible to produce any vowels with intermediary frequencies as the whistling mechanism does not have the same functions that the vocal mechanism possess.

 Consonants

Consonants in Silbo Gomero are modifications of the vowel-based “melody line” or “vocal line”. They may be rising or falling or can also be modified by being broken, continuous or occlusive. The four main consonants in the now largely debunked and disproven 1978 analysis were wrongly listed as follows:

Consonants

Pitch	General representation	Consonants of the spoken language represented
continuous high pitch	⟨y⟩	l, ʎ, n, ɲ, ɾ, /r/, d and j
broken high pitch	⟨ch⟩	t͡ʃ, t, /s/
continuous low pitch	⟨g⟩	ɡ, b, m, /j/ and h
broken low pitch	⟨k⟩	k and p

 وصلات خارجية

• "Silbo-Gomero.com".
• Trujillo Carreño, Ramón; Morera Pérez, Marcial; et al. (June 2005). El Silbo Gomero: Materiales didácticos (PDF) (in الإسبانية). Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deportes del Gobierno de Canarias. ISBN 978-84-689-2610-0.
• "The Gomeran Whistle: Linguistic Analysis". English translation of Trujillo's 1978 "El Silbo Gomero: análisis lingüístico" (indexed)
• "Silbo Gomero – The Whistling Language". CogNews. Archived from the original on 2005-02-13. Retrieved 2005-07-14.
• "BBC4 interviews Isidro Ortiz & J.Brent – 26/8/08". Retrieved 2008-09-07.