Editing Whistled language (section)

== History ==
Because whistled language is so much rarer than standard vocal language or non-verbal physical language such as sign language, historical research on whistled speech is sparse. 

In early China, the technique of [[transcendental whistling]], or ''xiao'', was a kind of nonverbal language with affinities to the spiritual aspects of [[Daoist meditation]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Mair |first=Victor H. |title=The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |year=1996 |page=429}}</ref> The development of xiao as a practice and art form can be traced through the works of the [[Western Zhou]] dynasty, and it was initially used to convey a sense of grief, or to invoke the spirits of dearly departed loved ones. By the time of the [[Six Dynasties]] in Han China, xiao had become a widely-used complement to spoken language, irrespective of social class.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=董 |first=就雄 |date=2021-12-01 |title=試論梁佩蘭"自成面目"詩論體系之價值及其與嶺南文化傳統之關係 |journal=人文中國學報 |pages=131–178 |doi=10.24112/sinohumanitas.331977 |issn=1562-2754|doi-access=free }}</ref> Due to the shrill tones employed while whistling, xiao was often used to punctuate intense feelings or reactions, such as joy, displeasure, and surprise. 

In the Melpomene, the fourth book of his ''Histories'', [[Herodotus]] makes a passing reference to an Ethiopian tribe who "spoke like bats".<ref>{{Citation |last=Meyer |first=Julien |title=Historical Sketch |date=2015 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-45837-2_2 |work=Whistled Languages: A Worldwide Inquiry on Human Whistled Speech |pages=11–27 |editor-last=Meyer |editor-first=Julien |access-date=2023-05-25 |place=Berlin, Heidelberg |publisher=Springer |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-662-45837-2_2 |isbn=978-3-662-45837-2|url-access=subscription }}</ref> While travelling through the territory of an ancient tribe on the southern Black Sea coast in 400 B.C.E, Xenophon wrote in the [[Anabasis (Xenophon)|Anabasis]] that the [[Mossynoeci]] inhabitants could hear one another at great distances across the valleys. The same area encompasses the Turkish village of [[Kuşköy]] where whistled speech (kuş dili) is practiced today.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brennan |first1=Shane |title=Did the Mossynoikoi whistle? A consideration of the distance between poleis in the Black Sea mountains given at Anabasis 5.4.31 |journal=Greece and Rome |date=April 2016 |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=91–105 |doi=10.1017/S0017383515000261 |s2cid=163478579}}</ref> [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]] later wrote in ''De Natura Animalium'' of the Kinoprosipi people of North Africa, who made use of "acute whistling," who later historians believe were likely a tribe of the [[Anuak people|Anuak]] in South Sudan. 

In 1982 in the [[Greece|Greek]] village of Antia on [[Euboea]] island, the entire population knew the local whistled speech called ''sfyria'',<ref name=":0">{{cite news |url=http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170731-greeces-disappearing-whistled-language |title=Greece's disappearing whistled language |last1=Stein |first1=Eliot |date=1 August 2017 |work=[[BBC Travel]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801161637/http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170731-greeces-disappearing-whistled-language |archive-date=1 August 2017 |publisher=[[BBC]]}}</ref> but only a few whistlers remain now.<ref name=Meyer2005>{{cite thesis |last1=Meyer |first1=Julien |title=Description typologique et intelligibilité des langues sifflées, approche linguistique et bioacoustique |trans-title=Typology and intelligibility of whistled languages: approach in linguistics and bioacoustics |language=fr |year=2005 |url=http://www.lemondesiffle.free.fr/projet/science/TheseMeyer.pdf}}</ref>