Jennifer Balade (1) y Lucía Manso-Ortega (2)
(1) Dept. de Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación, Universidad de La Laguna, España
(2) Dept. de Lengua Vasca y Comunicación, Universidad del País Vasco, España
(cc) Jennifer Balade.
On a small volcanic island in the Canary archipelago, shepherds of La Gomera have been whistling across ravines for centuries. These are not arbitrary sounds but a structured form of communication, a natural language encoded in whistles. Silbo Gomero presents a fascinating challenge for neuroscience: can the brain process whistles like words? Neuroimaging studies show that, in trained speakers, this language activates the same brain areas involved in speech. Silbo also testifies to a community that transformed its landscape into a communication channel, proving that language lives not only in the brain but also in culture.
High in the mountains of La Gomera, a whistle cuts through the air. This is no ordinary sound: it carries a message, a full sentence that another shepherd, kilometers away, understands instantly. Without phones or radios, the inhabitants of this Canary island found a way to speak with the wind. What for many is merely a distant echo, for others is a living language. The existence of Silbo Gomero is not only fascinating from an anthropological point of view, but it also raises fundamental questions for cognitive science: What makes something a language for the brain? Is it really possible for the brain to process a whistle with the same precision as a spoken word?
For decades, researchers have studied how the brain processes language. Both hemispheres are involved, though each tends to specialize in different aspects. The left hemisphere predominantly analyzes grammatical structure, word meaning, and speech syntax. Meanwhile, the right hemisphere captures intonation, emotional intent, and tone nuances (Friederici, 2011). This task specialization has been observed not only in spoken language but also in other forms of communication, such as sign language. This is where Silbo Gomero emerges as an intriguing case study.
Silbo Gomero is not simply a set of high-pitched sounds. It is a full-whistled language that translates Spanish into a form audible over long distances. It uses a reduced phonological system, with just a few whistled vowels and consonants, but enough to convey any Spanish sentence. In the rugged terrain of La Gomera, this acoustic code allowed inhabitants to communicate effectively between ravines and valleys for centuries (Díaz Reyes, 2008; Busnel, 1976).
What makes Silbo unique is not only its structure but also its power. Studies indicate that Silbo is the most powerful sound a human can produce without external tools. Thanks to its high pitch and intensity, it can travel distances the human voice could never reach (Díaz Reyes, 2008; Busnel, 1976). Thus, Silbo becomes a practical solution born out of necessity, but also a natural acoustic marvel.
One of the most revealing studies took place in 2005. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers analyzed the brain activity of Silbo Gomero whistlers as they listened to complete phrases in Silbo and Spanish. The results were astonishing. The same left-hemisphere areas involved in processing spoken Spanish, such as the left inferior temporal gyrus, were activated by Silbo. For these expert speakers, Silbo is not a mere imitation of language: it is real language, processed by the brain’s speech pathways as easily as a spoken conversation (Carreiras et al., 2005).
Years later, in 2020, another team replicated an experiment originally conducted in Turkey, where there is also a whistled language, in the Canary Islands. The study compared the brain activation of whistlers and non-whistlers listening to spoken and whistled syllables. While spoken syllables mainly activated the left hemisphere, as is typical in speech processing, Silbo triggered bilateral brain activation in whistlers, with significant involvement of the right hemisphere (Villar González et al., 2020). This suggests Silbo requires not only classical linguistic decoding but also analysis of prosodic, musical, intonational, and rhythmic components. These same patterns appear both in Silbo Gomero and Turkish Whistle, revealing the brain’s remarkable flexibility to adapt its language networks to unexpected forms of communication (Güntürkün et al., 2015).
A study with newborns showed that when listening sentences in English (their native language) and Spanish (a foreign language), the same brain areas related to language processing were activated. However, when they were exposed to Silbo Gomero, this activation was not present (May et al., 2017). This indicates that the capacity to understand Silbo is not prewired from birth but requires experience, learning, and context. Far from diminishing its linguistic value, this finding highlights the importance of brain plasticity, which allows neural networks to adapt and understand communication forms as unique as Silbo.
Although mastering Silbo takes time and practice, this whistled language has not been relegated to the past. Far from disappearing, Silbo Gomero has regained its cultural significance. Though less commonly used today, it is still taught in La Gomera’s schools as part of the official curriculum. Today, it is both a communication tool and a symbol of cultural identity. During nature hikes or in areas with weak mobile signal, it remains useful. But its primary value is no longer only practical: it is also heritage. In 2009, UNESCO declared Silbo Gomero as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This distinction recognized not only its linguistic richness but also the collective effort to preserve it. It was a victory for language, science, and for a community that refuses to let its heritage fade into the echoes of the ravines.
So next time you hear a whistle, don’t underestimate it. It could be a call, a warning, or even a declaration of love. Silbo Gomero reminds us that language does not always come in words: sometimes, a well-tuned whistle is enough to say it all.
References
Busnel, R.-G., & Classe, A. (1976). Whistled Languages. Springer.
Carreiras, M., Lopez, J., Rivero, F., & Corina, D. (2005). Neural processing of a whistled language. Nature, 433, 31-32.
Díaz Reyes, D. (2008). El Lenguaje Silbado en la Isla de El Hierro. Cabildo de El Hierro.
Friederici, A. D. (2011). The brain basis of language processing: From structure to function. Physiological Reviews, 91, 1357-1392.
Güntürkün, O., Güntürkün, M., & Hahn, C. (2015). Whistled Turkish alters language asymmetries. Current Biology, 25, R706-R708.
May, L., Gervain, J., Carreiras, M., & Werker, J. F. (2018). The specificity of the neural response to speech at birth. Developmental Science, 21, e12564.
Villar González, P., Güntürkün, O., & Ocklenburg, S. (2020). Lateralization of auditory processing of Silbo Gomero. Symmetry, 12, 1183.
Manuscript received on August 7th, 2025.
Accepted on September 9th, 2025.
This is the English version of
Balade, J., y Manso-Ortega, L. (2025). Silbo Gomero: La lengua que silba entre montañas. Ciencia Cognitiva, 19:3, 94-96.
