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From the Vault: The Whistling, Part 1

Stuff To Blow Your Mind

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The Importance of Whistles in Communication

In the standard American English speaking context, there are a few sort of significant whistles. You basically know what they mean when you hear them, but there's only a handful of them and you certainly can't make sentences out of them. Exactly the opposite is true of the Mazzateco whistle speech. This is a a full equivalent to the standard spoken MazzateCo language. The whistles can be recorded and translated by anybody familiar with the whistle speech,. So she understands the whistles, but she doesn't use them herself. Women and girls understand what is whistled by the men and boys, but usually do not whistle themselves. Men between the ages of boyhood and middle

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