ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Whistled language

Have you ever tried to whistle a tune or call someone's attention with a whistle? Well, some people use whistling to communicate with others far away from them, just like talking or texting on a phone!

However, they don't just whistle normally, they use special whistles that make different sounds and tones to represent words or phrases. This is called a whistled language.

Just like how we have different languages around the world, there are also different types of whistled languages. For example, the Canary Islands have a whistled language called Silbo Gomero, which was used by shepherds to communicate across valleys so they could hear each other over long distances.

Learning a whistled language takes a lot of practice and skill, just like learning a regular language. So, if you ever hear people whistling back and forth in a certain pattern, they might be using a whistled language to communicate!