Kuş dili is a surprising method of communication used in a small Turkish village which unfortunately risks being lost.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himKuş dili is a surprising method of communication used in a small village in northern Turkey which unfortunately - with the development of new technologies - risks being lost.
Kuşköy, literally translated as “the village of birds”, is a small village inhabited by less than 400 souls in northern Turkey where the inhabitants communicate through whistles. An unusual but necessary form of communication if you find yourself living among those rugged and remote mountainous regions, and you need to communicate easily and quickly over long distances, avoiding screaming.
© Semih Sezer/Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey, General Directorate of Research and Training 2016
In 2017 also for its preservation, the kuş dili, or the language of birds, has become an intangible cultural heritage of Unesco. Seriously threatened by the impact of technology, what worries experts is the fact that from being used on a daily basis, this language becomes exclusively an artificial practice.
For about 500 years, the language has been handed down from generation to generation, but now due to the use of mobile phones, young people no longer have an interest in learning the language, considering it ancient and useless. While until a few years ago it was more convenient to whistle to talk to neighbors who lived on the other side of the mountain, now without a shadow of a doubt it is more practical to do so via a call or by sending a message.
Faced with this scenario, in order to prevent its disappearance and ensure that it does not become a secondary tourist attraction, in Kuşköy and in the other villages of the province of Giresun, where this language is still used, efforts have been made to promote kuş dili both a nationally and internationally: teaching it in local schools, organizing a festival and even developing an app.
Kuş dili is not the only language made with whistles. According to specialists, there have been relatively rare cases of whistled languages in almost every corner of the world, such as Silbo Gomero in the Canary Islands, but documented examples have also been found in remote Greek villages and the enchanting Amazon rainforest.
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