Greece's Disappearing Whistled Language

[Jibrail Almuhajir]

www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170731-greeces-disappearing-whistled-language

I can't whistle to save my life, but being a shepherd to a small herd of Nubian dairy goats is a life-long dream.  This whistling language reminded me of the women herders of Sweden called kulning.  It, too, is dying out.

 

[Porter ODoran]

The awful war against Man marches on. Lord, have mercy.

A very, very interesting post, Gabriel.

 

[Jibrail Almuhajir]

The awful war against Man marches on. Lord, have mercy.

A very, very interesting post, Gabriel.

We're losing so much of our agrarian lifestyle.  So much of our language and culture comes from our agrarian, shepherding past.  It's truly a tragedy, which, interestingly enough, means goat song.  The Roman letter A comes from the Hebrew letter aleph which, I think I read somewhere, comes from the word ox.  You can see the head when you turn it upside down- the horns pointing up to heaven.  The French word chevre, means goat.  And, of course, our very faith is full of shepherding references- Christ the Good Shepherd. 

 

[Porter ODoran]

Tragos + oidos. Goatsong or satyrsong. Wow that's a really poignant addition to the topic, Gabriel.

 

[Luke]

interesting

 

[xOrthodox4Christx]

Don't worry, we still have the Canary Islands.

 

[Alpha60]

The awful war against Man marches on. Lord, have mercy.

A very, very interesting post, Gabriel.

Indeed. 

Kyrie eleison.

(My username refers to one of the principle villains in a film which was precisely about the destruction of humanity; when it comes to Alphaville, I actually in viewing it take the side of the hero, Lemmy Caution, who destroys Alpha 60 and restores humanity to the daughter of Alpha 60's inventor, Dr. Leonard Nosferatu, aka Leonard von Braun, through love, sentiment and poetry)

 

[Alpha60]

Tragos + oidos. Goatsong or satyrsong. Wow that's a really poignant addition to the topic, Gabriel.

More likely satyr-song I would think?

 

[Apostolos]

Tragos + oidos. Goatsong or satyrsong. Wow that's a really poignant addition to the topic, Gabriel.

Well, tragedy started at archaic Dionysian cult festivals, as the people participated in contests of dancing and singing, and the winner received a billy-goat as prize: τράγος (billy-goat) + ᾠδή (ode, song) = τραγῳδία (tragedy).
In modern Greek, song is τραγούδι /traˈɣuði/ (neut.) which comes from the Byzantine neuter diminutive τραγῴδιον /tra.ˈgo: di.on/ (secular song) which in early modern Greek becomes τραγούδιν /tra.ˈɣu.ðin/.
So, modern Greeks are still goat-singing.

 

[Arachne]

And here's a modern musical take on Irish sheep callings.