島上哨語回蕩

文/拉斐爾·明德 譯/秦書未

安東尼奧·馬爾克斯·納瓦羅坐在加那利群島的一處懸崖上，向遠(yuǎn)處發(fā)出邀請(qǐng)：“過來吧，我們?nèi)⒇i?！彼]有說話，只是吹哨示意。

2遠(yuǎn)處，三位背包客突然停下腳步。他們聽見了這尖厲的聲音，也聽見了回聲在隔斷他們的溪谷峭壁之間回蕩。

371 歲的馬爾克斯先生說，在他年輕的時(shí)候，這座島陡峭崎嶇的小路上走著的都是當(dāng)?shù)氐哪裂蛉?，而非游客。那時(shí)，他的“哨語”總能立馬得到響亮而清晰的哨語回應(yīng)。

4但這幾個(gè)背包客沒能領(lǐng)會(huì)他要傳達(dá)的信息，很快便繼續(xù)踏上了戈梅拉島跋涉之旅。戈梅拉島是加那利群島的一個(gè)島嶼；加那利群島是位于大西洋的一處火山群島，屬于西班牙。

5馬爾克斯先生是一位驕傲的戈梅拉島哨語守護(hù)者。他將戈梅拉島哨語稱為“我們島上的詩歌”。他還說：“和詩歌一樣，哨語無須有實(shí)際用處也能美妙而獨(dú)特?！?/p>

6早在15 世紀(jì)，探險(xiǎn)家就為日后西班牙征服戈梅拉島開辟了道路，在他們的記述中就提到了島上原住民所使用的哨語。幾個(gè)世紀(jì)以來，這里的哨語不斷發(fā)展完善，可與卡斯蒂利亞語相通。

7這種語言的正式名稱為“戈梅拉哨語”，它以不同音高和音長的口哨聲代替書寫語言的字母。問題是，口哨聲的種類比西班牙語字母表中的字母要少，于是一種聲音可以有多種意思，這樣就會(huì)引起誤解。

82009 年，聯(lián)合國教科文組織將戈梅拉哨語列入人類非物質(zhì)文化遺產(chǎn)名錄，并稱其為“世界上唯一完備并有一個(gè)龐大社群使用的哨語”。這一“龐大社群”指的就是戈梅拉島上的22000 位居民。

9然而，隨著吹口哨不再是交流的必要手段，戈梅拉哨語幾乎全憑一部1999 年出臺(tái)的法律才得以存活。這部法律將戈梅拉哨語規(guī)定為島上學(xué)校的必修課程。

10近日的一個(gè)上午，在港口城市圣地亞哥的一所學(xué)校里，一整個(gè)班的六歲孩子能輕松辨別出代表不同顏色或一周七天的口哨聲。

11然而，一把單詞放進(jìn)完整的句子，就沒那么容易辨別了。比如“穿藍(lán)色鞋子的那個(gè)小孩兒叫什么名字？”好幾個(gè)孩子爭(zhēng)辯說他們聽到的是代表“黃色”的口哨聲。

12如果說理解某個(gè)口哨聲代表什么意思并非總是輕而易舉，那么發(fā)出正確的口哨聲就更難了。大多數(shù)哨語人是把一個(gè)彎曲的指關(guān)節(jié)放進(jìn)嘴里來吹，但有些人用一兩根手指的指尖，還有少數(shù)人雙手各用一根指頭。

“唯一的準(zhǔn)則就是看用哪根手指吹起來更容易。遺憾的是，有時(shí)候沒有哪根手指頭吹得響?！备昝防瓖u校內(nèi)哨語課程協(xié)調(diào)人弗朗西斯科·科雷亞說，“甚至有些老人雖然從小就能完全聽懂哨語，但從來沒吹出過一個(gè)清晰的口哨音?！?/p>

13兩個(gè)哨語人相互理解起來可能會(huì)很吃力，需要讓對(duì)方重復(fù)剛才的話，尤其是在兩人初次見面時(shí)，就好像操著不同口音講同一種語言的陌生人。但是，“在兩人吹了一陣子口哨之后，他們交流起來就和說西班牙語一樣輕松了。”科雷亞先生說。

14和很多語言一樣，不管吹不吹口哨，戈梅拉島上都存在代溝。

1546 歲的農(nóng)民西羅·梅薩·涅夫拉說，他和在學(xué)校學(xué)過哨語的年輕一代很難通過吹口哨來交流。至于原因，他說：“我是山里人，哨語是在家里學(xué)的，吹出來的都是過去我們家務(wù)農(nóng)用的詞，而這些孩子學(xué)的是文雅的哨語，他們的詞匯我不會(huì)，對(duì)我來說有點(diǎn)兒太花哨了。”

16只要看看加那利群島鮮明的地貌特征，就不難理解這里為何會(huì)使用哨語。在這里的大多數(shù)島嶼上，深深的溪谷從高高的山峰和高原一直延伸到海邊，即使是很短距離的陸路行程，也需要花大量的時(shí)間和精力?？谏诼暠群敖新晜鞯酶h(yuǎn)——在有利的風(fēng)力條件下能穿過好幾個(gè)峽谷傳到兩英里外，因此哨語發(fā)展成了一種傳遞訊息的好方法。

17如今，戈梅拉島以旅游業(yè)為支柱產(chǎn)業(yè)，這給像露西婭·達(dá)里亞斯·埃雷拉這樣的年輕哨語人創(chuàng)造了機(jī)會(huì)。16 歲的露西婭每周在島上的一家酒店表演一場(chǎng)哨語。

18但是自2020 年春天以來，新冠病毒不僅讓這樣的演出取消，也迫使學(xué)校限制哨語教學(xué)。

19為了防范病毒傳播，如今孩子們每周上哨語課都是聽哨語錄音，而不是親身實(shí)踐。

20對(duì)于學(xué)生們來說還有一個(gè)困難，就是他們?cè)谛Ｍ鉀]有多少機(jī)會(huì)練習(xí)哨語。在前文提到的那個(gè)班里，問這些六歲的孩子誰在家有機(jī)會(huì)講哨語，17個(gè)人中只有五個(gè)舉了手。

21盡管如此，在鎮(zhèn)上相遇時(shí)，有些青少年還是很喜歡用哨語互相打招呼的，他們也樂意有機(jī)會(huì)用周圍很多大人聽不懂的哨語聊天。有些孩子的父母上學(xué)時(shí)，哨語還未納入必修課程，還有些孩子的父母成年后才在島上定居。

22不管15 歲埃琳·格哈茨對(duì)手機(jī)有多么愛不釋手，從她的話中還是能聽出，她很愿意提高她的哨語水平并為守護(hù)這座小島的傳統(tǒng)盡一份力。

“這是一種向過去生活在這里的人們致敬的方式?！彼f，“哨語使我們能牢記這里最初是什么樣子，牢記我們并不是靠科技發(fā)展起來的，我們有淳樸的起源?！?□

Sitting atop a cliff in the Canary Islands, Antonio Márquez Navarro issued an invitation—“Come over here,we’re going to slaughter the pig”—without speaking a word: He whistled it.

2In the distance, three visiting hikers stopped dead in their tracks at the piercing sound and its echo bouncing off the walls of the ravine that separated them.

3Mr. Márquez, 71, said that in his youth, when local shepherds rather than tourists walked the steep and rugged footpaths of his island, his news would have been greeted right away by a responding whistle, loud and clear.

4But his message was lost on these hikers, and they soon resumed their trek1trek 長途跋涉，艱難的旅程（尤指在山區(qū)）。on La Gomera, one of the Canary Islands, a volcanic archipelago in the Atlantic that is part of Spain.

5Mr. Márquez is a proud guardian of La Gomera’s whistling language, which he called “the poetry of my island.”And, he added, “l(fā)ike poetry, whistling does not need to be useful in order to be special and beautiful.”

6The whistling of the Indigenous people of La Gomera is mentioned in the 15th-century accounts of the explorers who paved the way for the Spanish conquest of the island. Over the centuries,the practice was adapted to communicating in Castilian Spanish2從西班牙占領(lǐng)戈梅拉島起，哨語逐漸成為該島西班牙方言的變體。Silbo 哨語一詞正是由西班牙語中silbar（吹口哨）這個(gè)單詞演化而來。這套口哨語言把西班牙語中的元音和輔音都用特定的不同頻率的口哨聲替換。其中兩種特別的口哨聲代替了西班牙語中的五個(gè)元音，而另外四種口哨聲代替了各種輔音，可以組合出4000 多個(gè)“詞匯”。Castilian Spanish 卡斯蒂利亞語，西班牙全國性官方語言。.

7The language, officially known as Silbo Gomero, substitutes whistled sounds that vary by pitch and length for written letters. Unfortunately, there are fewer whistles than there are letters in the Spanish alphabet, so a sound can have multiple meanings, causing misunderstandings.

8In 2009, the island’s language was added by UNESCO to its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity;the United Nations agency described it as “the only whistled language in the world that is fully developed and practiced by a large community,” in reference to La Gomera’s 22,000 inhabitants.

9But with whistling no longer essential for communication, Silbo’s survival mostly relies on a 1999 law that made teaching it an obligatory part of La Gomera’s school curriculum.

10On a recent morning at a school in the port town of Santiago, a classroom of 6-year-olds had little difficulty identifying the whistling sounds corresponding to different colors, or the days of the week.

11Things got trickier when the words were incorporated into full sentences,like “What is the name of the child with the blue shoes?” A couple of the children argued that they had instead heard the whistling sound for “yellow.”

12If interpreting a whistle isn’t always easy, making the correct sounds can be even harder. Most whistlers insert one bent knuckle into the mouth, but some use instead the tip of one or two fingers, while a few use a finger from each hand.

“The only rule is to find whichever finger makes it easier to whistle, and sometimes unfortunately nothing works at all,” said Francisco Correa, the coordinator of La Gomera’s school whistling program. “There are even some older people who have understood Silbo perfectly since childhood, but never got any clear sound to come out of their mouth.”

13Two whistlers might struggle to understand each other, particularly during their first encounters—and need to ask each other to repeat sentences—like strangers who speak the same language with different accents. But “after whistling together for a while, their communication becomes as easy as if speaking Spanish,” Mr. Correa said.

14As is the case in many languages,whether whistled or not, there is a generation gap on La Gomera.

15Ciro Mesa Niebla, a 46-year-old farmer, said he struggled to whistle with a younger generation trained at school because, he said, “I’m a mountain guy who learned at home to whistle the words our family used to farm, but I don’t have the vocabulary of these kids who learn salon whistling, which is a bit too fancy for me.”

16With its distinct geography, it’s easy to see why whistling came into use on the Canaries; on most of the islands,deep ravines run from high peaks and plateaus down to the ocean, and plenty of time and effort are required to travel even a short distance overland. Whistling developed as a good alternative way to deliver a message, with its sound carrying farther than shouting—as much as two miles across some canyons and with favorable wind conditions.

17Nowadays, La Gomera relies heavily on tourism, which has created an opportunity for some young whistlers like Lucía Darias Herrera, 16, who has a weekly whistling show at an island hotel.

18Since last spring, however, the coronavirus has not only canceled such shows, but also forced schools to limit their whistling instruction.

19So as a precaution against spreading the virus, the children now spend their weekly whistling lesson listening to recordings of Silbo, rather than whistling themselves.

20An added difficulty for the students is that they don’t always have much opportunity to practice Silbo outside of school. In the class of 6-year-olds, only five of 17 raised their hands when asked if they had a chance to whistle at home.

21Still, some teenagers enjoy whistling greetings to each other when they meet in town and welcome the chance to chat without many of the adults around them understanding. Some had parents who went to school before learning Silbo became mandatory, or who settled on the island as adults.

22However much she is attached to her cellphone, Erin Gerhards, 15,sounded keen to improve her whistling and help safeguard the traditions of her island.

“It is a way to honor the people that lived here in the past,” she said. “And to remember where everything came from,that we didn’t start with technology, but from simple beginnings.” ■