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Sara Cammeresi

The language of Silbo (not the Baggins) —

Sometimes, I see a headline on CNN, and I know without even reading a single word of the story that the story in question is bloggable. Reading the headline and then the text of a current story whose headline is `Near-extinct whistling language returns,' my suspicions were indeed confirmed.

Apparently Silbo is articulated through whistling instead of the employment of one's vocal chords, by means of which one can use the language's four vowels and four consonants to form upwards of 4,000 words. It used to be used to communicate over distances as long as two miles (7,040 cubits), but the language has been falling out of favour ever since the invention of the telephone.

From 1999, children in the schools of the island where this language was used have been educated in it for some small, token amount of time per week, and that is probably fine in the interest of history education, but you should be able to smell what's coming next.

`Silbo is the most important pre-Hispanic cultural heritage we have,' said Moises Plasencia, the director of the Canary government's historical heritage department....

Now, Plasencia is heading an effort to have UNESCO declare it an `intangible cultural heritage' and support efforts to save it. `Silbo is so unique and has many values: historical, linguistic, anthropological and aesthetic. It fits perfectly with UNESCO's requirements,' he said.

Multiculturalism, as we all expected, the idea that all cultures are equally valuable, and that this language has some intrinsic value independent and apart from any utility which it may have. But no values can be intrinsic; something can only be valuable to someone for a particular purpose, so there are no values in the absence of valuers.

Also, any UN involvement is reason enough to fear.

posted by Sid at 11.30 / 771     [ Comments: 1 ]

More of thinking too hard —

I recently read a web board post about Logical Positivism and the Phenomenology of Photography. I tried to understand it. I failed. I don't think I want to understand it because my brain already hurts.

posted by Sid at 17.52 / 036     [ Comments: 0 ]