Kuş dili can be transmitted over a distance of 10km.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Kuş dili originated more than 400 years ago, originating from the fact that the local community, mainly farmers , lived mostly outdoors. Due to the steep mountains, they had to find ways to communicate with each other over long distances; whistling helped them avoid becoming hoarse during work and exchanging information.
According to some scientific studies, whistles do not have as much resonance as screams, which means they are less likely to be distorted or scare away prey when hunting. Thanks to the narrow, high-frequency sound, whistled language can travel many times further than screams. Whistles have been described as being able to travel up to 10km in some cases, allowing village hunters to save energy and understand the intentions of their teammates far away.
Despite its four-century history, Kuşköy is now home to only about 10,000 people, mostly shepherds who speak Kuş dili. The power of technology has spread to even the most remote areas. Text messaging, especially the advent of mobile phones, has put this unique language at risk of “extinction”. The younger generation is largely uninterested in continuing the tradition, while the elders who are fluent in the language of birds are increasingly disappearing.
In 2017, UNESCO recognized Kuş dili as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity and included it on the list of urgent safeguarding needs. Since then, many Kuş dili teaching projects have been implemented to pass on this form of communication to the younger generation starting from primary school.
Mr. Mustafa Civelek, a villager, said that using Kuş dili is a special traditional cultural feature of Kuşköy village. “My father taught me this language. And my father, who died at the age of 115, was also a proficient user of Kuş dili, the language inherited from his ancestors. I can use Kuş dili to talk to my acquaintances on the mountain top. They can also ask me for help from a distance when needed. However, in recent years, the number of people using this language has decreased. To preserve Kuş dili, in addition to classes, Kuşköy village has planned to regularly organize cultural and artistic festivals related to Kuş dili. At the festivals, villagers will gather to practice and compete. Whoever whistles correctly and expresses the most content as required will win,” Mr. Civelek shared.
Today, 50-year-old Muazzez Kocek is considered one of the best “bird language” users in Kuşköy. Her whistle can be heard across the vast tea fields, 5-6km further than the sound of a normal human voice. When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Kuşköy in 2012, she greeted him proudly in Kuş dili: “Welcome to our village!”
Over the years, Ms. Muazzez Kocek has been an active participant in preserving the traditional Kuş dili language by passing on her knowledge and use of the language to the younger generation. “I learned the whistling language at the age of 6, when I started working in the fields with my father. I have passed on Kuş dili to my three daughters. One of them, Kader Kocek, 14, can now sing the Turkish national anthem in this special language. This is our heritage. We must protect it and continue to use it,” Ms. Kocek said.
Organ Civelek, 37, who speaks the language quite fluently, said: “The villagers are very proud of their language customs and want to share it with tourists. Currently, there are no hotels in the remote village, but the locals are renovating an old school into a hostel in the hope of attracting more tourists . According to Organ Civelek, technology is the cause of the language’s disappearance, but it also offers a great way to preserve Kuş dili for future generations.
As a teacher of Kuş dili to children in summer classes, Mr. Civelek uses an application called “Islýk DiliSözlüğü”. It is a kind of audio dictionary, which records the whistles and extracts explaining the meaning in text. Islýk Dili Sözlüğü has received widespread support from the local government and people because it plays an important role in preserving and developing the Kuş dili language. In Mr. Civelek’s experience, the ideal age to start learning Kuş dili is 9 years old. This is when students can easily grasp the way to roll their tongue and control their breathing.
“You can lose or break your phone, but as long as you are breathing, you can whistle. It is a means of communication that you can carry with you everywhere without fear of losing it,” teacher Civelek proudly emphasized when talking about the significance of preserving the unique language in his homeland.
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