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On every continent besides Antarctica, you can find groups of people who communicate by whistling.
在除了南极洲以外的每一个大陆上，你都能找到一群通过吹口哨来交流的人。
And not just, like, to get someone's attention or say, "I'm over here!"
这不仅是为了引起别人的注意或是在说“我在这里！”
These are full-blown languages.
这些都是成熟的语言。
For a long time, all sorts of researchers have been interested in this form of communication, which seems to blur the lines between language and music.
长期以来，各种各样的研究人员都对这种似乎模糊了语言和音乐之间界限的交流方式感兴趣。
And recently, research by neuroscientists has shown that the way language works in the brain… is not exactly what we thought.
最近，神经科学家的研究表明，语言在大脑中的工作方式与我们的想法不完全相同。
Although whistled languages emerged separately all over the world, they tend to have some key features in common.
尽管口哨语在世界各地是单独出现的，但它们往往有一些共同的关键特征。
Like, they usually exist among groups of people living in spread-out communities who need to communicate over long distances.
例如，它们通常出现在需要远距离交流的分散社区的人群中。
Because, conveniently, the high pitch and volume of a whistle can travel a lot farther than regular speech
因为，口哨的高音和音量可以比普通的讲话传播得更远
— up to 10 kilometers away, in some cases.
——在某些情况下，可传至10公里远的地方。
And not only do whistles travel farther, they also stand out more against the sounds of rivers, wind, and animal calls.
口哨不仅传播得更远，而且更能抵御河流、风和动物的叫声。
So they can be a great communication tool in rugged environments.
因此，在崎岖的环境中，它们可以成为一种很好的沟通工具。
Like, in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico, police actually used their whistled language for years before they switched to walkie-talkies.
比如，在墨西哥瓦哈卡的山区，警察实际上使用口哨语很多年以后才改用对讲机。
But these languages don't just replace speech — in many cases, whistled languages are adaptations of the local spoken language.
但这些语言不仅取代了讲话，在许多情况下，口哨语是当地口语的改编。
And that's one of the things that makes them so interesting to neuroscientists —
而这正是让神经科学家对它们如此感兴趣的原因之一，
because, oddly, even though they're two versions of the same language, the brain doesn't process them the same way.
因为，奇怪的是，即使它们是同一种语言的两个版本，大脑处理它们的方式却不一样。
Two whistled languages that have been studied in depth are Silbo, which is based on Spanish and found in the Canary Islands,
两种被深入研究的口哨语言，一种是希尔伯语，它以西班牙语为基础，发现于加那利群岛，
and a Turkish-based language found in the mountains of Turkey.
还有一种土耳其语，发现于土耳其山区。
Here's a sample of Silbo.
这是希尔伯语的例子。
And here's a sample of the Turkish-based language.
这是土耳其语的一个例子。
They both imitate the intonations and stresses of speech, which can easily be reproduced in whistles.
它们都模仿语音的语调和重音，很容易在口哨中重现。
Meanwhile, the things that can't be imitated, like vowels and consonants, get translated into cues like rising and falling pitches or different tone lengths.
同时，那些不能模仿的东西，比如元音和辅音，会被翻译成音调的升降或不同的音长。
And the fact that they're derived from speech means that these languages are just as rich and complex as spoken language,
事实上，它们是从言语中衍生出来的，这意味着这些语言和口语一样丰富和复杂，
so speakers can have fluent, nuanced conversations in either one.
所以说话者可以用任何一种语言中进行流畅、细致入微的对话。
But internally, the brain is actually doing something different depending on which language is being used.
但大脑实际上在做一些不同的事情，这取决于所使用的语言。
In general, the left hemisphere of the brain does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to processing speech,
一般来说，在处理语言时，大脑的左半球起着很大的作用，
so spoken language has traditionally been thought of as a left-brained skill.
因此口语一直被认为是左脑的一种技能。
But whistled languages paint a more complicated picture.
但口哨语言描绘出一幅更为复杂的画面。
Because they involve the right hemisphere, too.
因为它们也包括右半球。
Researchers learned this during a 2015 experiment that studied the comprehension of spoken and whistled language in the people of northeastern Turkey.
研究人员在2015年的一项实验中了解到了这一点，该实验研究了土耳其东北部居民对口语和口哨语的理解。
They used a technique called dichotic listening, which is a way of identifying asymmetries in the brain, based on how people register sounds played simultaneously in each ear.
他们使用了一种被称为“两分法倾听”的技术，这是一种根据人们如何记录每只耳朵同时播放的声音识别大脑不对称性的方法。
In general, sound signals that have to travel farther within the brain to reach the area
一般来说，声音信号必须在大脑中传播得更远才能到达它们被处理的区域，
where they get processed register slightly slower than others.
它们被注意到的速度比其他稍慢。
So even though the sounds are played simultaneously,
因此，即使声音同时播放，
there will be a small difference in the arrival time between the sound from one ear and the sound from the other.
从一只耳朵传来的声音和从另一只耳朵传来的声音在到达时间上也会有细微的差别。
But since the signals come so close together, people typically only register the sound that arrives first.
但由于信号如此接近，人们通常只注意最先到达的声音。
It gets a little confusing here because the brain isn't wired how you might expect.
这让人有点困惑，因为大脑并没有按照你所期望的那样运作。
Signals from the left side of your body often go to the right side of the brain, and vice versa.
来自身体左侧的信号通常会传到大脑右侧，反之亦然。
Including sounds.
包括声音。
So, when a dichotic listening task uses speech sounds, people usually hear what's played on the right side,
所以，当一个两分法听力任务使用语音时，人们通常会听到右侧传出的声音，
since the right ear has more of a direct path to the language areas on the left side.
因为右耳更直接地到达左侧的语言区域。
And that's exactly what the researchers found in this study too.
这也正是研究人员在这项研究中发现的。
As 31 whistle-speakers listened to sounds from spoken Turkish, they identified the ones from their right ear more frequently.
当31个吹口哨的人听土耳其语时，他们更频繁地辨别出右耳的声音。
But that wasn't the case with whistled language.
但口哨语言并非如此。
When the same participants listened to whistled speech, they identified the sounds from their left and right ears about equally.
当同样的参与者听口哨语时，他们辨别左右耳的声音大致相同。
And that result suggests that language processing may not be inherently asymmetrical.
这个结果表明语言处理并不是天生的不对称。
It's just that, by focusing only on one kind of language for so long (the spoken kind)
只是，由于长期只关注一种语言（口语），
we seem to have formed ideas about language processing that were overly simple.
我们似乎已经形成了关于语言处理的过于简单的想法。
In reality, the reason language has traditionally been labeled as "left-brained" may have more to do with what we're hearing than the way we're wired.
事实上，语言传统上被称为“左脑”的原因可能更多地与我们所听到的有关，而不是与我们的思维方式有关。
And it makes sense The left side of the brain processes information that's received on relatively short time scales.
大脑左侧处理在相对较短时间内接收到的信息是有意义的。
And in spoken language, lots of cues come in on short time scales,
在口语中，很多线索都是在短时间内出现的，
like the rhythm of syllables or the transitions between sounds, so it's mostly processed on the left side.
比如音节的节奏或者声音之间的转换，所以大部分都是在左侧处理。
But in whistled speech, a lot of that information gets coded into musical cues like pitch and melody, which have a longer cadence.
但在口哨语中，许多信息被编码成音高和旋律等音乐线索，它们的节奏更长。
And the left side of the brain doesn't deal with that — the right side does.
左脑不能处理这些，而右脑可以进行处理。
That likely explains why whistle-speakers use both sides of their brain to process whistled language.
这很可能解释了为什么吹口哨者会用大脑的两侧来处理口哨语。
Not only does this tell us that language comprehension isn't strictly a left-brained activity,
这不仅告诉我们，语言理解并不是严格意义上的左脑活动，
it highlights the fact that spoken language isn't just a string of syllables.
它还强调了一个事实，即口语不仅是一串音节。
It consists of all sorts of different cues — and certain parts of the brain may be more or less involved in parsing them, depending on what those cues are.
它由各种不同的线索组成——大脑的某些部分可能或多或少地参与解析这些线索，这取决于这些线索是什么。
It also highlights the incredibly diverse ways that we use language to transmit ideas between people.
它还强调了我们使用语言在人与人之间传递思想的各种方式。
If you want to get better at using other languages to exchange ideas and broaden your horizons, you don't have to wait.
如果你想更好地使用其他语言交流思想、开阔视野，你不必等待。
You could try out Babbel, an pp designed to teach you a language and get you using it fast.
可以试试Babbel，一款专门教你语言并让你快速使用的应用。
