A media package for the journal Current Biology. Two papers featured.
PAPER #1: EMBARGOED PRESS RELEASE
Media Contact: Joseph Caputo | Cell Press
617-397-2802 | jcaputo@cell.com | press@cell.com
STRICTLY UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 12:00PM NOON ET (US) ON MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 2015
Region(s) of Interest: Germany, Bonn; Turkey
Institution(s): RuhrUniversity Bochum
Whistled Turkish Challenges Notions about Language and the
Brain
Generally speaking, language processing is a job for the brain's left
hemisphere. That's true whether that language is spoken, written,
or signed. But researchers reporting in the Cell Press
journal Current Biology on August 17 have discovered an
exception to this rule in a most remarkable form: whistled Turkish.
"We are unbelievably lucky that such a language indeed exists,"
says Onur Güntürkün of Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany. "It is
a true experiment of nature."
Whistled Turkish is exactly what it sounds like: Turkish that has
been adapted into a series of whistles. This method of
communicating was popular in the old days, before the advent of
telephones, in small villages in Turkey as a means for longdistance communication. In comparison to spoken Turkish,
whistled Turkish carries much farther. While whistled-Turkish
speakers use "normal" Turkish at close range, they switch to the
whistled form when at a distance of, say, 50 to 90 meters away.
"If you look at the topography, it is clear how handy whistled communication is," Güntürkün says. "You
can't articulate as loud as you can whistle, so whistled language can be heard kilometers away across
steep canyons and high mountains."
Whistled Turkish isn't a distinct language from Turkish, Güntürkün explains. It is Turkish converted
into a different form, much as the text you are now reading is English converted into written form.
Güntürkün, who is Turkish, says that he still found the language surprisingly difficult to understand.
"As a native Turkish-speaking person, I was struck that I did not understand a single word when these
guys started whistling," he says. "Not one word! After about a week, I started recognizing a few words,
but only if I knew the context."
Whistled Turkish is clearly fascinating in its own right, but Güntürkün and his colleagues also realized
that it presented a perfect opportunity to test the notion that language is predominantly a left-brained
activity, no matter the physical structure that it takes. That's because auditory processing of features,
including frequency, pitch, and melody--the stuff that whistles are made of--is a job for the right brain.
The researchers examined the brain asymmetry in processing spoken versus whistled Turkish by
presenting whistled-Turkish speakers with speech sounds delivered to their left or right ears through
headphones. The participants then reported what they'd heard. While individuals more often
perceived spoken syllables when presented to the right ear, they heard whistled sounds equally well
on both sides.
"We could show that whistled Turkish creates a balanced contribution of the hemispheres," Güntürkün
says. "The left hemisphere is involved since whistled Turkish is a language, but the right hemisphere
is equally involved since for this strange language all auditory specializations of this hemisphere are
needed."
That's important, the researchers say, because it means that the left-hemispheric dominance in
language does depend on the physical structure the language takes. They now plan to conduct EEG
studies to look even more closely at the underlying brain processes in whistled-Turkish speakers.
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The research was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
Current Biology, Güntürkün et al.: "Whistled Turkish alters language
asymmetries" http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.06.067
In online coverage, please mention the journal Current Biology and link to the paper
at http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(15)00794-0
Related Files:
This Dropbox
contains: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lfe0oi9v154r7oy/AABWWkkxCaTu3KKQ4oKoClMaa?dl=0
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A PDF of the paper proof.
A PDF of the supplemental data.
A WMV of the supplemental video: Short scene of two men whistling across a valley of about
700 meters in Ku?köy, Turkey. After exchanging greetings, the closer person asks the distant
fellow if he will later on come to the café. The distant person promises to do so. Then Onur
Güntürkün asks the close whistler to transmit his greetings. As a response, the distant fellow
greets back and asks when the "teacher" (O.G.) will leave the village. When being told
(whistled) that departure is planned for the next day, he wishes a smooth journey. Finally, the
person close to the camera also transmits best wishes of Osman, a person standing close.
The distant person greets back, also in the name of his wife Nazmiye, who joined him on the
terrace of his house. (Credit: Onur Güntürkün)
Photo 1: Shows Onur Güntürkün conducting the study with a Turkish farmer. (Credit: Onur
Güntürkün)
Photos 2 & 3: People using the Turkish style of whistling (Credit: Onur Güntürkün)