Listening exercise
NPR: People & Places: Whistling to Communicate in Alaska
All Things Considered, June 21, 2005
Access audio report from this page:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4713068
Local audio capture file:
https://ceiba.ntu.edu.tw/course/d3ad57/listening/NPR_whistledlang.wma


Vocabulary:
for heads to turn
Turkey
weekend
Kuşdili
to play host to
annual festival
whistled languages
Yupik Eskimo
St. Lawrence Island
Alaska Public Radio Network
Gabriel Spitzer
frigid
Bering Sea
rare clear day
gravely
Russia
scattered
Canary Islands
mountainous
Black Sea coast
rough
remote
to develop
over long distances
early on
Elaine Keengekuk?
cousin
Yari
to pick s.t. up
village
Savoonga
isolated
community
to think of s.t. as
separate from
normal
spoken
communication
first language
to be all around one
to correspond to
complex
to articulate
to demonstrate
to translate
to greet
at the airport
to mention
Siberian Yupik (= Yupik Eskimo)
to catch
in an urban setting
Anchorage
grandfather
village
to drop by
Walmart
to lose s.o.
to get lost
huge store
to get back together
islanders
to adapt
native culture
church hymns
tune
"How Great Thou Art"
native
thriving
to rely on
indigenous
to dwindle
unique


Listening comprehension questions:
1. Where is St. Lawrence island? Check a map online and give a precise description of its location; don't just repeat what is said in the report.
2. The Yupik Eskimo whistling language developed in response to what kind of need?
3. According to the cousins, what is the reason why the rest of the world only learned about the Yupik whistled language just recently?
4. How do the Yupik Eskimos learn the whistled language?
5. What use did the cousins recently find for their whistled language in an urban area?
6. What is special about Eskimo Yupik as compared to other native languages of Alaska?
7. How is this changing?
8. Use the Internet to find three examples of other whistled languages in the world besides Yupik Eskimo.

Blog entry on this report:
http://camba.ucsd.edu/phonoloblog/index.php/2005/06/22/give-a-little-whistle/


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