That’s interesting

puzzles

THAT’S INTERESTING...

Each month ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD, former researcher from ‘QI’ and author of The Meaning of Tingo, poses a vocabulary quiz from our local Wiltshire dialect. CAN YOU GUESS THE CORRECT DEFINITION?

1) Lottie

a) a street brawl b) wool taken from a dead sheep c) to sound as water trickling in a small stream

2) Raimy

a) very thin b) begrudging c) a depression of spirits 3) Quirk

a) a scarecrow made of old garments b) more on one side than on the other, ill-balanced, shaky c) to complain

4) Mouch or Mooch

a) to pilfer outdoors b) to walk aimlessly up and down with short steps c) to be or act in a sullen manner

GO WHISTLE

On the tiny Canary Island of La Gomera there is a language called Silbo Gomero that uses a variety of whistles instead of words; (in Spanish silbar means to whistle). There are four ‘vowels’ and four ‘consonants’, which can be strung together to form more than 4000 ‘words’ which can be heard at distances of up to 2 miles. This birdlike means of communication is thought to have come over with early African settlers over 2500 years ago. The Mazateco Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico are frequently seen whistling back and forth, exchanging greetings or trading goods with no risk of misunderstanding. The whistling is not really a language; it simply uses the rhythms of ordinary speech without the words. Similar whistling languages have been found in Greece, Turkey and China, whilst other forms of wordless communication include the talking drums (ntumpane) of the Kele in Congo, the xylophones used by the Northern Chin of Burma, the banging on the roots of trees practised by the Melanesians, the yodelling of the Swiss, the humming of the Chekiang Chinese and the smoke signals of the American Indians.

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