Read the text Near-Extinct Language Returns. What do the highlighted words in the text mean? Match the words with their definitions. You may use a dictionary or other digital resources
to check the meaning of words.
1.heritage A. the belief that you are better or more important than other people
2. value B. a typical quality, or important part of something
3.pride C. the buildings, paintings, customs, etc. that are important in
a culture or society because they have existed for a long time
4. feature D. how useful or important something isJuan Cabello takes pride in not using a mobile phone or the internet to communicate.
Instead, he whistles. Cabello is a silbador. He knows 'Silbo Gomero', a language that is whistled,
not spoken, and can be heard more than two miles away. This unusual way of communicating is
said to have arrived with early African settlers 2,500 years ago. Now, educators are working hard
to save it from extinction by making schoolchildren study the language up to the age of fourteen.
Silbo features four 'vowels' and four 'consonants' that can be used to form more than 4,000
words. 'I use it for everything.' Cabello says. In fact, he makes a living from Silbo, performing
daily exhibitions at a restaurant on this island of 220 square kilometres and 19,000 people.
People throughout La Gomera are known to have used Silbo in the past as a way of
communicating over long distances.
A strong whistle saved farmers from trekking over the hills to give messages or news to
neighbours. Then came the phone. In 1999, it was introduced as a compulsory subject in La
Gomera's primary schools, in an effort to prevent the language from becoming extinct. Now 3,000
students are studying it, but only a few people are believed to be able to communicate fully in the
whistling language. ‘Silbo is said to be the most important cultural heritage we have,' said Moises
Plasencia, the director of the Canary Islands' government's historical heritage department.
It might seem appropriate for a language that sounds like birdsong to exist in the Canary
Islands, but there is thought to be no connection between the islands' name and the birdsong-like
way of communicating.
In fact, little is known about Silbo's origins. One study is looking for signs of Silbo in
Venezuela, Cuba and Texas, all places to which Gomerans have emigrated in the past during hard
economic times.
Now, Plasencia is heading an effort to get UNESCO to declare it a 'cultural heritage' and to
support efforts to save it. Cabello also explains, 'It's good for just about anything except for
romance: everyone on the island could hearwhat you're saying!'