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Whistle While You Work

kukickface writes "Have you ever watched Star Wars and been amazed that Human beings could understand what R2D2 is saying? An ancient yet almost dead language called Silbo Gomero seems to be reality's closest equivalent. Could this type of language be used in the future to ease natural language processing pains?"

31 of 520 comments (clear)

  1. I tried that Silbo Gomero on a co-worker by Hairy_Potter · · Score: 5, Funny

    you know, a friendly greeting that sounded like a wolf whistle when she walked by, and I got dismissed for sexual harassment. Thanks a lot.

    1. Re:I tried that Silbo Gomero on a co-worker by DrEldarion · · Score: 3, Funny

      Oh, so that's what that is? I never imagined that the construction workers I hear doing that all the time were so historically knowledgeable.

  2. Yeah, little Ewoks amazed me too by whoda · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Have you ever watched Star Wars and been amazed that Human beings could understand what R2D2 is saying?"

    You do realize that Star Wars was a movie, not a documentary, don't you?

    1. Re:Yeah, little Ewoks amazed me too by Shalda · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hey, I can understand Pikachu, and the only thing he ever says is his name.

  3. Whistling? by macshune · · Score: 5, Funny

    I for one, tweet, tweeeet, tweet, tweettweet, tweet tweet overlords!

  4. Great idea to communicate by whistles, until by unassimilatible · · Score: 4, Funny

    Someone starts eating crackers.

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    1. Re:Great idea to communicate by whistles, until by iamsure · · Score: 2, Funny

      Since you started it..

      You *did* notice it was from the CANARY islands, right? :)

      Polly wanna cracker?

  5. Puckers up by nacturation · · Score: 4, Funny

    SAN SEBASTIAN, Canary Islands (AP) -- Juan Cabello takes pride in not using a cell phone or the Internet to communicate. Instead, he puckers up and whistles.

    Uh... which end?

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    1. Re:Puckers up by fenix+down · · Score: 2, Funny

      That is the sound of ultimate suffering.

  6. So... by Reteo+Varala · · Score: 5, Funny

    Would this be considered Pigeon Pidgin?

  7. Translation by kajoob · · Score: 2, Funny

    And what do R2's ramblings translate to?

    "Greetings Slashdotters. You have way too much time on your hands. That is all."

    Not worth the effort I guess.

    --
    Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur
    1. Re:Translation by MikeXpop · · Score: 4, Funny

      Funny, when I translated it I got

      "Buy more ovaltine"

      --
      Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
  8. Dumbfounded by the Feebleness by turgid · · Score: 5, Funny

    Even as a small child when 8-bit micros had speech synthesizers, I wondered why, in the technologically advanced Star Wars society that damned robot couldn't speak in a human (or whatever) language. Look at C3PO. 3 million languages? They had space craft capable of superluminal travel, weapons the size of a moon, and a damned robot that sounded like a ZX Spectrum loading Manic Miner.

    1. Re:Dumbfounded by the Feebleness by GeLeTo · · Score: 5, Funny

      His OS could not detect the sound card. So he had to resort to the good ol PC speaker.

    2. Re:Dumbfounded by the Feebleness by EvilNTUser · · Score: 2, Funny

      Actually, it's rumored that he could originally speak, but was once caught violating copyright in an illegal karaoke bar.

      I'm told he sounded somewhat like Barry White.

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    3. Re:Dumbfounded by the Feebleness by torpor · · Score: 2, Funny

      It is precisely this pedantic finesse which gives Star Wars geeks such a fine odor.

      --
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    4. Re:Dumbfounded by the Feebleness by fr2asbury · · Score: 2, Funny

      It'e because the Intergalactic Brotherhood of Protocol Droids (IBPD-AFL-CIO) would universally walk out in protest (or worse complain loudly in 3 million languages), if they were deprived of their hard fought union translating jobs. This is why, despite the fact that every creature in the Star Wars galaxy can understand every other creature regardless of the language spoken, they still have Protocol Droids around translating for them.

  9. People didn't understand R2. by Lester67 · · Score: 5, Funny

    C3PO was his interpreter. In the X-Wing, Luke had to read what he was saying from a screen in the cockpit.

    I feel all dirty and nerd-like for posting this. I hope you are happy.

  10. Putting sounds together to make words? by ajuda · · Score: 2, Funny

    Why didn't anyone ever think of that before? Oh wait, they did. It's called Morse Code.

    I know that this is a a little different -- morse code can be used to make any word, not just 400 as is the case with the language mentioned in the article, but still... What's the big deal?

  11. Tone Deafness by merodach · · Score: 5, Funny

    Imagine unintentionally cussing out your boss, or worse spouse, because you were tone deaf.....

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  12. Hah... by MoeMoe · · Score: 2, Funny

    I still think the White Space language is more dynamic...

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  13. Is there a dictionary yet? by MrEd · · Score: 3, Funny
    What's the Silbo Gomero for "Madam, I must admire your sublime and wonderful buttocks"?


    Enquiring minds want to know...

    --

    Wah!

  14. Re:Example by honcho · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think my dog understands what that clip was saying. Too bad I don't understand it or my dog.

  15. Re:God, you are such a moron! by Uma+Thurman · · Score: 3, Funny

    I know for a fact that it makes a shitty cookbook. I have a food processor jammed with tribbles. Who knew you had to shave them first? Worse than peeling potatoes. At least potatoes don't make noise when they scream.

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  16. Re:Imagine this other African language..... by pizzaman100 · · Score: 3, Funny
    I wonder if the intro to the Andy Griffeth Show is really a secret whistling message.

    Maybe when Opie is walking by with the fishing pole the whistling code is saying "drugs, sex and rock 'n roll".

  17. Re:God, you are such a moron! by Short+Circuit · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe I'm addicted, but if played any Next Gen Starfleet sound, I could identify it and tell you what it meant. I've been actually thinking of using sonic indicators for things like new email, as well as various sysadmin tasks like specific syslog entries.

    I'm getting there with DS9...have season 3 waiting. I'm on the second-to-last disc of season 2.

  18. Re:Signing by lostguy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Teach him to type, and he can write his own 419 spam, which will be even more profitable.

    Plus, he can pick up camgirls.

  19. Speaking of political correctness by Red+Weasel · · Score: 2, Funny

    When I told a buddy of mine (who happens to be Cherokee) about the Code Talker movie awhile back the conversation went something like this.

    Me: Dude there making a movie about the code talkers

    He: Cool, which ones?

    Me: Navajo.

    He: Fucking Navajo! They get all the damn credit!

    Still cracks me up.

    --
    ..which just shows that the human brain is ill-adapted for thinking and was probably designed for cooling the blood-T P
  20. Re:Imagine this other African language..... by mantera · · Score: 3, Funny


    I have seen those africans who communicated through clicking sounds on a TV documentary; the most bizarre thing!... some standing elder was apparently lecturing almost 40 young men during some tribal ritual, and all he was doing was clicking... so bizarre...

    As for the link your provided, i couldn't easily find the thing you were referring to, but what attracted my attention was this...

    In Latin derived languages, such as Spanish, French, and Italian, the word order is not usually as important. Meaning is primarily determined by the endings of words (that is suffixes). In a very different kind of language, Mandarin Chinese, meaning is primarily changed by tone. The same word can mean radically different things depending on how it is pronounced. For instance, the word ma can have four distinct tones:...

    Now that might be true for written French, but i might be less inclined to agree for spoken French, at least for us non-native speakers who have a hard time with the subtleties of pronounciation; Those of you guys who have always thought of french as "the language of love" might be in for a surprise if you ever use it as such, as I discovered when I was courting my French ex-wife many years ago. For example, it appears that the French use the word "my chick" as a term of endearment both ways, male to female and female to male, so when i reciprocated its use i was taught the following ...

    poussin= chick
    boisson = drink
    poisson = fish

    Now imagine the following conversation, which actually happened....

    me filled with affectionate emotion, saying it in french :- "i love you, my chick"
    My French ex-wife :- "oh my god, you're calling me your fish!"
    - "stop spoiling the moment"
    - "i can't help it, you're calling me your fish, how romantic is that!"
    - "okay..." (me trying again to correct my pronounciation for the umpteenth time, in french)... "my chick..."
    - "argh, now you're calling me your drink!"

    There was also another word that was even worse; i can't remember it now now but it had 4 different meanings eventhough it sounded much the same to me when pronounced with only the most suble of differences, just one of them was a term of endearment and the 3 others were far less flattering... i just couldn't ever get it right...

  21. Re:Bad Reference by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Put that in your pod and launch it. :P"

    They also call it "light speed" when they travel several solar systems over in the time it takes to hit a convenience store. Yeah, they're so good at labelling thins properly.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  22. Re:polically incorrect signing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    No, that one's about a bale of hay, three nuns, and a kangaroo.