Whistled language of Aas

The whistled language of Aas (in French: langage sifflé d'Aas, occitan sifflé d'Aas; in Occitan: siular d'Aas) is a whistled language used in the Pyrennees village of Aas, located in the Béarn area of southern France. Local pastoral activities and shepherds benefited from long distant communication allowed by whistled and the mountainous topography. Whistled Occitan is based on the local Béarnese dialect of Gascon, itself often regarded as a dialect of Occitan. According to Philippe Biu, it is "a practice known as the whistled language of Aas, but above all it is a technique [allowing] speech to be transposed as whistling".