On a personal level I keep a referee's whistle handy in case I'm talking to a scammer live. They are usually wearing headsets and any damage I can do to their hearing with that may save an old persons savings in the following few minutes. Best technique is to speak softly so they turn their volume up then let rip on the whistle
My mom used a referee's whistle. There were 5 of us and the number of toots indicated which of the 5 she wanted (two toots for me). If we were outside playing in the neighborhood, we'd get alerted directly or indirectly from someone who was tired of hearing the whistle.
If it was dinner time and she needed us all, she'd blow 'Shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits'.
My parents had a 'if you hear this whistle, come here', which, depending on the sequence of tones, meant anything from '5 minute heads up before it is time to go' to 'literally drop what you are doing and run to this position'.
It wasn't disrespectful at all. It was a great way to communicate over wider distances than is possible with regular voice, and in retrospect it was impressive how little translation it took for all of us kids to understand which meaning was being conveyed.
I learned the hands free approach as a kid (no assistance, just experimentation). Now I can reach ear piercing levels that temporarily damage the hearing of those within 5-10 feet using either a 3-5 second burst or 10-15 second sustained whistle. I've found it makes for a very effective training mechanism with dogs.
Not the same as emulating vowels and consonants, but my dad used to whistle by with two fingers on his lips and making the loudest whistle. Either to get the dog's attention or my attention as a child.
It was a rural area and he used it to communicate (come back home, usually) and as a child I could tell by the sound if it was a normal 'come home' or one where I was in trouble 'come home right now!'
I now have a child of my own and kind of wish I could whistle like that, though the utility would be much less living in a city with endless forms of electronic communication.
On a personal level I keep a referee's whistle handy in case I'm talking to a scammer live. They are usually wearing headsets and any damage I can do to their hearing with that may save an old persons savings in the following few minutes. Best technique is to speak softly so they turn their volume up then let rip on the whistle
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