[cetalingua]

Here is a question, how do they determine who is whistling to them if they do not see them? Is whistler's identity encoded in a whistle somehow? And if yes, then how? In cetacean whistles it is believed that dolphin's identity is not encoded in a whistle that is why they need signature whistles.

On a side note, whistling language and cetacean whistling are nice examples of convergent evolution, cetaceans also use whistles for long distance communication, and use other sounds like burst pulses for short distance comunication with animals nearby. Sociality is another common component.

Another amazing thing about whistled languages is that they are still closely linked to their language of origin. If the language is tonal, the whistle will follow their language melodic structure. If the language is not tonal , whistles will try to mimic vowel resonance and convey consonants via how they whistle, i.e abrupt changes.