# Are there any languages that could not be understood if whispered? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 10, 2012, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407 "2012-04-10T21:25:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/21 "2012-04-11T12:24:45Z")
No, you have that right. But while that is analogous to whispering/shouting it is not, in fact, whispering or shouting. **etv78** is correct, ASL _can’t_ be whispered. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/22 "2012-04-11T12:45:32Z")
While not a native Mandarin speaker, I can understand whispered Mandarin just fine. My Chinese family have no issue with understanding whispering in either Mandarin, Shanghaiese. The Hubei branch of the family might but I’m not sure because I’ve never heard them speak at anything below a bellow. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/23 "2012-04-11T12:58:59Z")
English. Actors in TV shows and movies need to learn how to stage whisper ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/24 "2012-04-11T13:39:54Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Here in America I’ve always heard that game called “Telephone” We called it either Telephone or Gossip. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/25 "2012-04-11T15:41:40Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > We called it either Telephone or Gossip. Telephone here. American. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/26 "2012-04-11T16:19:27Z")
I just did some test whispering in Vietnamese and I had a very hard time applying the tones, but even so I suspect that whatever is whispered would still be understood from situational context. Likewise a lot of my VN friends don’t apply the tonal marks when they text or comment on Facebook, but they can still be understood from the context. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/27 "2012-04-11T16:22:31Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > Telephone here. American. Whisper Down the Lane. American, Middle Atlantic states. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/28 "2012-04-11T22:31:35Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > Telephone here. American. Damn the phone signal must suck in your country.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/29 "2012-04-12T02:38:52Z")
That game is called Telephone here in Canada too. I suspect it was once called something else, but they teach it to very young children in ultra-PC environments here as a setup to any of various moral lessons (think “there are two sides to every story” or “don’t believe everything you hear”, for example) and so had to remove any reference to languages/nationalities. For a while, “Chinese” anything was used to denote a version more complex than the original- whether because the the language is supposed to be very hard to learn for English speakers or because Chinese checkers is damn hard, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/30 "2012-04-12T03:43:57Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > Ah. I know of that phenomenon, but have never heard of it framed as a game… > > Joe I played it first in elementary school. My teacher called it “Grapevine”. Later on, I’ve heard it called Telephone or Party Line. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/31 "2012-04-12T03:45:12Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > I played it first in elementary school. My teacher called it “Grapevine”. Later on, I’ve heard it called Telephone or Party Line. This word has been “Grapped” by myself, The Grapevinest. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/32 "2012-04-12T03:48:13Z")
Perhaps that’s why modern english has seemed to dominate the western world? It’s survived natural selection towards an advantage in whispering. Apparently we must tell a lot of secrets. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/33 "2012-04-12T04:09:15Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Voiced vs. unvoiced consonant pairs is probably one phonemic contrast that is found to one degree or another in almost all languages. Whispering will make THOSE phonemes a bit ambiguous, but context almost always makes things clear (we fail to make all kinds of other contrasts in normal speech which are actually present in the language, and understand each other fine). I don’t know about other languages, but, in English, we get around this because nearly all unvoiced consonants are [aspirated](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirated_consonant), while unvoiced ones never are. Thus, even when whispering, there’s still a difference. The ones that can’t be aspirated tend to have the voiced version be softer or shorter, like a whispered /z/ vs a whispered /s/. And the few consonant positions that are not usually aspirated have no phonemic difference between the voiced and unvoiced versions: if you say “sdop” for “stop,” it may sound a bit funny, but people still recognize it as the same word. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/34 "2012-04-12T04:15:33Z")
Good point. This suggests that languages like Hindi which include some aspirated/unaspirated minimal pairs (that are not voiced/unvoiced contrasting as well) might be a little more ambiguous than English when whispered. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/35 "2012-04-12T04:47:04Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I know that as Telephone. (American here) we also played that game back in grade school, and we called it Telephone [Purple Monkey Dishwasher](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP_pDXBOSBI). ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/36 "2012-04-12T05:00:52Z")
Fortran? ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/37 "2012-04-12T05:38:58Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > Fortran? nope.Sorry,not true. It doesn’t matter if you whisper in Fortran. Because Fortran is _always_ incomprehensible–whether written, spoken, or whispered. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kamrusepas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8c91f0/32.png) [@Kamrusepas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamrusepas)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/38 "2012-04-12T09:00:23Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > Okay, I forgot this was an international board… Chinese whispers is a game where a group of people get in a circle, someone starts by whispering a phrase or word (in English) to the person next to them, and that next person quietly relays it on and so on. By the time the message gets back to the original person, it is often greatly distorted. It’s (or at least was when I was a kid) popular here in Finland too. We call it the broken phone 😃 ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/39 "2012-04-12T09:26:30Z")
I’d like to nominate [Central Rotokas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotokas_language), whose consonant inventory is small and distinguished only on two dimensions: voicing and place of articulation. There are only six phonemes, comprised of three voiced/unvoiced pairs. Whispering is therefore has the potential to introduce a _lot_ of ambiguity (relative to, say, any other language discussed in this thread so far). Then again, I’m not an expert on Rotokas, so it’s possible that, as with English, there are non-phonemic differences between the voiced and unvoiced pairs which would serve to distinguish them in whispered speech. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407/40 "2012-04-12T10:58:36Z")
Cool, psychonaut – good sleuthing! I think this answers the OP as well as can be hoped for. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-that-could-not-be-understood-if-whispered/618407.md?page=3)