Aas () is a French village of about a hundred inhabitants in the commune of

Eaux-Bonnes Eaux-Bonnes (, "good waters"; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Departments of France, department in south-western France. Description Eaux-Bonnes is close to the small town of Laruns. It is situated at a height ...

, Ossau valley, historical province of Haut-Béarn,

departement In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the Regions of France, administrative regions a ...

Pyrénées-Atlantiques Pyrénées-Atlantiques (; Gascon language, Gascon Occitan language, Occitan: ''Pirenèus Atlantics''; ) is a Departments of France, department located in the Regions of France, region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine in the southwest corner of metropolitan ...

. Its shepherds maintained a

whistled language Whistled speech is a form of speech surrogacy in which whistling is used to mimic speech. Speakers of more than 80 languages have been found to practice various degrees of whistled speech, most of them in rugged topography or dense forests, whe ...

until the 20th century. According to

Graham Robb Graham Macdonald Robb FRSL (born 2 June 1958, in Manchester) is a British author and critic specialising in French literature. Biography Born at Manchester, Robb attended the Royal Grammar School, Worcester, before going up to Exeter College ...

, no outsiders knew of the language until a 1959 TV program mentioned it. Whistles were up to 100 decibels, and were used for communication by shepherds in the mountains and by women working in the fields. During the Nazi occupation of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the language was used to ferry refugees across the Spanish borders.

References

Former communes of Pyrénées-Atlantiques Whistled languages Béarn {{PyrénéesAtlantiques-geo-stub