Scientific yodeling

I wrote in a previous post how our student nurses in Africa would laugh when my mother would whistle loudly using her fingers.

They also loved it when our Swiss nun, Sister Carina, would yodel for them.


So here's an article in Scientific American on yodeling:

as Wise puts it in a paper that presents a classification scheme for the various falsetto effects he’s studied in popular music:

“The precise moment when the break from modal voice into loft, or vice versa, occurs is the distinguishing feature of the yodel. In fact, it is the only distinguishing feature. This break in register is the sonic event within the flow of the musical line that startles and delights the ear. I call this ‘yodel moment’ in the musical flow a yodeleme, a coinage analogous to similar concepts such as phoneme and museme and intended to indicate a primary unit of meaning.”

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related item:
In that area of Africa ( like many countries in the Middle East), the women would ululate when they wanted to show joy. example