A “whistled language” used by only 10,000 people living in north-east Turkey is even more amazing than previously believed.

As reported by the New Scientist, a new study in Cell claims that this form of communication, unlike any other kind of language, utilizes both sides of our brain equally instead of primarily the left hemisphere.

“In all languages, tonal or atonal, click or sign language, written or spoken, it’s so far been the left hemisphere that appears to do most of the interpretation,” study author Dr. Onur Güntürkün told the New Scientist. “Now, we’ve shown for the first time equal contributions from both hemispheres.”

As can be seen in the above video, the singsong-like whistle can travel over long distances and carries as much information as the spoken tongue. The people who have kept the technique alive ordinarily rely on their native Turkish when in close quarters but turn to whistling when it’s more convenient.

In the Cell study, Güntürkün and his colleagues tested 31 of these speakers, relaying slightly different Turkish syllables into each ear, both in spoken and whistled form, and observing how accurately they were to say back what they had heard. Because the left hemisphere, which largely corresponds to audio input from the right ear, is dominantly used when interpreting most other languages, we’re more able to accurately repeat back what the right ear hears.

And when spoken Turkish was used in the test, that’s exactly what happened. But when the parents heard whistled Turkish, both brain hemispheres were as equally adept at identifying the syllables. It’s thought that this effect happens because of the musical qualities of whistled Turkish, with music comprehension already suspected to primarily involve the right hemisphere of the brain.

Fascinating as this language is, it’s also a dying one, thanks in part to the bane of parents everywhere — cell phones. “You can gossip with a mobile phone, but you can’t do that with whistling because the whole valley hears,” Güntürkün told the New Scientist.