Is there a better name?

[charlie_butterworth]

Well I like the name Pennywhistle. I always assumed it was because it was a cheap to afford instrument costing something like a penny.

This may be very important historically, I mean if the pennywhistle cost 1/4 of a penny, we'd be calling it a Farthingwhistle or even worse (or better depending upon your point of view), if the whistle cost four pence , we'd be calling it a Groatwhistle - not to be confused with goatherders calling their flock.

Anyway, I am just offering my twopence worth

Charlie

[Feadoggie]

I suggest we dispense with all the historical precedents and bring things into the present. We should name this instrument after the one who brought us all together in this space. Let's call it a Dale or Dalewhistle. I would have suggested the Wiselywhistle but since he's doing that whole Madonna/Cher thing, you know....

Feadoggie

[Nanohedron]

For you sticklers, here's a rough pronunciation guide, using what might be Midwestern US pronunciation values in the spelling, but hoping the renderings work for all:

Feadóg: "FA dhogue" (like "rogue")
Feadán: "FA dhawn" (like, well, "dawn")
Feadóg mhór: "FA dhogue WORE"
Feadóg stain: "FA dhogue STAN" (sorta like "hand")
Feadánaí: "FA dhawn ee" (I've seen this one for fluteplayers)
Feadánach "FA dhawn ukh" ("u" meaning a schwa sound)

Think of the "dh" as almost like the "th" in "this", but still stopped like a "D". Remember that the fáda marks don't indicate stress; they indicate vowel length, basically. Stress in noncompound words is reliably on the first syllable.

But if you're buying a Feadóg Brand whistle in the States, you better say "FEE-dawg" or they won't know what on Earth you mean.

[JordanII]

For you sticklers, here's a rough pronunciation guide, using what might be Midwestern US pronunciation values in the spelling, but hoping the renderings work for all:

Feadóg: "FA dhogue" (like "rogue")
Feadán: "FA dhawn" (like, well, "dawn")
Feadóg mhór: "FA dhogue WORE"
Feadóg stain: "FA dhogue STAN" (sorta like "hand")
Feadánaí: "FA dhawn ee" (I've seen this one for fluteplayers)
Feadánach "FA dhawn ukh" ("u" meaning a schwa sound)

Think of the "dh" as almost like the "th" in "this", but still stopped like a "D". Remember that the fáda marks don't indicate stress; they indicate vowel length, basically. Stress in noncompound words is reliably on the first syllable.

But if you're buying a Feadóg Brand whistle in the States, you better say "FEE-dawg" or they won't know what on Earth you mean.

Hmm... I'm having trouble deciding if great lakes is the same as the midwestern US you speak of as I know there's a difference from a MI accent to anywhere else in the midwest...

Anyway, yeah, we need a new name... when people hear "whistle" what are they gonna think of? And calling a Burke or Alba a pennywhistle isn't really all that fitting. Flute came from the Latin word "Flatus" so what could the new name for the whistle be... hmmmmm..........

[jemtheflute]

Wait till you see me bang the drum for the beautiful pibgorn!!!!

Mine is certainly beautiful - to look at....... !

As for the sound

No need to bang any drums for pibgyrn, they make quite enough racket on their own. Drum with......that'd work! BTW, last time I played mine was in concert (well......) with four others - in St Asaph Cathedral of all places. For the record, the other perpetrators were Stephen Rees, Andy MacLauchlin, Patrick Rimes and Hefin Jones. We even got applauded! (Maybe due to a shortage of rotten eggs in such a venue.....)

On topic, I would tend to vote for plain "whistle" on grounds others have already covered about composition and price and despite the potential confusion with e.g. referees' whistles and the like, and turn of phrase does the same to avoid confusion with lip-whistling. Context (i.e. to do with music) tends to make it clear that the latter are not what one means. Of course, that's all well and good for English - most of the Romance languages don't have separate words for whistles - they are all "flutes" (read cognate equivalent), usually with some kind of qualifier such as "douce/dolce/dulce" or "traversiere/traverso" etc. or may have a regional dialect name (viz the Galician usages on the Caride website I linked on The List over on the Flute Forum today).

Welsh seems to be developing a usage, not having a reliably established historic one - "chwiban" or "chwibanogl" seem to be in contention.

[tomk]

I would call it if I could , the : Tradiophonicphibralattephone ,
Cause it puts me in the zone , when I am alone , at home . Ooowww ooo

[Mitch]

...

if the whistle cost four pence , we'd be calling it a Groatwhistle - not to be confused with goatherders calling their flock.
...
Charlie

I LIKE IT!

I think this is on the right track .. but ... hmm the reference to "whistle .. hmm

GROAT is GOOD!

In GROAT we TRUST. Nice ring to it ..

But the reference to currency is still there .. we could drop the AAArrrr because most pirates play concertinas ... hmmm.

What's Irish for "goat"?

Hmmm "gabhar" ..

Pronunciation anyone?

(edited to say: "Hmmm" anyone who is old or knows old people will know that "Hmmm" is the sound of the cogs in their heads winding up to speed. (Old people being clockwork - pre electronic devices). The Hmmm changes to "Errmmm" when lubricated with a suitable friction reducing agent - such as Guinness. Over application of the substance can have the reverse effect turnng "Errrmm" into "AAArrrrr" .. then we are back to Groat - but it will take more than a groat for the next round. [and it's your shout])

[Welshman]

Interesting to see how the Welsh are sorting out the name of our fine instrument. Now, if my school-learned Welsh still serves me well "chwiban" literally translated as "whistle", whilst "chwibanogl" can mean either whistle or flute (although "ffliwt" would be the favoured option for the latter).

I guess the Welsh are just as confused as the rest of us.

[Ballyshannon]

I've been studying Irish-Gaelic and have heard Feadóg pronounced F'YA-dohg (where the "a" rhymes with "hat"), as well as FAH-dohg and FAY-doh.

[MTGuru]

I still see nothing wrong with plain old "whistle". The English word has a venerable heritage. The OED first citation dates to the year 950 in the Lindisfarne Gospels, in today's exact sense of a whistle played for dancers. The words whistle, flute, and pipe(s) all have multiple general meanings and overlapping musical meanings. But in the context of our music they're phonetically distinct and semantically unambiguous - two prime characteristics of useful jargon.

[A-Musing]

freepipe

(no bag)

[ahogrelius]

What's Irish for "goat"?

Hmmm "gabhar" ..

Pronunciation anyone?

Something like "gaour"...

http://www.fiosfeasa.com/bearla/languag ... gabhar.aif

Cheers,
Anders

[WyoBadger]

No matter what I call it, I still end up having to demonstrate and/or explain what it is, anyway. So I'll just stick with whistle for common use, pennywhistle for more formal occasions. If I think about it that hard.

Tom

[Rhadge]

Diamond Whistle, I call my Clarke. Or just "The Golden Diamond".

[Mitch]

I've had an inspiration!

Necessity being the mother of invention.

To make a virtue of a failing, and to use as many cliche's as possible - I have it!

Let's call it the WHISLTE!!!!

It's much easier to type, and has a nice palate-mangling fake-olde-worlde alure (AAArrrr).

I will hence forth refer to my favorite tooting device as a Whislte and abandon my spell checker