Maybe those old folks grew up together so they have their own whistling dialect.
The report on Swedish TV did show school children learning the whistling language so I'd assume they'd all understand eachother. But even so, I just don't think whistling leaves room for enough nuances to carry on a normal conversation.
It seems to be more suited for commands or exclamations like "bring me a beer" or "rain coming".
> But even so, I just don't think rapidly moving air over skin to induce vibration leaves room for enough nuances to carry on a normal conversation.
Ultimately, whistling is just the emission of sound. Given that we get by with throat-sounds, I'd bet that whistling language could be sufficiently developed to be capable of expressing complex thought. Both speech and whistling are just moving air.
The whistling is indeed word for word. In my village some of the over 40's still exchange whistles from time to time depending on their situation.
I am not the best at whistling, as I didn't have the nerve to learn it all, nor I communicated like that to my friends and family. Although I am able to understand some of it and get a few words depending on how clear the other person is when he is whistling. Some of the older folks whistle their words very fast, and the ones that can understand them are people that have been trained to listen to those whistles for most of their lives.
On the articles whistling on soundcloud I was able to understand 5/6 tracks. The alphabet both in the slow motion and in the fast version is pretty clear.
Disclaimer: I grew up partly in a village in Greece, where they do keep that form of communication. I recently returned to Greece and am permanently residing in that village. I am not fluent in the whistling language, but I know for a fact that there is an alphabet and proper words coming out of whistling.