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Why is calling "cooee!" a good way to draw attention to yourself?

In Australia, the loud, shrill call of "Cooee!" is often used over long distances in rural and mountainous areas to draw attention to oneself. What is it about this word that makes it more audible over distance and is there a word more suited to drawing attention to myself should I be lost in the outback?

Tom Langford, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

(Image: stock.xchng, sciucaness)

Plenty of speculation on this one so we're keeping the file open for a while. Thanks to those who point out that "Gooweet" was devised by Australian Aborigines for gaining long-distance attention, while a few hundred years back "hoooooha" was popular in Sri Lanka - Ed

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Last edited on: 2009-11-18 14:49:35

Categories: Human Body, Technology.

Tags: weather, technology, humanbody, domesticscience, audible, call, shout.

 

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 Anonymous says:
At a guess it's because of the way it's said rather than the word itself.If you said Cooee the way it's written it would be no different than say Bondee but it's said , start in a low register getting louder and higher, Coooooooooeeeeeeee with the final e usually quite high pitched. This would aid in it echoing lengthening the time it hangs in the air . The tonal change distinguishes it from most of the bush noises.Of course these days people don't shout Cooee they just ring on the mobile and say they are lost but aren't quite sure which state or part thereof they are in :D
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posted on 2008-03-12 22:43:00 | Report abuse

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 Anonymous says:
The bird kroel makes a call that sounds like coeee and it is a very loud call from such a small bird.
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posted on 2008-03-13 05:01:00 | Report abuse

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 Anonymous says:
"Coooooooeeeee" or the sorts, is just the reflection of "Eco" , read "Echo", reflected from the canion walls.
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posted on 2008-03-13 12:38:00 | Report abuse

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 Mark1 says:
I can say how it works, but it would seem to be related to yodelling, which was developed to carry the voice through the Alps. On a similar note, I once met a woman in Leamington who confidently told me that she could call ducks and geese, having lived as a child on a farm. She let out a loud cooeee/yodel, and from far out of site a large number of ducks, geese and swans arrived. Of course, she did have some bread at the ready, so there would be some learned behaviour.
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posted on 2008-03-13 18:59:00 | Report abuse

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 Nate Dog says:
A person's hearing is most sensitive between 1KHz and 4KHz, peaking at about 3KHz. The way Cooee is usually said the high bit being in general between 1 and 4Khz. It's not that the call carries better, just that we are better at hearing it.
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posted on 2008-03-14 01:49:00 | Report abuse

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