Etymology isn't just for words

Do you ever hear something and immediately think "I've heard that before! WHAT IS THAT?"

I sure did. Many days over almost the last month and a half. I head it on the S-bahns here in Berlin, Germany.

What sound, pray tell?

Oooh, I'll tell you what sound. It's the sound that has been haunting my dreams, cheeky in tone and infuriating in my inability to tell from whence it came. (Or, if you want to hear it, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG3Nc_WMg-w&feature=related from 1:08-1:12 or so.)

It's a crisp three note, two-tone beeping as the doors are closing and the S-bahn (not the U-bahn, it has a different repetitive beep) is readying to leave a station.

Fortunately for me and my sanity, I like pirates.

Rather, I really like Hans Zimmer's music, and also the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. I have been listening to the soundtrack a good deal lately, and just today bought the movies (in German) to watch in my room tonight.

It was then and there, of all times and places, that the mystery of that S-bahn noise became crystal clear.

It's the same sound on those... whistles you hear in the background of pretty much any movie involving a nautical anything.

What is that thing called?

Thank you Google, that didn't take me long at all.

It's called a Boatswain's whistle, or a Bosun's whistle. It serves its function by being high-pitched and thus easy to hear over a lot of noise, and can communicate a great deal of orders to crew. They are still used, or at least an electronic synthesization of the sounds, from time to time. Like in the S-bahn of all things.

Here are a few links relevant:

http://www.sccheadquarters.com/UserData/root/Files/Training/Proficiencies/Piping/Boatswains%20Call%20Handbook.pdf

http://www.hellenicnavy.gr/multimedia_en.asp?multimedia_type_id=4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boatswain's_call

I believe the two-tone, three note call on the German S-bahns is the same, or a near derivative, of the "General Call," as it were, on ships. In movies and on the train we do not hear the initial steep ascending note separated from the low-high-low call. If one takes a look at a good many of the sounds on the second site there, the helenic navy one, you will hear on most the easily recognizable sound.

While the General Call was usually preceding a broadcast order and on the S-bahn it follows it (or is used in lieu of one), I can easily see the similarities.

One, the tones are roughly the same, if not arguably the same entirely. Phonological similarity.

Two, the timing and order are the same. Morphologically similar, if you will.

Three, the semantic properties of the call. In naval uses, often preceding a call, and that call could often be used to indicate that one is or is about to be underway. cf. the Navy calls, especially "Sailing Execute."

So, with that, I can say with a degree of certainty that the boatswain's General Call and the call used on the German S-bahn before it leaves a station are etymologically related.

Not often you see something like that, huh?