{{short description|Long vocal sound resembling a howl}} '''Ululation''' ({{IPAc-en|audio=en-us-ululation.ogg|ˌ|j|uː|lj|ʊ|ˈ|l|eɪ|ʃ|ən|,_|ˌ|ʌ|l|-}},{{refn|{{MerriamWebsterDictionary|access-date=2016-01-22|Ululation}}}}{{refn|{{Cite dictionary |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Ululation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200322185827/https://www.lexico.com/definition/ululation |url-status=dead |archive-date=2020-03-22 |title=Ululation |dictionary=Lexico UK English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press}} }} {{ety|la|{{wikt-lang|la|ululo}}}}), '''trilling''' or '''lele''', is a long, wavering, high-pitched vocal sound resembling a howl with a trilling quality. It is produced by emitting a high-pitched, loud voice accompanied by a rapid back-and-forth movement of the tongue and the uvula.<ref name=pandle/>
==Around the world==
[[File:Ululation.ogg|thumb|300px|An Egyptian woman ululates after having cast her vote in the 2014 Egyptian presidential elections.]]
Ululation is practiced either alone or as part of certain styles of singing, on various occasions of communal ritual events (like weddings), used to express strong emotion.
Ululation is practiced in all parts of Africa, the Middle East, the Americas and as far east as Central and South Asia. It is also practiced in a few places in Europe among the diaspora community originating from these areas.
===Middle East=== Ululation is commonly used in Middle Eastern weddings. In the Arab world, '''''zaghrouta''''' (Arabic: زغروتة; pl. '''''zaghārīt''''' زغاريت) is a ululation performed to honor someone.<ref name="lolo">{{cite web|title="Lolololololeeesh (Zaghrouta), the Arab Way to Express Happy Emotions"|website=Arab America|url=https://www.arabamerica.com/lolololololeeesh-zaghrouta-the-arab-way-to-express-happy-emotions/|accessdate=2026-04-12|year=2019}}</ref> For example, Zaghareets are widely performed and documented in Egyptian movies, featuring traditional Egyptian weddings, dating back to the 1940s, in which women perform very long, very loud Egyptian-style ululations to celebrate the groom and bride. Another example of modern incorporation of ululations into traditional wedding songs can be found in ''Zaghareed'' (also spelt ''zaghareet''), a collection of traditional Palestinian wedding songs reinterpreted and rearranged by Mohsen Subhi and produced in 1997 by the Palestinian National Music and Dance Troupe ''El-Funoun''.<ref>{{cite web | title = ''Zaghareed'' | year = 1997 | url = http://www.el-funoun.org/productions/zaghared.html |access-date=2009-01-05 | website = El Funoun website| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090105201604/http://www.el-funoun.org/productions/zaghared.html | archive-date = 2009-01-05 }}</ref>
Ululations are a part of Kurdish culture. They are commonly heard during henna nights, weddings and Newroz as they are a display of celebration. Ululation also occurs among Mizrahi Jews during ''simcha'' (festive occasions) such as at the inauguration of a Torah scroll (''hachnasat sefer Torah''), ''brit milah'' (circumcision),<ref>{{cite book | last = Heber | first = Levi Y. | chapter= Additional Sephardic Circumcision Customs: The customs of Sephardim and Oriental Jews at a Brit Milah | chapter-url = http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/144126/jewish/Additional-Sephardic-Circumcision-Customs.htm | title= The Handbook to Circumcision | publisher = Brit Milah}}</ref> communal celebrations, weddings,<ref name="Stillman">{{cite book | last1 = Stillman | first1 = Yedida Kalfon| last2 =Zucker | first2 = George K. | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=onyvVGtBjDgC&pg=PA298 | title = New horizons in Sephardic Studies| page = 298| isbn = 9780791414019| date = January 1993| publisher = SUNY Press}}</ref><ref>See Sephardic Music section on History</ref> ''bar mitzvah''<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Everson | first1 = Eva Marie | last2 = Vamosh | first2 = Mirian Feinberg | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=065owD0uIjMC&pg=PA242 | title = Reflections of God's Holy Land: A Personal Journey Through Israel | page = 242 | isbn = 9781418577612 | date = 2008-08-31 | publisher = Thomas Nelson }}{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> celebrations, and most of all at ''henna'' celebrations.<ref>{{cite web| last = Samin | first = Lisa | url = http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/3469/moroccan-nuptials-combine-ancient-rituals-festivities | work = JWeekly.com | title = Moroccan nuptials combine ancient rituals, festivities | publisher = World Zionist Press Service| date = 1996-06-14 }}</ref> Recordings of various styles of ululations are commonly found in the music of artists performing Mizrahi styles of music.
Kel or kel keshidan is a form of ululation practiced in various regions of Iran, particularly in Mazanderan, and by Persians in Shiraz, in Fars province, and areas such as Abarkuh, in Yazd province.<ref>{{cite web |title=Marriage amongst Iranian People (Case Study, Abarkooh City, Yazd, Iran) |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315395053_Marriage_amongst_Iranian_People_Case_Study_Abarkooh_City_Yazd_Iran |publisher=researchgate}}</ref> It is a vocal expression performed mainly by women during celebratory rituals, especially weddings. In traditional ceremonies, “Women who enter the house put their hands on their mouths and make special sounds called, ‘kel’ and ‘kel keshidan’.” This act is reciprocated by other women present and functions as both a greeting and a communal expression of joy.
As reflected in Iranian visual culture, including The Mare (1986) by ‛Alī Rizā Zhikān and the TV series Shahrzad (TV series), these practices also carry symbolic and narrative meanings: “As expressed in ritual verses such as those in The Mare, marriage is presumed to be lifelong, ending only in death. This temporality is both linear and gendered, positioning a girl’s life along a fixed path: from virginity to motherhood, and eventually, to death. This linearity is reinforced through gendered rituals—such as kil (ululation) sounds, sugar grinding, and symbolic acts— performed mostly by women, who accompany the bride through this transition.” In the ‛aqd scene, there are no agents or mediators facilitating her transition into wifehood: instead, she plays the daf and produces the celebratory kil (ululation) sounds herself – acts typically performed by others on behalf of the bride.” “After the clergyman departs, the couple celebrates by making music themselves – Hāniyah plays the daf and emits celebratory kil (ululation) sounds, actions typically performed by female guests or hired entertainers in traditional ceremonies.”<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mohammadzadeh |first1=Rojano |title=Queering the Institution of Marriage in Iranian Wedding Ceremonies: An On-Screen Analysis |url=https://cinema.iranicaonline.org/article/queering-the-institution-of-marriage-in-iranian-wedding-ceremonies-an-on-screen-analysis/}}</ref>
Shanbehzadeh Ensemble, founded in 1990 by Afro-Iranian musician Saeid Shanbehzadeh from Bushehr in southern Iran, is a musical group known for preserving and performing the traditional music, dance, and cultural practices of southwestern Iran and the Persian Gulf region. Their work incorporates Afro-Iranian heritage, especially through rhythmic percussion, dance, and vocal traditions such as ululation (kel/kil, kel keshidan), which is used both as a celebratory expression and as part of ceremonial performance.<ref>{{cite web |title=Afro-Iranian Musical Group The Shanbehzadeh Ensemble At The Apollo |url=https://www.harlemworldmagazine.com/afro-iranian-musical-group-shanbehzadeh-ensemble-apollo/}}</ref>
===Africa and Asia=== In Ethiopia and Eritrea, ululation (called ''ililta'') is part of a Christian religious ritual performed by worshipers as a feature of Sunday or other services in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church,<ref>{{cite journal|title=Review: Ethiopian Christian Liturgical Chant|journal=Journal of Religion in Africa}}</ref> Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and some Ethiopian Evangelical Churches.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Persoon |first=Joachim |date=2010 |title=The Planting of the <i>Tabot</i> on European Soil: The Trajectory of Ethiopian Orthodox Involvement with the European Continent |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/swc.2010.0107 |journal=Studies in World Christianity |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=320–340 |doi=10.3366/swc.2010.0107 |issn=1354-9901 |via=Edinburgh University Press Journals|url-access=subscription }}</ref> ''Ililta'' is also used in Eritrean and Ethiopian music. In Somali, ululation is known as ''Alalaas'' and is widely used in music. In Hausa it is known as ''guda'', in Zulu ''lilizela, in ukuyiyizela,'',in Xhosa ukuyiyizela, in Tsonga ''nkulungwani'' and in Northern SiNdebele ''ukubulula''. Ululation is incorporated into African musical styles such as Tshangani music, where it is a form of audience participation, alongside clapping and call-and-response.
In Tanzania, ululation is a celebratory cheer sound when good news has been shared, or during weddings, the welcoming of a newborn home, graduations and other festivals, and even in church when sermons are being delivered. In Swahili, it is known as ''vigelegele'', and in Luo, it is known as ''udhalili''. Generally, women exuberantly yell ''lililili'' in a high-pitched voices. Girls are usually proud of being able to ululate like their mothers and aunts.
[[File:Durga Korravai.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|In Dravidian tradition, ululation as a war cry or a call to victory is dedicated to Korravai, The Goddess of War and Victory.]]
Ululation is also widely practiced in the eastern parts of India, where it is also known as Ululudhvani. People, especially women roll their tongues and produce this sound during all Hindu temple rituals, festivals and celebrations. This is also an integral part of most weddings in these parts, where, depending upon the local usages, women ululate to welcome the groom or bride or both. Bengalis call it ''ulu-dhwani'', and they use it during weddings and other festivals. Odias call it ''Hulahuli'' or ''Huluhuli''.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110416/jsp/orissa/story_13858970.jsp |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150707000333/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110416/jsp/orissa/story_13858970.jsp |url-status= dead |archive-date= July 7, 2015 |newspaper=The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Orissa |title=Lost customs return to Bhubaneswar |year=2012 |quote=hulahuli — the typical sound made in chorus by women during religious ceremonies |access-date=2012-06-16}}</ref> <ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.orissa-tourism.com/relfes.htm |title=FAIRS & FESTIVALS :: RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS |work=Orissa-Tourism.com |year=2006 |quote=Hulahuli' (a shrill sound made by wagging the tongue inside the mouth) |access-date=2012-06-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101220035109/http://www.orissa-tourism.com/relfes.htm|archive-date=2010-12-20}}</ref> In Odisha, ululation is used to cheer during weddings, cultural gatherings and celebrations.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}} The Assamese people call it ''uruli''. In Tamil, it is known as ''kulavai'' (Tamil:குளவை). In Kerala, ululation is essential for all ceremonial occasions, and the term used in Malayalam is ''kurava'' (Malayalam:കൊരവ). For the native people of Kashmir, it is commonly practised and called ''Zagruta.'' It is mostly practised during weddings, a wedding lead-up, or other occasions such as birthdays or upon hearing good news.
[[File:Irrintzi en el aire.jpg|thumb|Sculpture ''Irrintzi in the air'' by Mikel Varas.|alt=A curling metal tube.]]
Ululation is rooted in the culture of North Africa, Northern parts of West Africa and Eastern Africa, as well as Southern Africa, and is widely practiced in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mauritania, Tanzania, Kenya, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Ethiopia-Eritrea, Somalia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is used by women to give praises at weddings and all other celebrations.<ref>{{Citation |last=Meintjes |first=Louise |title=Ululation |date=2019 |work=Remapping Sound Studies |pages=61–76 |editor-last=Steingo |editor-first=Gavin |url=http://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/2559/chapter/1361060/Ululation |access-date=2024-11-03 |publisher=Duke University Press |language=en |doi=10.1215/9781478002192-004 |isbn=978-1-4780-0219-2 |editor2-last=Sykes |editor2-first=Jim|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It is a general sound of good cheer and celebration, when good news has been delivered in a place of gathering, even in church. It is also an integral part of most African weddings where women gather around the bride and groom, dancing and ululating exuberantly. During graduation ceremonies, ululation shows pride and joy in scholastic achievement. The women ululating usually stand and make their way to the front to dance and ululate around the graduate.
===Europe=== Ululations are used to some extent by south European women.<ref name=pandle>{{Cite book | last= Pendle | first=Karin | title=Women & music: a history | year=2001 | publisher=Indiana University Press | location=Bloomington | isbn=0-253-21422-X }}</ref> The Basque {{lang|eu|irrintzi}} is a signal of happiness originating from shepherds.<ref name="Trask">{{Cite web | last= Trask | first = Larry Trask | author-link = Larry Trask | url = http://www.buber.net/Basque/Euskara/Larry/WebSite/basque.words.html | title = Some Important Basque Words (And a Bit of Culture)}}</ref><ref name="Auñamendi">{{Cite encyclopedia | url = http://euskomedia.org/aunamendi/76986 | title = Irrintzi | language = es | encyclopedia = Auñamendi Encyclopedia}}</ref> It has been proposed as a technique for vocal rehabilitation.<ref name="Martínez-Arellano">{{cite book |last1=Martínez-Arellano |first1=Ana |title=Bases fisiológicas y caracterización acústica del Irrintzi |date=8 July 2021 |publisher=Universidad de Navarra |location=Pamplona |url=https://dadun.unav.edu/handle/10171/61076 |access-date=3 October 2021 |language=es |quote=Esta técnica se puede utilizar para trabajar el volumen alto en pacientes con disfonía y para mejorar el rendimiento vocal y la eficiencia de la voz en personas que utilizan la a volumen alto o en frecuencias elevadas.}}</ref> The Galician {{lang|gl|aturuxo}} is performed with accompanied vocalization from the throat.
=== Americas === It is also practiced by some Native American tribes. In the Lakota tribe, women yell "lililili" in a high-pitched voice to praise warriors for acts of valor.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Bullerman|first1=Mathias|title=SAIVUS - Lakota Language Tutorial - Lesson One - Wóuŋspe Tȟokáhe|url=http://sioux.saivus.org/index.html|website=sioux.saivus.org|publisher=SAIVUS|access-date=2017-02-09|archive-date=2018-02-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180224075721/http://sioux.saivus.org/index.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Apaches also practice ululation, as do the Cherokee, as war cries.
==In ancient times== In Ancient Egypt, references to ululation appear in the inscriptions of the Pyramid Texts of Unas, on the West Wall of the Corridor (section XIII),<ref>{{Cite web | last = van den Dungen | first = Wim | url = http://www.sofiatopia.org/maat/wenis13.htm | title = The Pyramid Texts of UNAS}}</ref> and of Pepi I, in the Spells for Entering the Akhet.<ref>{{Cite book | last1= Allen | first1 = James P. | last2 = Manuelian| first2 = Peter Der | title = The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts}}</ref> In ancient Greece, ululation or ({{langx|el|ὀλολυγή | ololuge}}) was normally used as a joyful expression<ref name=laura/> to celebrate good news<ref name=allan>{{Cite book |author1=Allan, William |author2=Altena, Hermann |author3=Michael, Jr Perna |author4=Gregory, Justina | title=A Companion to Greek Tragedy (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World) | date= 2005-09-16| publisher=Blackwell Publishing Limited | isbn=1-4051-0770-7 }}</ref> or when an animal's throat is cut during sacrifice.<ref>{{Cite book | last=Goff | first=Barbara E. | title=Citizen Bacchae: women's ritual practice in ancient Greece | year=2004 | publisher=University of California Press | location=Berkeley | isbn=0-520-23998-9 }}</ref> However, in Aeschylus' ''Agamemnon'', along with being an expression of joy, it is also used for fury,<ref name=allan/> and in Sophocles' ''Electra'', it is employed as an expression of grief.<ref name=laura>{{Cite book | last= McClure | first=Laura | title=Spoken like a woman: speech and gender in Athenian drama | year=1999 | publisher=Princeton University Press | location=Princeton, N.J. | isbn=0-691-01730-1 }}</ref> As in many cultures, use depended on context: ululated exclamations could appear in different circumstances as a cry of lament or as a battle-cry.<ref name=wiktionary>Wiktionary:ἐλελεῦ</ref>
Homer mentions ololuge (ululation) in his works,<ref>{{Cite book | last=Stein| first=Charles | title=The Odyssey | year=2008| publisher=North Atlantic Books | isbn=978-1-55643-728-1 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | last=Camps | first=W. A. | author-link=W. A. Camps | title=An introduction to Homer | year=1980 | publisher=Clarendon Press | location=Oxford | isbn=0-19-872101-3 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontoho0000camp }}</ref> as does Herodotus, citing ululation in North Africa – where it is still practiced – saying: <blockquote>I think for my part that the loud cries uttered in our sacred rites came also from thence; for the Libyan women are greatly given to such cries and utter them very sweetly.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/herod-libya1.html |title=On Libya, from The Histories, c. 430 BCE |volume=IV |pages=42–43}}</ref></blockquote>
Or in another translation: <blockquote>I also think that the ''ololuge'' or cry of praise emitted during the worship of Athena started in Libya, because it is often employed by Libyan women, who do it extremely well.<ref>{{Cite book | author1=Waterfield, Robin | author2=Dewald, Carolyn | title=The histories | year=1998 | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=Oxford [England] | isbn=0-19-282425-2 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/histories0000hero }}</ref><ref>For the ancient Greeks, Libya denoted a much larger expanse than present-day Libya.</ref></blockquote>
The Hebrew word Hallelujah, translated as a call to "praise the Lord", contains the root H-L-L, with meanings related to "praise". This root may have originally been an onomatopoeic imitation of ululation performed in Israelite rituals.<ref>{{Cite book | author=Zevit, Ziony | title=The First Halleluyah | work=Milk and Honey: Essays on Ancient Israel and the Bible in Appreciation of the Judaic Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego | year=2007 | publisher=Eisenbrauns | isbn=9781575061276 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BW4wUQSxnjQC&pg=PA164 | page=164 }}</ref>
==In popular culture== In the 90s television show ''Xena: Warrior Princess'', Xena's iconic battle cry is a personalized version of an Arabic ululation. Actress Lucy Lawless created the sound, adapting it from watching women at a funeral because creator Rob Tapert wanted a "signature call" for the heroine.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Romano |first=Nick |date=August 31, 2019 |title=Lucy Lawless explains and demonstrates how she came up with Xena’s war cry |url=https://ew.com/tv/2019/08/31/xena-warrior-princess-war-cry-lucy-lawless/ |website=Entertainment Weekly}}</ref>
At the 2020 Super Bowl LIV halftime show, Colombian singer Shakira, whose father is Lebanese, ululated at the camera during her performance.<ref>{{cite web |last=Schoenberg |first=Nara |date=3 February 2020 |title=That tongue-trilling sound that Shakira made at the Super Bowl? That was a zaghrouta, the traditional Middle Eastern expression of joy |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-shakira-tongue-flicking-arabic-meaning-tt-soc-02032020-20200203-wxe5wv5f2jg77jux7xrb75nihu-story.html |website=Chicago Tribune}}</ref>
==See also== *Keening *Onomatopoeia *Tarzan yell *Trill *Yodeling
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
==External links== *{{Wiktionary-inline|ululation}} * {{cite web |url= http://www.provincia.venezia.it/levi/ma/index/number4/langlois/1yuyu.wav | title = Sound clip of a North African ululation | access-date = 2006-01-13 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060113050342/http://www.provincia.venezia.it/levi/ma/index/number4/langlois/1yuyu.wav | archive-date = 2006-01-13 }}
{{Melody}}
{{Commons category-inline}}
Category:Singing techniques Category:Extended techniques Category:Battle cries