Secret language and language games

Throughout the world and

throughout history, people have invented

secret languages and language games.

They have used these special languages

as a means of identifying with their

group, to prevent outsiders from knowing

what is being said, and/or for protection

or self-preservation.

Some examples of Secret Languages

A. Nushu

B. Hijra Farsi

-the Chinese women’s secret

language years ago

- originated in the third century as

a means for women to communicate with one

another in the sexually repressive societies of

imperial China

-exclusively created and used by

the women in Jiangyong Prefecture, Hunan

Province, China

A. Nushu

The songs or written Nushu speaks

about the pains and worries of women

like the sorrow of parting, when one

sworn sister is going to get married, or

songs about anti-Japanese because of

war at that time. The transmitters of

Nushu are from 20 to 70 years old.

-spoken and privately used by hijras

(hijra is a marginalized community that

lives in sequestered groups in many

cities of India and Pakistan)

-was created to serve as a survival

mechanism for Hijras during the British

Raj.

B. Hijra Farsi

Example:

“Kaɽe kaɽɑ ho”

- “Keep quiet” ; “shut up”

- used usually by some senior hijra for a junior one to stop them from doing anything wrong or revealing any of their secrets to the outsiders

- this imperative sentence also seems to have played its vital role of keeping Farsi hidden from the world

-they use many such sentences, sotto voce (Muhammad Sheeraz, 2011)

Here are some words from the Hijra lexicon

on footwear and garments:

Urdu, Punjabi and Siraiki languageshave no separate words to refer to theclothes of men and women but Farsidoes have firka and kotki. This seems tobe so because unlike the men andwomen of the area who wear only onetype of dress specifically designed forthem, male and female hijras wear bothtypes. So they are more in need ofseparate words for dresses than menand women. Then the word khalki usedfor shoes is masculine in Urdu butfeminine in Farsi.

C. Other Secret Languages

American slaves developed an

elaborate code that could not be

understood by the slave owners.

References to “the promised

land” or the “flight of the Israelites

from Egypt” sung in spirituals were

codes for the North and the

Underground Railroad.

codes or ciphers may be associatedwith cryptography, from the Greek‘kryptos’ or hidden, and ‘graphia’ orwriting. Cryptography is the study ofenciphering and encoding (on thesending end), and deciphering anddecoding (on the receiving end)

Code - when you substitute one word foranother word or sentence, like using aforeign language dictionary

Cipher- when you mix up or substituteexisting letters

“Meet me after school behind the gym.”

“DTTZ DT QYZTK LEIGGS WTIOFR ZIT UND.”

or

DTTZD TQYZT KLEIG GSWTI OFRZI TUNDM(an extra dummy character “M” is added in the 5-letter group)

M E E T M E

Tobeo rnott obeth atist heque stion

B E H I N D

Wheth ertis noble rinth emind tosuf

T H E G Y M

ferth eslin gsand arrow sofou trage

A F T E R

ousfo rtune ortot akear msaga

S C H O O L

insta seaof troub lesan dbyop posin gendt hem?

used for amusement by children and

adults

exist in all the world’s languages and

take a wide variety of forms

In some, a suffix is added to each word;

in others a syllable is inserted after each

vowel

there are rhyming games and games in

which phonemes are reversed; Example,

a game in Brazil substitutes an /i/ for all

the vowels

A. Pig Latin

- common language game of English;

but even Pig Latin has dialects, forms

of the “language game” with different

rules

a. Consider the following data from three

dialects of Pig Latin, each with its own rule

applied to words beginning with vowels:

State the rule that accounts for the Pig Latin

forms in each dialect.

How would you say honest, admire, and

illegal in each dialect?

Give the phonetic transcription of the Pig

Latin forms.

b. In one dialect of Pig Latin, the word strike is pronounced [arkstre], and in another dialect it is pronounced [traIkse]. In the first dialect slot is pronounced [atsle] and in the second dialect, it is pronounced [latse].

State the rules for each of these dialects that account for these different Pig Latin forms of the same words.

Give the phonetic transcriptions for spot, crisis, and scratch in both dialects.

B. Walbiri

- natives of central Australia

- play a language game in which the

meanings of words are distorted

- In this play language, all nouns,

verbs, pronouns, and adjectives are

replaced by semantically contrastive

words

Thus, the sentence :

Those men are small.

Actually means:

This woman is big.

These language games provide

evidence for the phonemes, words,

morphemes, semantic features, and so

on that is posited by linguists for

descriptive grammars. They also illustrate

the boundless creativity of human

language and human speakers.

Exercises for Language Game Rules

1. Identify the undistorted form of each

sentence;

*(Fromkin, et.al. , 2014)

2. A popular language game is to take a

word or (well-known) expression and

alter it by adding, subtracting, or

changing one letter, and supplying a

new (clever) definition. Read the

following examples, try to figure out the

expressions from which they are derived.

(Hint: Lots of Latin.)

Cogito eggo sum- I think, therefore I am a waffle.

Foreploy - A misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid

Veni, vipi, vici - I came, I am important, I conquered.

Giraffiti - Dirty words sprayed very, very

high

Ignoranus - A person who is both stupid and an @$$*ol3

Rigor Morris - The cat is dead (maybe for older students)

Felix navidad Our cat has a boat.

Veni, vidi, vice I came, I saw, I sold my sister.

Glibido All talk, no action

Haste cuisine Fast French food

L’état, c’est moo I’m bossy around here.

Intaxication The euphoria that accompanies a tax refund

Ex post fucto Lost in the mail

Aporcalypse a disastrous shortage of bacon

C. Double –Dutch

Vowels are pronounced normally, but

consonants become syllables.

Example: Mumarugyub hutchadud

a lulituttutlulelulamumbub

D. Eggy-Peggy

This secret language is used mostly in

England. Add “egg” before each vowel.

E. Gree

Add “gree” to the end of every word.

Example: Marygree hadgree agree

littlegree lambgree.

F. Na

Add “na” to the end of every word.

Example: Maryna hadna ana littlena

lambna.

G. Skimono Jive

Add “sk” to the beginning of every word.

Example: Skmary skhad ska sklittle

sklamb.

H. Gay Lingo

Gay words cannot be considered part

of secret language. However, some

terms from gay lingo resembles similar

patterns with that of the rules indicated in

the language games. These are some

examples of gay lingo:

a. Adding an affix

sayt + -in + (sung)

> sinayt/sinaytsunng `tiningnan'

(looked)

tanders + -um + (ever)

> tumanders/tumandersever

`tumanda‘ (to grow old)

wit + chikels

> hindi (no)

b. Substitution of a different consonant

phoneme/s within a word : q, k, h > j

qinit = jinit

kili-kili = jili-jili

hirap = jirap

p, b > sh

maputik = mashutik

buhok = shuhok

1st Consonant and Vowel > ju, bo, sho, kiyo, nyo

anak junak

tae boe

takot bokot

tao bo-o

damot kiyomat

tanda shonda

asawa nyosawa

baduy (cheap) chipangga

ano (what) anik, anitch

Sources:

Denham, K. & Lobeck, A. (2010). Linguistics for everyone, an introduction (International Edition). USA: Rosenberg

Flores, K. (2011). Bekimon: A fresh take on pinoy gay lingo

Retrieved from: http://badingtionaryphoenix.blogspot.com/

Fromkin, V. et.al. (2014). An introduction to language (10th

Edition). USA: Michael Rosenberg.

Hipschman, R. (1995). The secret language: Cryptography.

Retrieved from: http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/secret/secret.html

Awan, MS & Sheeraz, M. (2011). Queer but language: A sociolinguistic study of Farsi. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science. Vol.1, No.10; August 2011.

Retrieved from: http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_1_No_10_August_2011/17.pdf

Orie, E. (2001). The world of Nushu. Japan: Bunjyo University.

Retrieved from: http://homepage3.nifty.com/nushu/

Secret Languages/ Mystery Messages (2013) by Pearson Education, Inc.

Retrieved from: http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0769354.html