Language game
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- This article is about systems of language obfuscation. For Ludwig Wittgenstein's linguistic theory, see Language-games.
A language game (also called secret language or ludling) is a system of manipulating spoken words to render them incomprehensible to the untrained ear. Language games are used primarily by groups attempting to conceal their conversations from others. Some common examples are Pig Latin, which is used all over the globe, the Gibberish family, prevalent in the United States and Sweden, and Verlan, spoken in France.
Each of these language games involves a usually simple standard transformation to speech, thus encoding it. The languages can be easily mentally encoded and decoded by a skilled speaker at the rate of normal speech, while those who either don't know the key or aren't practiced in rapid speech are left hearing nothing but gibberish.
A common difficulty with language games is that they are usually passed down orally. While written translations can be made, they are often imperfect, and thus spelling can vary widely. Some factions argue that words in these spoken tongues should simply be written the way they are pronounced, while others insist that the purity of language demands that the transformation remain visible when the words are imparted to paper. Contrary to what proponents of either side may tell you, there is no one definitive written lexicon for language games, but it is rather a matter of dialect.
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Use
Language games are primarily used by children, to disguise their speech from others. Some language games, such as Pig Latin, are so widely known that privacy is nearly impossible, as most people at least know how it works, even if they can't speak it themselves. Although language games are not usually used in everyday conversation, some words from language games have made their way into normal speech, such as ixnay in English (from Pig Latin), and loufoque in French (from Louchébem).
Classification
One way in which language games could be organized is by language, for example, Pig Latin, Ubbi Dubbi, and Tutnese could all be in the "English" category, and Jerigonza could be in the "Spanish" category.
An alternate method of classifying language games is by their function. For example, Ubbi Dubbi, Bicycle, and Allspråket all work by inserting a code syllable before the vowel in each syllable. Therefore, these could be classified in the Gibberish family. Also, Double Talk, Língua do Pê, and B-Sprache all work by adding a consonant after the vowel in each syllable, and then repeating the vowel. Thus, these could be classified in the Double Talk family. Another common type of language game is the spoonerism, where the initial morae of words are exchanged, e.g. George Bush's famous terriers and bariffs ← barriers and tariffs. Using a standard word for each transformation gives another type, e.g. the Finnish "kontinkieli", where kontti is added after each word, and spoonerism applied (kondäntti koonerismspontti koppliedäntti).
List of common language games
| Host Language | Name | Basic Rules | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | P-taal | Insert "Əp" before the first vowel of each syllable. Syllables with stacked consonants may follow additional rules. | Writing generally depicts the sounds instead the original letters. Daar onder in die vlei stap 'n mannetjie = Depaar epondeper epen depie velepetei stepatepap epe mepannepekie. |
| Bulgarian | Insert "pe" before each syllable. | ||
| Dutch | Reversed elements and words. | A mercantile code | |
| Dutch | Panovese Kal | Mixing characters in a particular way. | Used in Kortessen, Limburg, ca. 1900. Ex. "Onze vader die in de hemelen zijt" = "Onze zeder die in de vamelen hijt". |
| English (etc.) | Pig Latin | Move the onset of the first syllable to the end of each word, and add "ay" (IPA Template:IPA). | When a word starts with a vowel you keep the first letter of the word, and add ay at the end. |
| English (etc.) | Obby Dobby | Insert "ob" (IPA Template:IPA) before the rime of each syllable. | Also called Pig Greek |
| English | Bicycle | Insert "es" (IPA Template:IPA) after each consonant. | Hello - Heselesleso |
| English (etc.) | Elephant | Insert "eleph" or "elef" before every vowel sound. | "How are you doing?" → Helefow elefare yelefoo delefoo-elefing? |
| English | Cockney rhyming slang | Canonical rhyming word pairs; speakers often drop the second word of common pairs. | "trouble & strife" (or just "trouble") = "wife" |
| English | Dong | Spelling out words, using plain vowel sounds and '-ong' at the end of each consonant. | "Let's go" = "Long ee tong song, gong oh." |
| English | Eggy-Peggy | Insert "egg" or "ag" before the rime of each syllable. Inserting at the beginning of a word which starts with a vowel seems to be a matter of preference. | "How are you doing?" → Heggow eggare yeggou deggoegging? |
| English | Double Talk | German B-Language in English. | "How are you doing?" = "Hobow arbare youbou doboibing?" |
| English | Gibberish | Insert "itherg", "itug" or "idig" after the first consonant in each syllable. | Gibberish is also a family of related language games. |
| English | Inflationary English | Any time a number is present within a word, inflate its value by one. | "Anyone up for tennis?" becomes "Anytwo up five elevennis?" Originally part of a comedy sketch by Victor Borge. |
| English | -izzle | Insert "-izzle" after a word's last pre-vowel consonant while deleting the remaining letters. | Popularized by Snoop Dogg. |
| English | Rehctub klat (Australia) or backslang (UK) | Formed by speaking words backwards; letters may be transposed to aid pronounceability. | Used by butchers in Australia to conceal subject of shop talk from customers. |
| English | Ubbi Dubbi | Insert "ub" (IPA Template:IPA) before the rime of each syllable. | Part of the Gibberish family |
| English | Tutnese | Spell out words using a lexicon of names for consonants, and special rules for double letters. | How are you? - Hashowack arure yuckou? |
| English | Yardle bardle | ||
| English | Zambuda | English pronounced wrong in every possible way! Long
vowels became short; c pronounced s when should have been k. | |
| Esperanto | Esperant' | Substitutes the accusative by the preposition je and the final -o of nouns by an apostrophe, all while keeping to the letter of official grammar if not actual usage. | "Oni ĉiam obeu la Fundamenton" becomes "Ĉiamu onia obe' je l' Fundament'" |
| Finnish | Sananmuunnos | Spoonerism: swap first morae of words | Apply vowel harmony according to the initial syllable, repair "broken diphthongs" into permitted diphthongs |
| Finnish | Kontinkieli | Add word 'kontti' after each word and apply the same conversion as in sanamuunnos. | Finnish counterpart of Pig Latin. This game is also called 'siansaksa'. |
| French | Louchebem | Move the initial consonant to the end and add 'var'. For suffixes, prepend 'l' ('L'). | Initially a Parisian/Lyonnaise butchers' cant. |
| French | Verlan | Inverted nouns syllables order. | |
| French | Jargon | Each vowel is replaced by "adaga" for A, "edegue" for E, "odogo" for O etc... | |
| German | 'Lav' inserted after some vowel sounds. | ||
| German | B-Language | Each vowel or diphthong is reduplicted with a leading 'b'. | "Deutsche Sprache" = "Deubeutschebe Sprabachebe" |
| German | Löffelsprache (spoon language) | Each (spoken) vowel or diphthong is reduplicted with a leading 'lef', 'lew' or 'lev'. | "Hallo! Wie geht es dir?" = "Halewallolewo! Wielewie geleweht elewes dilewir?" Also possible with other languages: "Don't try to take me to New York!" = "Dolevon't trylevy tolevo tailevaik meleve tolevo Newlevew/Newlevoo Yolevork!" |
| German | Vsiewechselt | Each occurrence of the sound "er" (he) is replaced by "sie" (she) and vice-verca | Hermann [name] → Siemann, Sieger [winner] → Ergsie, Oer-Erkenschwick [town name] → Osie-Siekenschwick |
| Hebrew | Bet-Language | Identical to the German B-Language described above. | |
| Hungarian | madárnyelv (birds' language) | Repeat each vowel and add 'v' | A variety of Gibberish (eg. látok I see -> lávátovok) |
| Hungarian | madárnyelv (birds' language) | Repeat each vowel and add 'rg' | (eg. látok I see -> lárgátorgok) |
| Hungarian | Kongarian | Add 'ko' before each syllable | (eg. látok I see -> kolákotok) |
| Hungarian | Verzin | Syllable order is inverted. | Hungarian version of "verlan". (eg. hátra backwards -> rahát) |
| Indonesian | Prokem | Includes simple transformations of different types, acronyms and ordinary slang. | A bibliography of references pertaining to Prokem and other Indonesian-Malaysian language games: [1] |
| Italian | Latino Maccheronico | (see below: Romance languages, Macaronic Latin) | |
| Italian | Alfabeto farfallino | Add 'Fx' after all syllables. x is the vowel in the corresponding syllable of the real word. ex.: ciao --> cifiafaofo (ci-FI-a-FA-o-FO) | By applying the same 'rule' to the English word hello, we would obtain: he-FE-llo-FO |
| Japanese | Ba-bi-bu-be-bo | Same as Double Talk or German B Language. | Example: put "b" plus vowel between syllables, "waba taba shibi waba" instead of "watashi-wa" |
| Mandarin | Fanqie | ||
| Persian | Zaban-e-zargari | Insert the sound [z] somewhere into every syllable | |
| Portuguese | Sima | ||
| Portuguese | Língua do Pê | ||
| Romance languages | Macaronic Latin | Romance vocabulary is given Latinate endings. | "de Don Quijote de la Mancha" becomes "Domini Quijoti Manchegui" |
| Romanian | păsărească (birds' language) | After each syllable, add 'p' and repeat last vowel | "maşină" becomes "mapaşipinăpă" |
| Russian | Fufajskij yazyk | Insert "pe" before each syllable. | |
| Russian | Porosyachia Latin | ||
| Serbian | No official name, sometimes called Šatrovački | After each vower insert P followed by the same vowel; popular among young children | "zdravo" becomes "zdrapavopo" |
| Serbian | Šatrovački | Various styles of reordeging syllables | "zdravo" becomes "vozdra" |
| Serbian | Utrovački | Words are formed using: U + last part + ZA + first part + NJE | "zdravo" becomes uvozazdranje |
| Serbian | Pig Latin | "us", "um" or other common Latin endings appended to Serbian words; extremely uncommon | |
| Serbian | Pig-Italian | "are" is appended to words or their roots | "krava pase travu" becomes "kravare pasare travare" |
| Spanish | Idioma F | Each vowel is reduplicated with a separating 'F'. | "Perro" = "Peferrofo" |
| Spanish | Mexico City slang | Substitute a word for another that begins the same | "¿Qué ondas camarada, cómo estás?" = "¿Qué Honduras mi Nicaragua, cómo Estados Unidos?" |
| Spanish | Add a certain syllable before every original syllable. | "Perro" = "Tipetirro" | |
| Spanish | Jeringozo | Each vowel is reduplicated with a separating 'p'. | "No sabe nada" = "Nopo sapabepe napadapa" |
| Spanish | Rosarigasino (a.k.a. Gasó) | Add gas after stressed vowel and repeat stressed vowel. | "Don Quijote de la Mancha" = "Don Quijogasote de la Magasancha" |
| Spanish | Vesre | Syllable order is inverted. | "Muchacho" = "Chochamu" |
| Swedish | Allspråket | The first consonant in each word ends with 'all'. | |
| Swedish | Fikonspråket | Each word is split in two, one beginning with 'fi' and one ending in 'kon'. | |
| Swedish | I-sprikit | All vowels are changed to 'i'. | |
| Swedish | Rövarspråket | Consonants are changed to '<consonant> o <consonant>'. | |
| Vietnamese | Choose a vowel. Suffix each word with the initial consonant, if any, and then the vowel. | Using 'a', 'co bic' = 'coca bicba'. |
See also
External links
- Language Games A long summary on language games, including descriptions of many games, and an extensive bibliography.
- Language Games - Part 2 A follow-up summary with additional descriptions and bibliography.
- [2] Nevbosh, a language game used by J. R. R. Tolkien, the inventor of Quenya and Sindarin Elvish, as a childde:Spielsprache
es:Jerigonza it:Gioco linguistico hu:Nyelvi játék sv:Kodspråk