Language game

This article is about systems of language obfuscation,

sometimes called secret languages. For the concept
in philosophy, notably in the philosophy of Ludwig
Wittgenstein, see Language-game (philosophy).

Lngua do P, Jeringonza, and B-Sprache all work by

adding a consonant after the vowel in each syllable, and
then repeating the vowel. Thus, these could be classied in the Double Talk family. Another common type
of language game is the spoonerism, in which the onsets of two words are exchanged. Using a standard word
for each transformation gives another type, for example, the Finnish kontinkieli, where kontti is added after each word, and spoonerism applied (kondntti koonerismspontti koppliedntti).

A language game (also called secret language or

ludling or argot) 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; the Gibberish
family, prevalent in the United States and Sweden; and
Verlan, spoken in France.

3 List of common language games

A common diculty 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.

4 See also
Word game
Word play
Cant (language)

5 References

Use

[1] Teshome Demisse and M. Lionel Bender. 1983. An argot of Addis Ababa unattached girls. Language in Society
Volume 12.3: pp. 339-347.

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 and the words sound very similar to their English
counterpart. Although language games are not usually
used in everyday conversation, some words from language games have made their way into normal speech,
such as ilchay in English (from Pig Latin), and loufoque
in French (from Louchbem).

[2] P.367 of Marcel Cohen. 1939. Nouvelles Etudes

d'Etiopien Meridional. Paris: Librairie Ancienne Honore
Champion.
[3] p. 79, Kebbede Hordofa and Peter Unseth. 1986. Bird
Talk in Oromo. Quaderni di Studi Etiopici 6-7:74-83
[4] Article on Arabic speech game
[5] http://www.uasilanguage.com/

Classication

[6] Lyle Campbell. 1980. The Psychological and Sociological Reality of Finnish Vowel Harmony. In Issues in Vowel
Harmony, edited by Robert Vago, pp. 245-270. (Studies
in Language Companion Series, 6.) John Benjamins.

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
Jeringonza could be in the Spanish category.

[7] p. 169, Toni Borowsky & Peter Avery. 2009. Dhochi: A

Dholuo Language Game. Australian Journal of Linguistics
Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 169-194.

An alternate method of classifying language games is by

their function. For example, Ubbi Dubbi, Bicycle, and
Allsprket all work by inserting a code syllable before
the vowel in each syllable. Therefore, these could be
classied in the Gibberish family. Also, Double Talk,

[8] grn valoda un pupivaloda (Latvian)

[9] Kebbede Hordofa and Peter Unseth. 1986. Bird Talk in
Oromo. Quaderni di Studi Etiopici 6-7:74-83

External links
English Grammar Game Find Verb, Noun.
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.
Nevbosh a language game used by J. R. R.
Tolkien, the inventor of Quenya and Sindarin Elvish,
as a child

EXTERNAL LINKS

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