Secret Dialects \ Cryptolects (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Secret Dialects \ Cryptolects
Tags: Games \| Dialect
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DaraghM
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Message 1 of 10

17 January 2012 at 12:30pm | IP Logged

What cryptolects exist in English and non English speaking countries ? The ones I know are,

Cockney Rhyming Slang - So famous now that most people know some. E.g. apples and pears is stairs.
Pig Latin - This is more like a game than a dialect. The initial letter is chopped off a word, and -ay added. This turns stupid into upidstay.
Polari - Based on backslang and the romance languages. It may have originated in theatres, but tended to be used by the gay community.
Shelta\Cant - Used by Irish travellers and based on an early form of Irish.
Verlan - The really annoying French cryptolect that reverses syllables. E.g. meuf, chelou
Fenya (феня) - A Russian thieves cant subsequently learnt by writers in prison.

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Ari
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Message 2 of 10

17 January 2012 at 12:37pm | IP Logged

I didn't know the term "Cryptolect" before. Wikipedia calls them "language games", and there's a pretty long list for interested people.
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daristani
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Message 3 of 10

17 January 2012 at 2:13pm | IP Logged

My favorite cryptolect is "Chakobsa", the "hunting language" of the Circassians. Here's a brief discussion of it from a (now extinct) internet page:

http://web.archive.org/web/20091027135205/http://www.geociti es.com/Eureka/Enterprises/2493/secrlang.html

It was evidently cited in Frank Herbert's "Dune" books, and most internet references to it seem to deal with it in that context.

Edited by daristani on 17 January 2012 at 2:13pm
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Heather McNamar
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Message 4 of 10

17 January 2012 at 2:33pm | IP Logged

This looks like fun! But I wonder what the reaction would be of native speakers to a foreigner using one
of their games? I imagine something along the lines of a sarcastic "Isn't that cute?"
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zenmonkey
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Message 5 of 10

18 February 2012 at 2:50pm | IP Logged

Why use the word 'cryptolect' when a perfectly useful word exists and is used to describe this: 'argot'.

From wikipedia:

Quote:

An Argot ( /ˈɑrɡoʊ/; French, Spanish, and Catalan for "slang") is a secret language used by various groups—including, but not limited to, thieves and other criminals—to prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations. The term argot is also used to refer to the informal specialized vocabulary from a particular field of study, hobby, job, sport, etc.

The author Victor Hugo was one of the first to research argot extensively. He describes it in his novel, Les Misérables, as the language of the dark; at one point, he says, "What is argot; properly speaking? Argot is the language of misery."

The earliest known record of argot was in a 1628 document. The word was probably derived from the contemporary name, les argotiers, given to a group of thieves at that time.

Under the strictest definition, an argot is a proper language, with its own grammar and style. But, such complete secret languages are rare, because the speakers usually have some public language in common, on which the argot is largely based. Argots are mainly versions of other languages with a part of its vocabulary replaced by words unknown to the larger public. For example, the term is used to describe systems such as verlan and louchébem, which retain French syntax and apply transformations only to individual words (and often only to a certain subset of words, such as nouns, or semantic content words). Such systems are examples of argots à clef, or "coded argots."

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fiziwig
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Message 6 of 10

18 February 2012 at 6:32pm | IP Logged

zenmonkey wrote:

Why use the word 'cryptolect' when a perfectly useful word exists and is used to describe this: 'argot'.

Why use the word 'argot' when a perfectly useful word exists and is used to describe this: 'slang'.

Form wikipedia:

Quote:

The origin of the word slang is uncertain. It has a connection with Thieves' cant, and the earliest attested use (1756) refers to the vocabulary of "low or disreputable" people.

For that matter, why use any synonyms at all? ;)
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zenmonkey
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Message 7 of 10

18 February 2012 at 8:16pm | IP Logged

;) The intent is not to be the synonym police, it was a tongue in cheek post about the availability of an excellently referenced loan word (Victor Hugo!) rather than the recently invented (2006, Oxford) word but "as you will, mine sire."

By the way, argot/cryptolect/cant is not a a true modern synonym of just "slang".

Edited by zenmonkey on 18 February 2012 at 8:23pm
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GRagazzo
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Message 8 of 10

18 February 2012 at 9:14pm | IP Logged

Iofo lofo profovefero'fo' ;)

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