Growing up, most of us had a 'secret language' that we spoke to our friends. It meant that we were members of an exclusive club, a group of best pals, outsiders (especially grown-ups) not welcome! Our experience was not as unique as it then felt--all over the world, for centuries and probably thousands of years, children have spoken these languages, passing them from one generation to the next. In fact, many secret languages have existed centuries themselves.
Pig Latin may be the top child language in the US, and several different dialects of it exist across the country. One common form cuts off the front consonants off a word and deposits them at the end with an [ay]. So, as in the title, "Pig Latin" becomes "ig-pay atin-lay", "spring"--"ing-spray", "don't tell mom"--"ont-day ell-tay om-may". Of course parents were also children and as a result, are often quite fluent in their children's 'secret codes,' much to the chagrin of the kids.
An alternate of Pig Latin thrusts the final letters front with an extra vowel. This results in "toss Matt that book" becoming "seto tema tetha keboo." These are not the only two language games that children have thought up. To the contrary, language games are quite plentiful. In Brazil, for example, a popular one replaces all the vowels with [i], while in Java, [p] or [f] plus the repetition of the vowel creates quite an interesting sound: "Aku arep tuku klambi" (I want to buy a dress) becomes "afakufu afarefep tufukufu klafambifi" (from Crystal 1987). The Javanese finds a counter-part in the Great Lakes region of the US, where [b] plus the repeated vowel is inserted. As a "native" speaker of this dialect, calling myself Kabaraba (for Kara), I can assure you, thibis labanguabage ibis mubuch fubun!
Another common change is what is referred to as back slang, wherein the order of letters in a word is reversed, and then re-pronounced to match the new spelling: "table" becomes "elbat" etc... A variant of this is common in France. The rule for "parler a l'envers" (speaking backwards) is to put the first syllable at the end, so "petit ami" becomes "titpe mia."
Regardless of the style, children learn these very quickly and can speak them amazingly fluently. Secret languages, however, though primarily used by children, have by no means been limited to them. Adults too have benefited from secret codes. For many, the benefit may be minor, speaking to your spouse in a way that your children can't understand. Cockney rhyming slang is one such adult language game which has existed over a century. Its origins remain uncertain--some claim Irish immigrants created it to confuse non-Irish workers; others see it as growing from the criminal underworld of London. Whatever its birth, it remains in use today, and is remarkably clever. To play, you take a word like "table" and substitute a rhyme, like "Cain and Abel." Another example takes the missus and turns her into "cows and kisses" (Fromkin & Rodman 1998).
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