The farfallino alphabet (in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

alfabeto farfallino) is a

language game A language game (also called a cant, secret language, ludling, or argot) is a system of manipulating spoken words to render them incomprehensible to an untrained listener. Language games are used primarily by groups attempting to conceal their c ...

used primarily in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, which can be regarded as an elementary form of

substitution cipher In cryptography, a substitution cipher is a method of encrypting in which units of plaintext are replaced with the ciphertext, in a defined manner, with the help of a key; the "units" may be single letters (the most common), pairs of letters, trip ...

. It is usually used by

child A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

ren for amusement or to converse in (perceived) privacy from

adult An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...

s. The name "farfallino" comes from the word "farfalla" (butterfly), which is an ordinary Italian word but sounds like the "codified" words in farfallino alphabet. The farfallino alphabet is similar to games found in other languages such as

jeringonza {{Infobox Language game , nativename = ''Jeringozo'', ''Idioma de la Pe'' , states = Spain, Latin America , classification = Jeringonza , hostlanguage = Spanish, European Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, others Jeringonza is a Sp ...

(

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

), langue de feu ( French), Fay Kee Bolee (

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
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pig latin Pig Latin is a language game or argot in which words in English are altered, usually by adding a fabricated suffix or by moving the onset or initial consonant or consonant cluster of a word to the end of the word and adding a vocalic syllable ...

(

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Rules and variations

The usual rules for farfallino alphabet are based on the substitution of each vowel with a 3 letter sequence where the vowel itself is repeated with an interceding ''f''. * casa → cafasafa *

lago __NOTOC__ Lago, which means "lake" in Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Galician, may refer to: Places * Lago, Calabria, a ''comune'' in the Province of Cosenza, Italy * Lago, Mexico, a municipality zone in the State of Mexico * Lago District, a '' ...

→ lafagofo * stella → stefellafa * re → refe * cercare → cefercafarefe

Here is an example: :''Quefestofo èfe ufun efesefempifiofo difi frafasefe ifin afalfafabefetofo fafarfafallifinofo. Nofon èfe fafacifilefe, afanchefe peferchèfe vafa defettofo ifil pifiùfu vefelofocefe pofossifibifilefe'' Its translation in Italian is: :Questo è un esempio di frase in alfabeto farfallino. Non è facile, anche perché va detto il più veloce possibile Which means, in English: :This is an example of phrase in Farfallino Alphabet. It is not easy, also because you should say it as fast as possible.

There are several minor variations to this scheme. One such variation is based on the following substitution rules: * a → agasa * e → eghese * i → ighisi * o → ogoso * u → ugusu Although rules for ''e'' and ''i'' look different, they are not; the additional ''h'' is needed in Italian to enforce a "hard g" sound for letter ''g'', which is implicit in the other combinations. Another more complicated scheme, which is used in some regions of Italy, is as follows: * a → aufer * e → enghel * i → ix * o → older * u → uflez

References

*{{cite book, author=Nancy Bell, title=Multiple Perspectives on Language Play, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PsbJDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA16, date=19 December 2016, publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, isbn=978-1-5015-0399-3, pages=16– Language games Italian language Italian slang

Rules and variations

See also

References