Cryptophasia is a phenomenon of a language developed by

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

s (identical or fraternal) that only the two children can understand. The word has its roots from the Greek ''crypto-'', meaning secret, and ''-phasia'', meaning speech. Most

linguists Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingui ...

associate cryptophasia with

idioglossia An idioglossia (from the Ancient Greek , 'own, personal, distinct' and , 'tongue') is an idiosyncratic language invented and spoken by only one person or only two people. Most often, ''idioglossia'' refers to the "private languages" of young ch ...

, which is any language used by only one, or very few, people. Cryptophasia also differs from idioglossia on including mirrored actions like twin-walk and identical mannerisms.

Classification

It has been reported that up to 50% of young twins will have their own twin language which they use to communicate only with each other and cannot be understood by others. "In all cases known, the language consists of

onomatopoeic Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...

expressions, some

neologism A neologism Ancient_Greek.html"_;"title="_from_Ancient_Greek">Greek_νέο-_''néo''(="new")_and_λόγος_/''lógos''_meaning_"speech,_utterance"is_a_relatively_recent_or_isolated_term,_word,_or_phrase_that_may_be_in_the_process_of_entering_com ...

s, but for the greatest part of words from the adult language adapted to the constrained

phonological Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

possibilities of young children. These words being hardly recognizable, the language may turn out to be completely unintelligible to speakers of the parents' languages, but they resemble each other in that they lack

inflectional morphology In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and de ...

and that word order is based on pragmatic principles such as saliency and the semantic scope of words. Neither the structure of the languages nor its emergence can be explained by other than situational factors."

Causes

A delay in the

phonological development Phonological development refers to how children learn to organize sounds into meaning or language (phonology) during their stages of growth. Sound is at the beginning of language learning. Children have to learn to distinguish different sounds and ...

of one or both twins (or two siblings at similar age of language development) is said to be a main cause of cryptophasia. Twins can develop the ability to communicate with one another without working within the grammar of their parents' language, thus possibly leading to a short-term delay in linguistic development of one or both twins. The causes seem largely not to be in the greater pre- and perinatal biological problems twins may experience, but rather in postnatal factors. These factors occur within the family environment and include both a reduced quality of verbal stimulation and interaction with adult language models which result from greater demands of care-giving made on parents of twins, and the intensive interaction between twins which may increase their chances of developing cryptophasia and

at the expense of conventional language.

Social effects

An article in ''Slate'' dealt with what is observed about the social effects of cryptophasia between twins and how it relates to societies. "Societies need unambiguous ways to distinguish between subject and object," Bakker says. "In the twin situation these can be dispensed with, but not in languages in which it is necessary to refer to events outside the direct situation."Jon Lackman (August 24, 2011
"Dugon, Haus You Dinikin, Du-Ah"
''Slate''

Examples

June and Jennifer Gibbons June Gibbons (born 11 April 1963) and Jennifer Gibbons (11 April 1963 – 9 March 1993) were identical twins who grew up in Wales. They became known as "The Silent Twins", since they only communicated with each other. They wrote works of ficti ...

were twin sisters living in Wales whose language was an example of cryptophasia and was exemplified by the twins' simultaneous actions, which often mirrored each other. Grace and Virginia Kennedy, born in the United States in 1970, developed their own private language, characterized by an extremely fast tempo and

staccato Staccato (; Italian for "detached") is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence. It has been described by theorists and has appeared in music ...

rhythm.

References

External links