Did you know twins sometimes make up a language all their own so they can have secret conversations? It’s called cryptophasia. This word comes from the Greek “crypto,” or secret, and “phasia” or speech.

Did you also know the black American slaves invented a secret language to teach each other how to read when it was against the law for them to learn? It is called Tut Language.

Most made-up languages use a few easy rules you can share with friends, but to someone who doesn’t know the rules, it can sound like you are speaking gibberish (which is a great word to know when you want to explain your secret language). Here are two well-known made-up languages, and one easy way to make up your own.

Pig Latin has been around since before William Shakespeare’s time. He even used it in his play, Love’s Labor’s Lost. The simple rule is to take a word like “pig” and move the first letter to the end. Then add “ay” to the end. So “pig” would be “igpay.” Latin would be “atinlay.” Igpay Atlinay! You will have to practice some, but it would be fun to try it out with a group of friends. Once you get good at it (fluent), it will be your secret language! For some help, here is an English to Pig Latin translator: http://www.snowcrest.net/donnelly/piglatin.html

Skimono Jive is a bit easier to learn—all you have to do is add “sk” to the beginning of each word. For instance, “twinkle, twinkle little star” would be “sktwinkle, sktwinkle sklittle skstar.” I guarantee this will make skgiggle a lot!

You can make your own language up by either adding a sound to the beginning of a word or the end of a word. Maybe you could use “bop” at the end of each word, so twinklebop, twinklebop littlebop starbop.” Try out different sounds with different words until you get one that is easy to learn but sounds like gibberish to anyone else.