6 Amazing Secret Languages From Around the World

Boontling (Boonville, California, USA)

Deep in the forests of Northern California’s Mendocino County, the small community of Boonville in the Anderson Valley holds an unusual linguistic status for an American town: It has its own specialized jargon. Settled in the late 19th century, Boonville didn’t have a working railroad for its first 50 years or so, and its residents’ isolation resulted in a jargon or argot called Boontling (from boont, a resident of Boonville, and ling, meaning “language”).

Based on English grammar and syntax, Boontling mixes in bits of Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Spanish, and Pomoan (spoken by the Native Pomo tribe), along with abbreviations and eponyms, and grew to include over a thousand distinct words and phrases. A few examples include bosh (“deer,” from bishe, the Pomoan word for “deer”), doolsey (“candy,” from dulce, Spanish for “sweet”), and zeese (“coffee,” for the initials of Zachariah Clifton, who had a reputation for making super-strong coffee on local hunting expeditions). Boontling speakers were once widespread in the Anderson Valley and the jargon was even taught in schools, but today, fewer than 100 people still harp a slib of the ling.

Pitkern (Pitcairn Island, U.K.)

The Pitkern language’s origins date back to 1790, with the historic mutiny on the British naval ship HMS Bounty. After its nine original mutineers and 18 Tahitians established residence on Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific — one of the world’s most remote inhabited places — they burned the ship, effectively trapping themselves on the island. It didn’t take long for the group to begin speaking a pidgin language.

The Pitkern language comprises words from Tahitian and the various English dialects spoken by the mutineers, including Scottish, Geordie, and West Country dialects, along with an early Caribbean patois. Eighteenth-century British English is still recognizable in some Pitkern phrases, such as About ye gwen? (“Where are you going?”), as well as a few nautical terms, e.g., all-hands (“everyone”). Ama’ula, meaning “clumsy, slovenly, awkward, or ungainly,” comes from the Tahitian word uma’ura, meaning “ignorant person” or “ignorance.” Pitkern has no standardized spellings, so it can sometimes be difficult to trace the words’ etymologies. Today, there are fewer than 50 Pitkern speakers alive. Pitkern is also very closely related to the Norf’k language, which derives from Pitkern and is named after the nearby Norfolk Islands.

Nüshu (Hunan Province, China)

Nüshu is an ancient script and language that was developed and used exclusively by ethnic Han, Yao, and Miao women in a small area of Jiangyong County in Hunan Province, China. Created and passed down from mother to daughter, Nüshu literally means “women’s script” or “women’s writing” in the Xiangnan Tuhua group of languages. The script consists of highly stylized depictions of standard Chinese characters, some of which are styled similarly to italicized letters in many European languages, while other characters are modified with dots, virgules, or arcs. It was traditionally used for writing poetry, songs, and personal communication, allowing women to express their thoughts and feelings in a predominantly male-dominated society. Linguists disagree on when Nüshu was developed; some believe it dates to the Song dynasty (960–1279), while others trace it all the way back to the Shang dynasty, between 1600 BCE and 1046 BCE.

Standard written Chinese is logographic, meaning it uses characters to represent phrases, but Nüshu script is phonetic, with each of its 600 to 700 characters representing a single syllable. The use of Nüshu remained relatively unknown outside of the region for centuries, but the language eventually gained attention from 20th-century scholars and researchers, and efforts have since arisen to document the script, thanks to its unique cultural and linguistic significance.

Klezmer-loshn (Central and Eastern Europe)

Klezmer-loshn was a jargon — sometimes referred to as an occupational cryptolect — spoken in the Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe prior to the 20th century. The jargon was used primarily by the klezmorim, the communities’ professional musicians, who played a key role in traditional Jewish celebrations and events, particularly weddings. Literally translating to “musician’s tongue” in Yiddish, klezmer-loshn was often utilized on the road during and after performances to discuss business plans — or just for some privacy among outsiders.

The jargon is a mixture of Hebrew, Yiddish, and local European languages spoken in the regions where the klezmorim performed, as well as some totally original word coinages. It also includes expressions specific to klezmer musicology. Links between klezmer-loshn and Yiddish are apparent in words like lash, from the Yiddish word lazh (“bad,” “ugly”); svizn, from the Yiddish word svidn (“sit”); or tentlen, from the Yiddish word tintlen (“write”).

Caló Chicano (Southwestern USA)

Caló or Pachuco is a slang or argot spoken by Chicano communities in the Southwestern United States, along the border of Mexico in cities such as El Paso, Texas. It emerged among Mexican American and Chicano youth as part of the zoot-suit pachuco culture of the 1930s and ’40s, later spreading to Los Angeles and other American metropolitan areas.

Also called Pachuco or Caló Chicano, to set it apart from the earlier Caló jargon spoken in Spain among Romani communities, from which it began, Caló incorporates elements from modern Spanish, archaic Spanish, English, and various Indigenous languages. It was also influenced by the slang of the criminal underworld of the early 20th century. It’s characterized by puns, idioms, and rhyming slang, and has been compared to both African American Vernacular English jive slang and Cockney slang spoken in the East End of London. Examples like ¿Qué te pasa, calabaza? (“What’s up with you, pumpkin?”) and Nel, pastel (“Nay, cake”) can be compared to rhyming slang phrases in English like “See you later, alligator.”

Words and phrases from Caló are often spoken by Cheech Marin’s eponymous character in the Cheech and Chong films of the 1970s. The Caló slang and its attached pachuco subculture was so prevalent in El Paso that it’s responsible for the city’s nickname, “Chuco Town.”

Thieves’ Cant (Elizabethan England)

Also called flash, rogues’ cant, or peddler’s French, thieves’ cant is a perfect cryptolect, a secretive jargon created so that others wouldn’t know what the speakers were talking about. Thieves, naturally, didn’t want others to know what they were plotting, so they developed this jargon as a way for those involved in illicit activities to communicate without being understood by outsiders. The origin of thieves’ cant is somewhat murky, as it evolved over centuries, but its use can be traced back to 16th-century England at latest. The language was either spoken aloud or written in code to further prevent authorities and outsiders from deciphering messages.

The jargon fell into disuse after the 19th century, but some words and phrases from thieves’ cant still survive in many modern English dialects. Some examples are phony (originally “fawney rig,” a name for a common bait-and-switch ruse involving a fake ring, probably from the Irish word for ring, fáinne), as well as the slang words “mug” (when referring to a criminal, as in mugshot), “shiv” (from chiv, the Romani word for “knife”), and “tip” (as in “to give money to,” possibly from the English word “tap”). References to thieves’ cant also survive today in various forms of popular culture, including the Dungeons & Dragons series of role-playing games.