Tutnese

Tutnese (also known as Tut or Double Dutch) is a language game based on African-American Vernacular English created by enslaved African Americans. Throughout its existence, Tutnese has been used primarily by black americans when in the presence of authority figures such as slave masters or police. It has also sometimes been used by children as a way to communicate privately (or merely for amusement).[1][2]

Language rules

In Tutnese, vowels are pronounced normally, but each consonant is replaced with a syllable from the following table:

LetterPossible syllablesLetterPossible syllablesLetterPossible syllables
BBubKKuckSSus
CCash, cochLLulTTut
DDudMMumVVuv
FFuf, FudNNunWWack, Wash
GGugPPub, pupXEx, xux
HHash, hutchQQuack, queueYYub, yuck
JJay, jugRRug, rurZZub, zug

Double letters in a word, rather than being repeated, are preceded by the syllable squa to indicate doubling. For doubled vowels, the prefix becomes squat instead—thus, OO would be spoken as squat-oh.[3]

For example, "tree" becomes "Tutrugsquatee" and "I took a walk to the park yesterday" becomes "I tutsquatohkuck a wackalulkuck tuto tuthashe pubarugkuck yubesustuterugdudayub".

While spaces between words are always ignored, and least one "dialect" of the language requires that the first syllable of the name of any given punctuation mark be spoken, thus a full stop (period) is Per, a question mark is Que (Kway or Kay, varies), and a comma is Com.

History

This language was invented and used by African Americans in the American South, to teach spelling and conceal what they said, at a time when literacy among slaves was forbidden.[4] Tut is still taught in many African American families and communities as a way of communal and historical bonding.[5]

Literary mentions

Ernest Thompson Seton mentioned it in his book Two Little Savages. Yan, the hero of the book, learns it and tries to teach it to his friends Sam and Giles, but the other boys are not interested.

Maya Angelou mentions learning Tutnese as a child in the first volume of a autobiographical series, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She and her friend Louise "spent tedious hours teaching ourselves the Tut language. You (yack oh you) know (kack nug oh wug) what (wack hash a tut). Since all the other children spoke Pig Latin, we were superior because Tut was hard to speak and even harder to understand."[6]

There is a version used in some parts of the USA called Yuckish or Yukkish, which uses more or less the same constructs.

See also

References
  1. McIlwain, Gloria (1995). Tut language. San Francisco, CA (P.O. Box 210679, San Francisco 94121): Tut Language Co. ISBN 0-9647705-0-4. OCLC 37673070.CS1 maint: location (link)
  2. "Tut Language, American Speech". www.tutlanguage.com. Retrieved 2021-08-15.
  3. Roselli, Greig. "King Tut Language". www.stoneofmerasmus.com. Greig Roselli. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  4. Tut Language — American Speech
  5. "Tut Language, sound spelling language". www.tutlanguage.com. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  6. Angelou, Maya. (1969) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Bantam Books.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.