Cryptophasia

[mylilmonkeys]

Have you seen this article on twin language? http://www.slate.com/id/2302057/

My dad says my mom and her twin had their own language but I haven't asked her about that yet.  She speaks perfect English, though.  She and her siblings were raised as missionary kids in the jungles of Mexico, and she was just telling me that she and her siblings didn't really learn to communicate with their tribe of natives very well.  Not like their parents could.  They definitely grew up in isolation!  Just interesting that they maintained their twin language until my father met and married my mother and he witnessed it!

[Shuli]

My two boys used to speak twinspeak exclusively to each other starting at about six months until they were about 18 months old when they had a language explosion. They were also learning English and would say actual words to everybody, but continued with twinspeak to each other. They are now four and are quite verbal, having an extensive vocabulary and sentence structure that surprises even us. Their ability to express themselves is actually quite impressive for ones so young. On the other hand, there are times when they still go back into twinspeak, and I don't think that they even realize that they are doing it. We live overseas, so they don't speak English at school although English is their first language because they were home with me for the first two years. There are times when they play in English, their second language and twinspeak. It is extraordinary to listen to. I think that having started in twinspeak actually helped them develop their language and communication skills. On the other hand, my singleton has a speech delay and I think it's because she really didn't have anyone to talk to. :-)

Thanks for sharing this.

[OGirlieMama]

Mine never really did twinspeak, though they have made up plenty of individual words. They started speaking English and just never stopped. We definitely did not experience any of the "typical" twin speech delays. For whatever reason, they were way ahead of the curve with language and were speaking in sentences early. It may be because I never shut up and they just wanted to hear someone else talking for a change. ;)