The farfallino alphabet (in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

: alfabeto farfallino) is a

language game A language game (also called a cant, secret language, ludling, or argot) is a system of manipulating spoken words to render them incomprehensible to an untrained listener. Language games are used primarily by groups attempting to conceal their ...

used primarily in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, which can be regarded as an elementary form of

substitution cipher In cryptography, a substitution cipher is a method of encrypting in which units of plaintext are replaced with the ciphertext, in a defined manner, with the help of a key; the "units" may be single letters (the most common), pairs of letters, t ...

. It is usually used by

child A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...

ren for amusement or to converse in (perceived) privacy from

adult An adult is an animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus capable of reproduction. In the human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social an ...

s. The name "farfallino" comes from the word "farfalla" (butterfly), which is an ordinary Italian word but sounds like the "codified" words in farfallino alphabet. The farfallino alphabet is similar to games found in other languages such as jeringonza (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

/ Portuguese), langue de feu ( French), Fay Kee Bolee (

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

) and

pig latin Pig Latin (''Igpay Atinlay'') is a language game, argot, or cant in which words in English are altered, usually by adding a fabricated suffix or by moving the onset or initial consonant or consonant cluster of a word to the end of the word a ...

( English).

Rules and variations

The usual rules for farfallino alphabet are based on the substitution of each vowel with a 3 letter sequence where the vowel itself is repeated with an interceding ''f''. * casa → cafasafa * lago → lafagofo * stella → stefellafa * re → refe * cercare → cefercafarefe

Here is an example: :''Quefestofo èfe ufun efesefempifiofo difi frafasefe ifin afalfafabefetofo fafarfafallifinofo. Nofon èfe fafacifilefe, afanchefe peferchèfe vafa defettofo ifil pifiùfu vefelofocefe pofossifibifilefe'' Its translation in Italian is: :Questo è un esempio di frase in alfabeto farfallino. Non è facile, anche perché va detto il più veloce possibile Which means, in English: :This is an example of phrase in Farfallino Alphabet. It is not easy, also because you should say it as fast as possible.

There are several minor variations to this scheme. One such variation is based on the following substitution rules: * a → agasa * e → eghese * i → ighisi * o → ogoso * u → ugusu Although rules for ''e'' and ''i'' look different, they are not; the additional ''h'' is needed in Italian to enforce a "hard g" sound for letter ''g'', which is implicit in the other combinations. Another more complicated scheme, which is used in some regions of Italy, is as follows: * a → aufer * e → enghel * i → ix * o → older * u → uflez

References

*{{cite book, author=Nancy Bell, title=Multiple Perspectives on Language Play, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PsbJDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA16, date=19 December 2016, publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, isbn=978-1-5015-0399-3, pages=16– Language games Italian language Italian slang

Rules and variations

See also

References