Kevin's Watch

Do any of you have close friends with whom you have a personal language that is literally incomprehensible to others?

mug yug *bobs head up and down*

I'm pretty sure that the answer for me is technically no, (definitely not "literally incomprehensible," just "requiring alot of context.") but...

I wanna hear more specifically what you mean! Like how big of a vocab, and can you say new words/expressions/idioms on the fly and have your friend(s) understand you?

(Or is this a somewhat more hypothetical thing?)

The personal language my friend Josh and I use is based on regurgitating quotes from stories where the quote relates to what we want to say. Kind of like that language from that episode of Star Trek: TNG I think was called "Darmok."

A typical exchange might go like this.

"There we were in Kentucky." (I/we are having vehicle troubles)

"I find your lack of faith disturbing." (I will violently assault you if you do not rememdy the situation.)

"I've got a bad feeling about this, Chewie." (I think we are stuck.)

"Remember that time? With the guy? And the thing?" (Here we are again.)

"But how else am I going to get the gerbil out?!" (What are we going to do?)

"I like swords." (I am deficient in ability to solve this problem.)

One that I can think of. If someone is telling a particularly boring story either one of my mates or I will say; "this one time...at band camp". Basically means shut the f up or say something interesting.

So, EL, are you especially thinking of parts of the language where you and your buddy seem to be "pulling something right out of each other's mind" based on the words..? (some of those are truly hilarious examples)

Like are there frequently cases where there are several different meanings that could be applicable (both in the original context and in the context that the phrase is used) but you can just intuitively leap straight to the one that your friend really meant? (and where, in a way, you are sure that you're not JUST basing it on the massive context of "who my friend is" that you know from the outside - though it's REALLY hard to judge the full extent of that.)

So then in the sense that you are talking about, my husband and I do count as a having "personal language."

What does it depend on for you and your bud, as far as you can tell? (see examples below for what I mean) Or do you think it can really all be chalked up to a huge corpus of shared context (which includes all the idiosyncratic details, incl. body language)?

On my husband's end, it depends on the other person (me or someone else) having a clearly-formulated thought. I can say, "It's like Augustine..." (where the context is in my own head; has nothing directly to do with anything we've talked about in the last 5 hours or 5 days) but if I'm still formulating my thought, he can't "read" it w/out extreme effort. (*cough* I am a very undisciplined thinker, in case everyone hasn't noticed, so this comes up alot!) Then once I've actually formulated something clear in my own mind, all I have to do is look at him and maybe I will add words like, "you know, ...that one time" (totally ambiguous!) and he leaps straight to it.

On my end, it depends on the other person really WANTING to express something, esp. if there is emotion involved, and then sometimes I can formulate what he/she meant in a more clear way than maybe even he/she was aware of. Now that I think about it, maybe that's got some dangers. :-\

Do you think this has alot to do with the way/extent in which one has "opened oneself up to" the other person?

With me and Josh, we have such a huge overlap of similar reading and viewing interests. We've both read almost exactly the same web comics, have seen alot of the same movies, watched alot of the same TV shows. When we want to talk in private, while in a group, or when we just want to be mysterious and annoying, we'll start using quotes from various media (written and otherwise) where what we say isn't important, but the context in which it said is important. Like that, "How else am I supposed to get the Gerbil out" line. It's from the movie Mallrats, and it's from a Character named Brody. His wierd cousin Walt kept on getting various animals stuck up his ass, then was taken to the emergency room to have them removed, and it was hugely embarassing. Finally Brody asks Walt why he keeps on shoving cats up his ass, and then Walt says, "Brody, how else am I supposed to get the Gerbil out?" If this quote is used, it implies a general sense of, "We have no idea what to do, and anything we attempt is likely to be silly and embarassing." Of course, if it's used as a statement instead of a question, the communication shifts a little.

If xkcd is one of those webcomics, I will be afraid, very afraid.

Lucimay and I have our own language. It's sort of like listening to Boomhower on King of the Hill except we have some silly double meanings to some words. I just called her a little while ago and we had almost our entire conversation in that form.

Gah inny man goes?

I gots man goes, you gots a beg for dem man goes?

Wan go see go den cump ass wif me night at seben?

Yey, wan go git sum dinnah firs?

Yey ok, wan me git dem ticks on fan dang go?

Nah I'se onee a cuppa blocks fum de Met ree un, I git em win I gits out werk.

Okey, Git tree dem cuz Bloodgerd Bob iz gowin too

Okey, see yew bout five firty den

Okey

later

Tater

heh. dad duhway dey all dalk din denducky denn. heh.

Another reason why Kentucky scares me.

EL, how minny main go painkeks you gunna wan fer yer brekfus?

Ooo...

I like pancakes for brekkie.

Ah rekin ahz awl be wawn tin uh whole mess uh payn caykes, stack 'em til dey jus' fawl o'va.

pee pournyo conyaou. *nods*

why muth yuth duth?

Dat wuz chure sum dang fun at dem dere movin pick chures warnt it Lewsimaay ind Bloodgerd Bawb? We dun gots to do dat agin soowen doan we?

Error: Fault Found in KAINTU32.DLL.

SignalHALTANDCATCHFIRE caught in Kernal.

Halting and Catching Fire.

"I like swords." (I am deficient in ability to solve this problem.)

Hah I've used this one sometimes. I read 8-bit enough to remember this.

But the only one I really have...me and a friend have a phrase which is "cut out the middleman."

It's more of an inside joke than a language though, inspired by having full bladders while trying to go to sleep in a tent when it's raining cats and dogs out.

It's now used whenever someone is trying to be a total asshole by proxy.

Oh, I have another friend where we have a language that goes beyond words. If I glare at him during lunch, it's "did you play this game I told you to download a week ago?" If I glare at him during dinner, it's "are you hanging out with us tonight, or are you going to go do the work you were supposed to do yesterday?" If I glare at him over breakfast, it's "why the fuck am I up this early?"

Deep stuff. We tight.

I would mention the stabbing language, but it's not so much a language more as a not so subtle means of trying to harvest my organs with emotive gestures.

Emotional Leper wrote:I would mention the stabbing language, but it's not so much a language more as a not so subtle means of trying to harvest my organs with emotive gestures.

My only stabbing language is a hara-kiri gesture I learned from the movie hara-kiri. I'm not able to put it to use much though

All the more painful image b/c that movie has someone doing it with a wooden sword.