Tutnese

Tutnese (also known as Tut) 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, though children also use it to communicate privately and for amusement.^[1][2]

Language rules[]

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

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 . 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.^{[citation needed]}

See also[]

• Gibberish (language game)
• Leet
• Pig Latin
• Rövarspråket
• Verlan

References[]