Building "code": development, maintenance, and change in a private language

Abstract

Using primarily data collected from the discussions of two sisters over a four-month period, this article shows the development and maintenance of private language orally and in the e-mail medium. Specifically, I demonstrate how a family private language first developed orally, then rapidly expanded into a special sibling code in the e-mail environment. The results have implications for the communicative potential in interpersonal interaction, particularly in terms of how interpersonal interaction can directly affect the rapidity of language change.