Rendok: a youth secret language in Sudan

Abstract

This paper aims at providing a linguistic overview of Rendók, an Arabic-based secret language developed by the urban youth of Northern and Central Sudan. Generally speaking, Rendók does not represent a coherent linguistic entity; it rather constitutes a large set of encrypting strategies that vary a great deal in accord to the sociolinguistic background of its speakers. Nonetheless, in the last twenty years a " standard " Rendók has gradually developed by resorting to metathesis and other formalized morphophonemic procedures. The present study is focused on this heretofore un-described countrywide variety of Rendók as spoken in Khartoum and in Kadugli (Southern Kordofan State). The first part of the paper deals with the socio-historical circumstances that led to the development and diffusion of Rendók in urban Sudan. A detailed morphophonemic description of enccrypting procedures follows. Besides and beyond, the morphological analysis delves into the relation between Rendók and Sudanese Arabic morphology with reference to both the formation of new lexemes and to the productive integration of borrowings. In the last part of the paper, the semantic aspects of Rendók (polysemy, homonymy, metaphors, metonymy) are analyzed. In this regard, it is noted that, in the most recent forms of Rendók, semantic abstraction surpasses morphological encoding as en encrypting strategy.

Full text

estudios de dialectología
norteafricana y andalusí
12 (2008), pp. 113-129
EDNA 12 (2008), pp. 113-129. ISSN 1137-7968
R
ENDÓK: A YOUTH SECRET LANGUAGE IN SUDAN
RENDÓK: UNA LENGUA SECRETA DE LOS JÓVENES EN SUDÁN
STEFANO MANFREDI
*
Abstract
This paper aims at providing a linguistic overview of Rendók, an Arabic-based
secret language developed by the urban youth of Northern and Central Sudan.
Generally speaking, Rendók does not represent a coherent linguistic entity; it rather
constitutes a large set of encrypting strategies that vary a great deal in accord to the
sociolinguistic background of its speakers. Nonetheless, in the last twenty years a
“standard” Rendók has gradually developed by resorting to metathesis and other
formalized morphophonemic procedures. The present study is focused on this
heretofore un-described countrywide variety of Rendók as spoken in Khartoum and
in Kadugli (Southern Kordofan State).
The first part of the paper deals with the socio-historical circumstances that led to
the development and diffusion of Rendók in urban Sudan. A detailed
morphophonemic description of enccrypting procedures follows. Besides and
beyond, the morphological analysis delves into the relation between Rendók and
Sudanese Arabic morphology with reference to both the formation of new lexemes
and to the productive integration of borrowings. In the last part of the paper, the
semantic aspects of Rendók (polysemy, homonymy, metaphors, metonymy) are
analyzed. In this regard, it is noted that, in the most recent forms of Rendók,
semantic abstraction surpasses morphological encoding as en encrypting strategy.
Resumen
Este artículo tiene como objetivo proporcionar una aproximación lingüística al
rendók, lengua secreta de origen árabe creada por la juventud de las ciudades del
norte y centro de Sudán. En líneas generales, el rendók no es una entidad lingüística
coherente, sino más bien consiste en un amplio conjunto de estratégias de
codificación que varía dependiendo del entorno sociolingüístico de sus hablantes. No
obstante, en los últimos veinte años, se ha formado gradualmente un rendók “están-
dar” que recurre básicamente a la metátesis y a otros procedimientos morfonéticos
*
Stefano Manfredi: D.S.R.A.P.A. Università degli Studi di Napoli “L'Orientale”.
E-mail:
stef.manfredi@gmail.com

114 Stefano Manfredi
EDNA 12 (2008), pp.113-129. ISSN 1137-7968
formalizados. Este estudio se centra en una variedad rural no descrita del rendók
hablada en Jartum y en Kadugli (sur del Estado de Kordofan).
La primera parte del trabajo trata de las circunstancias socio-históricas que con-
dujeron al desarrollo y difusión del rendók en entornos urbanos de Sudán. Continua
con una detallada descripción morfonética de los procedimientos de codificación.
Seguidamente, el análisis morfologico analiza la relación entre el rendók y el árabe
sudanés en relación con la formación de nuevos lexemas y la productiva integración
de los préstamos. La última parte se dedica a aspectos semánticos (polisemia,
homónimia, metáfora, metonimia). En relación con ello, se ha observado en las
formas más recientes del rendók que la abstracción semántica se ha impuesto a la
codificación morfológica como estrategia de creación de lenguaje críptico.
Keywords: Sudanese Arabic, structural secret language, notional secret language,
youth speech.
Palabras clave: Árabe sudanés, estructura de la lengua secreta, noción de lengua
secreta, argot juvenil.
1. Introduction
1
This article aims at drawing a preliminary analysis of Rendók, an Arabic-based
secret language developed by the urban youth of northern and central Sudan. The
primary function of Rendók
is to make communication unintelligible to the
dominant linguistic community. At the same time, this secret language plays an
important role in marking the group identity of its urban young speakers. Thus,
Rendók may also be described as a cryptic sociolect. The secrecy function of
Rendók is performed through the morphological manipulation of the Sudanese
Arabic (henceforth SA) lexicon. In this regard, Rendók represents a “structural”
secret language (Youssi 2008: 156) whose most pervasive encrypting procedure is
metathesis. Actually, the name
rendók
itself finds its origin in a partial consonantal
metathesis (see 3.2) of the word
ruṭāna
2
subsequently modified
by the suffix
-ōk
(see 3.4).
ruṭāna > *runāḍa > *runḍ-ōk > rendók
Apart from the various morphological strategies, Rendók makes also use of
metaphoric speech in order to dissimulate its semantic references. Moreover, the
1
This article is a revised version of the paper “A preliminary analysis of Rendók: a
Sudanese secret language” presented at the 8
th
AIDA Conference, 28-31 August 2008,
Colchester, University of Essex.
2
In SA
ruṭāna
means “tribal language” and by extension “any language other than
Arabic” (this not applies to European languages which are referred to as
luɣa
“language”). In Modern Standard Arabic
raṭāna
generally refers to an “unintelligible
language” and it is synonym of “jargon, gibberish” (Bergman 2008: 469). In both cases,
the term
ruṭāna/ raṭāna
alludes to a socially restricted linguistic medium and to its in-
comprehensibility to outsiders.

Rendók: a youth secret language in Sudan 115
EDNA 12 (2008), pp. 113-129. ISSN 1137-7968
semantic adaptation of western borrowings, together with a high degree of sy-
nonymy, contribute to the “notional” characterization of this secret language
(Youssi 2008: 157).
The following analysis is mainly based on a selected corpus of spontaneous
recordings. Besides, I also refer to on an elicited list of Rendók lexical items joined
with their metalinguistic representations. In order to analyse the variation affecting
Rendók, the data were gathered in the two different environments of Khartoum (the
Sudanese capital) and Kadugli (the capital city of the Southern Kordofan, located
900 km south-west of Khartoum). In the following pages, I first present a brief
socio-historical introduction to Rendók in terms of its gradual diffusion, then I des-
cribe the main morpho-syntactic and lexical features of this Sudanese secret
language.
2. Socio-historical background
It is reasonable to state that Rendók
arose in consequence of the first massive
urbanization that affected Khartoum during the 1970s. In this period, the arrival of
a huge number of rural migrants from various parts of Sudan led to the expansion
of peripheral quarters such Takāmūl, Umm Badda and Ḥājj Yūsuf that were
characterized by a high degree of linguistic heterogeneity because of the presence
of numerous regional languages. Over the years, this multilingual situation was
progressively normalized by the diffusion of Arabic as urban
Lingua Franca,
as
well as first language of the second generation migrants born in the Sudanese
capital. Consequently, the various regional languages that had been imported in
Khartoum started to lose their vitality and began to be not spoken by the youngest
urban population (see Miller & Abu Manga 1992). If the acquisition of Arabic was
due to the necessity to find a medium of communication among people with differ-
rent ethno-linguistic backgrounds, Rendók
came to existence because of the
conscious attempt made by its young speakers to encrypt their communication and
to stigmatize themselves within the Arabic-speaking community. In addition, this
new linguistic tool should have reflected the urban identity of the second
generation migrants in contrast with the rural (non-Arabic) model of their parents
(Manfredi 2009: 103). The wish for deviance finally resulted in a morphological
deconstruction of the prestigious urban norm represented by SA. Although, during
this initial phase, Rendók was just a assemblage of different encrypting strategies
highly affected by individual variation. The ensuing phase of the
development of
Rendók corresponded to a second and stronger urbanization flow that interested the
whole Sudan during the late 1980s and the 1990s. More to the point, the conur-
bation of minor towns, together with the higher extent of population mobility
between Khartoum and relatively peripheral regions, made Rendók spread in all the
urban centres of the arabophone Sudan. The geographic diffusion of Rendók went
hand in hand with a normalization of its rules that finally resulted in the choice of
metathesis as the basic encrypting strategy. Actually, in spite of the fact that
Rendók is still subjected to a considerable structural variation (see 3.6), metathesis
is generally recognized as the “standard” procedure for the creation of new
templates, insomuch as at the present time the variety of Rendók based on

116 Stefano Manfredi
EDNA 12 (2008), pp.113-129. ISSN 1137-7968
metathesis is told to represent the “Clear Rendók” (
ar-rendók aṣ
-
ṣafīḥ
)
or the
“National Rendók” (
ar-rendók al-national
).
3. Phono-morphological sketch
The spontaneity of word formation in Rendók and the variation affecting the
structures of this secret language may lead to think that there are no linguistic prin-
ciples governing the rearrangement of the Arabic morphology. On the contrary, the
cryptic function of Rendók is always performed in accord with linguistically
relevant generalizations.
3.1 Metathesis
By and large, metathesis may affect all the lexical inputs of Rendók. Here, I deal
with two basic kinds of metathesis: backward and consonantal metathesis. The
application of backward rather of consonantal metathesis does not depend on sylla-
ble position, because it is exclusively determined by the presence of syllable-
internal clusters. Notwithstanding, it should be remarked that open
(v)-Cv-Cv-(Cv)
sequences can be modified both backward and consonantal metathesis. As far as
backward metathesis is concerned, this procedure consists in reversing the order of
the whole Arabic lexical input. Backward metathesis typically modifies mono and
disyllabic items presenting linear
Cv(C)
sequences as in the following examples.
(1)
Cv/v̄ > (C)v/v̄C
fi > if
invariable existential copula
ma > am
negative marker
ʤa > haʤ
“he came”
da > yed
“this”
lē > hēl
“to”
(2)
C
1
v̄C
2
> C
2
v̄C
1
zōl > lōz
“person”
fūl > lūf
“ground nuts”
bōl > lōb
“urine”
xāl > lāx
“mother’s brother”
fōg > gōf
“on, above”
wēn > nēw
“where?”
(3)
C
1
vC
2
vC
3
>
C
3
vC
2
vC
1
ʤilid > diliʤ
“skin”
walad > dalaw
“boy”
kuluʤ > ʤuluk
“father”
digin > nigid
“beard”
baḥar
>
raḥab
“river”
ḥanak
“palate” >
ganaḥ
“language” (see also 5.1.)

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EDNA 12 (2008), pp. 113-129. ISSN 1137-7968
In example (1) we can observe that the inversion of open
Cv
monosyllables may
determine the creation of
CvC
templates in Rendók
.
In fact, the need for a syllable
onset often induces the insertion of a prosthetic consonant whose nature depends
on the surrounding segments. In the majority of cases, the new onset is represented
by a voiceless glottal fricative
h
or by a palatal glide
y
. In this regard, it should be
noted that alike in SA, also in Rendók the glottal stop
ʔ
is not realized in initial
position. Notwithstanding, the etymological status of this phoneme in SA can be
testified by Rendók templates in which it appears in inter-vocalic position as in the
case of (
ʔ)ana (C
1
)vC
2
v > naʔa C
2
vC
1
v
“ I ” (1SG). Backward metathesis can also
encrypt polysyllabic lexemes presenting syllable-external clusters. In this case,
metathesis affects only the syllable whose coda corresponds to the first consonant
of the cluster.
(4)
(C
1
vC
2
)
1
(Cv)
2
(Cv)
3
> (C
2
vC
1
)
1
(Cv)
2
(Cv)
3
madrasa > damrasa
“school”
karkadé > rakkadé
“hibiscus”
muṣtafā > ṣumtafā
“Mustafa”
mu∫kila >
∫
umkila
“problem”
Thirdly, backward metathesis may occur in correspondence of syllable-external
clusters of quadrilitteral roots formed by the reduplication of two-consonant
sequences. Here, metathesis acts separately on each syllable.
(5)
(C
1
vC
2
)
1
(C
1
vC
2
)
2
> (C
2
vC
1
)
1
(C
2
vC
1
)
2
waswas
>
sawsaw
“whisper”
siwsiw > wiswis
“chick”
∫ak∫ōk
“shaking”>
ka∫kō∫
“women’s speech”
Consonantal metathesis, for its part, consists in a random reorganization of the
Arabic consonantal roots and it is specifically used for encrypting items presenting
syllable-internal clusters. Consequently, consonantal metathesis affects all the
heavy monosyllables and disyllables that cannot be modified by simple backward
metathesis.
(6)
C
1
v/v̄C
2
C
2
>
C
2
v/v̄C
1
C
1
ʤidd > diʤʤ
“grandfather”
ḥagg > gaḥḥ
possessive particle
bitt
(OA
*bint
) >
tibb
“girl”
dāmm > mādd
“blood”
ḥāʤʤ > ʤāḥḥ
“old man”
(7)
C
1
vC
2
C
2
v
>
C
2
vC
1
C
1
v
barra > rabba
“outside”
marra > ramma
“time”
sawwa > wassa
“he did”
kabba > bakka
“he poured”

118 Stefano Manfredi
EDNA 12 (2008), pp.113-129. ISSN 1137-7968
dagga > gadda
“he beat”
(8)
C
1
vC
2
C
3
v > C
3
vC
2
C
1
v , C
2
vC
1
C
3
v
∫anṭa > ṭan∫a
“bag”
bukra > kubra
“tomorrow”
furṣa > ṣufra
“chance”
(9)
C
3
vC
1
C
1
v̄C
2
, C
2
vC
3
C
3
v̄C
1
< C
1
vC
2
C
2
v̄C
3
giddām> miggād
“in front of”
gaddūm > maggūd
“mouth”
dukkān > kunnād
“shop”
The change of the consonantal order can also intervene in open disyllabic items.
Actually,
CvCvC
and
CvCv
verbs
,
active participles of the form
CāCi(C),
adjec-
tives of the form
CaCīC,
and singular and plural nouns with at least one long
vowel are commonly modified by consonantal metathesis.
(10)
C
1
aC
2
aC
3
> C
2
aC
3
aC
1
ḍarab
>
rabaḍ
“he beat”
C
1
iC
2
a > C
2
iC
1
a
liga
>
gila
“he found”
C
1
aC
2
īC
3
> C
2
aC
3
īC
1
kabīr > barīk
“big”
C
1
aC
2
ūC
3
> C2aC1ūC3
zabūn > bazūn
“shopkeeper”
C
1
uC
2
ūC
3
> C
2
uC
3
ūC
1
rufūẓ < ẓurūf
“circumstances”
In all the previous examples, we can observe that the application of metathesis
does not affect vowel quality/quantity. This is because vowel quality is necessary
for the recognition of the grammatical values expressed by vowel alternance such
the opposition between active and passive verbs
xarab > raxab
“he destroyed” vs.
xirib > rixib
“it was destroyed”. At the same time, vowel quantity is indispensable
for determining stress position which is an important perceptive factor that sim-
plifies the spotting of a given lexeme. Actually, alike in SA, also in Rendók stress
position is grammatically and lexically distinctive and it is never modified in
consequence of metathesis. For example, the interrogative pronouns
ʃen-ú, ʃun-ú >
unúʃ
“what(-M.SG)?” and
min-ú, mun-ú > umún
“who(-M.SG)?” are always
stressed on the last syllable, even if they went through a significant morphological
reorganization (CvC-
ú >
vC
ú
C). In addition, we can note that if the last consonant
of a Rendók template is elided (see 3.5.), then the preceding long vowel may be
reduced to a final acute stress as in
mitēn > timé
“when?”.
A final observation regards the continuous renewal of the Rendók lexical items.
When a Rendók template is integrated by the wider linguistic community, a doubly

Rendók: a youth secret language in Sudan 119
EDNA 12 (2008), pp. 113-129. ISSN 1137-7968
encrypted form is created in order to preserve the communication secrecy. A good
example is that of the lexeme
rendók
that, once became of common use in Khar-
toum, underwent the following double consonantal metathesis
rendók > dernók >
gernót
3.2 Phonotactic restrictions
It is common for consonants displaced by metathesis to be affected by
phonotactic restrictions. In Rendók sonority seems to be the most relevant factor
concerning consonant allophones because it determines acceptability as new onset
or coda. Even though, the distribution of consonant allophonic realizations is quite
controversial. If we take a look at plosive consonants, Rendók confirms that low
sonority makes a good onset, as Clements claims in his Sonority Theory (1990:
67).
(11)
C
1
vC
2
vC
3
+son
>
C
3
-son
vC
2
vC
1
talab < balad
“country”
C
1
vC
2
+son
v
>
C
2
-son
vC
1
v
keda > tika
“this way”
Although, initial velar plosives can be voiced when occurring before an open
vowel.
(12)
C
1
vC
2
vC
3+son
> C
3+son
vC
2
vC
1
ḥanak
“palate”
> ganaḥ
“language”
Besides, we can observe that in the case of
Cv̄C
monosyllables the degree of
sonority depends on the nature of the vocalic nucleus rather than on consonant
position. Back vowels, for example, tend to voice both the consonants surrounding
the syllable nucleus.
(13) C
1 -son
v̄
C
2
–son
>
C
1
+son
v̄C
2 +son
sūk > gūz
“market”
Front vowels, on the contrary, tend to voice the onsets and to devoice the codas
of monosyllabic items. Here, it is plausible that perceptibility likeness overcomes
sonority in determining the nature of the final consonant. Besides, it should be
remarked that final devoicing occurs on a regular basis all thorough Sudan.
(14) C
1 +son
v̄
C
2
–son
>
C
1
+son
v̄C
2 –son
zēt > dēs
“oil”
Also vowel realizations can be affected by the displacement of consonants, but
the distribution of vowel allophones is exactly the same of SA. For instance,
alveolar segments give rise to a more closed articulation, while sonorant segments
induce a centralized realization (Dickins 2007: 62-63). In line with the totality of

120 Stefano Manfredi
EDNA 12 (2008), pp.113-129. ISSN 1137-7968
Arabic dialects,
supra
-
segmental
emphasis causes the backing of the vowels
adjacent to pharyngealized consonants.
(15)
walad > dalaw
['dɛlᴐw]
“boy”
hena > neha
['niha]
“here”
fāḍi > ḍāfi
['dˤɑ:ˤfi] “empty”
3.3 Prefixation
Another important encrypting strategy in Rendók is prefixation. This procedure
consists in the use of a shared set of prefixes that are intended to make Rendók
more unintelligible to the outsiders. This means that prefixation is not
grammatically productive nor semantically restricted, thus prefixes can be indiffe-
rently attached to noun, adjectives, verbs, adverbs without changing their meaning.
I was able to isolate three basic prefixes in Rendók: the consonant prefix
s-
which
induces the insertion of an epenthetic vowel, the prefix
ʤes-
which always
correlates with consonantal metathesis, and the prefix
tu-
which is associated with
the singular pattern
C
1
aC2īC3(a)> tu-C
1
C
2
āC
3
i
. This latter prefix probably finds its
origin in the To-Beḍauye definite article
tu-.
(16)
C
1
(v)C
2
vC
3
> s-(v)C
1
C
2
vC
3
f(i)lim > s-(i)flim <
“movie”
ḥ(e)luw > s-(e)lḥuw
“beautiful, sweet”
m(o)bāyl >
s-(
o)mbāyl
“mobile phone”
ʤes-
barra > rabba > ʤes-rabba
“outside”
māʃa > ʃāma > ʤes-ʃāma
“he went”
ʕāli > lāʕi > ʤel-lāʕi
“Ali”
C
1
aC2īC3(a)> tu-C
1
C
2
āC
3
i
fanīla > tu-fnāli
“singlet”
fagīr > tu-fgāri
“poor”
gamīs > tu-gmāsi
“shirt”
ʤes-
is indubitably the most common prefix in Rendók and it can also undergo
metathesis independently from the lexeme to which is attached.
(17)
ʤes- > se(n)ʤ-
ḥabōba> baḥōba > ʤes-baḥōba > senʤ-baḥōba
“grandmother”
ʤa > haʤ > ʤes-haʤ > seʤ-haʤ
“he came”

Rendók: a youth secret language in Sudan 121
EDNA 12 (2008), pp. 113-129. ISSN 1137-7968
It is not rare to find sequences of two or more items modified by the same
prefix.
3
(18)
as-sān yet ʤes-lam-ú ʤes-diy-ēn-u ʤes-lāʕm-īn ar∫a yedik
\
an-nās da mà-l-ú īd-ēn-u ʕāml-īn ra∫a dīk
\
DEF-man this what’s_up_with-3SG.M hand-DU-3SG.M doing-PL itch that “Why
are this man’s hands scratching like that?”.
If the previous ungrammatical prefixes have no relation with the Arabic
morphology, in Rendók is also found the prefix
m(u)
- which probably derives from
to the Arabic *
mu
- used for derived participles. In truth,
m(u)
- does not introduce
any verbal feature in Rendók, but it is always attached to nouns bearing human re-
ferences. From a morphological point of view,
m(u)
- optionally occurs in combina-
tion with metathesis.
(19)
ṣābi > bāṣi> mu-bāṣi
“young person”
fakí
>
mu-fakí
“learned man
ustāz > m-utsāz
“teacher”
3.4 Suffixation
Ungrammatical suffixation works in the same manner of prefixation, but it is
comparatively rare. I was able to isolate only two suffixes in Rendók. The first one
is -
ōk,
which is the same suffix that has been agglutinated in lexeme
rendók
(see
1.). The suffix -
ōk
is particularly interesting because it gives evidence for the only
case of affix grammaticalization in Rendók. The suffix
-ōk
apparently
finds its
origin in the English borrowing “
ok”
which has been integrated with an adjective
meaning of “good, fine” as in the following example.
(20)
liḥḥa-t-na liḥḥa-t al-ōk wa ar-rēx
\
ḥilla-t-na ḥilla-t al-ōk wa al-xēr
\
quarter-F-1PL quarter-F DEF-fine and DEF-well
“Our quarter is the good quarter”.
Only in a second phase, the adjective
ōk
has been reduced to an suffix adding a
general positive meaning to the items to which is attached.
(21)
niẓām
“order” >
niẓām-ōk
“good situation”
nās
“people” >
sān
“man” >
sān-ōk
“sharp man”
rendók
“the fine language” (?)
The suffix
-īs,
for its part, represents a minor encrypting morpheme that I found
only in Kadugli. Probably,
-īs
results from the borrowing of the English third per-
son copula
is,
but differently from
-ōk,
it does not exhibit any semantic value. It
3
In the following syntactic examples I give a broad reconstruction of the SA sentences
in the second line highlighted by backslashes \ ... \.

122 Stefano Manfredi
EDNA 12 (2008), pp.113-129. ISSN 1137-7968
should be noted that the suffix
-īs
is the only morphological feature that Rendók
shares with a young cryptic variety based on Juba Arabic (Miller 2004: 80).
(22)
baggār-īs > baggār-īs
“cattleman”
xawāʤ-i > xawāʤ-īs
“western man” (
ʤawāx-i
in Khartoum)
3.5 Minor encrypting strategies
In Rendók are also found less formalized procedures that sometimes intervene in
combination with metathesis. These minor encrypting strategies include:
(23) metathesis + reduplication -
ʃen-ú >unúʃ > unúʃ-unúʃ
“what?”
metathesis + apocope –
ṣabūn > baṣú
“soap”
metathesis + insertion of dummy vowels –
koss > osokk
“vagina”
apheresis + apocope –
bantalōn > toló
“trousers”
3.6 Phono-morphological variation
As previously stated Rendók is characterized by an high degree of variation since
it is constantly renewed by different peoples, in different times and in different
places. Thus, it is not surprising that its structures give evidence for both diastratic
and diatopic variation, as well as for diachronic change. With regard to the
diastratic variation, during the last decade Rendók faced a rapid social expansion
and gradually became an urban transversal register. On the one hand, Rendók
started to be widely used by the educated middle-class youth. On the other hand, it
is still spoken by socially marginalized groups such the so-called
Šammāsa
(
Šammāša
) who identify the young sub-proletariat living in the streets of the main
Sudanese towns. If the middle-class youth makes use of Rendók only for excluding
adults from discussions concerning socially sensible arguments,
Šammāsa
link a
strong class-consciousness to Rendók and they use it as a sort of first-language. As
a consequence, the different social functions expressed in speaking Rendók are
reflected in the specificity of its encrypting strategies. For example,
Šammāsa
speakers usually prefer syllable insertion to the more common backward
metathesis.
(24)
ḥanak
“palate”
>
ga-tta na-naḥ
“language”
balad > ba-nna ta-lad
“country”
ʤāmid
>
ʤa-tta na-mid
“good” (Rendók lexical innovation, see 5.2)
Looking at the diatopic variation, it does not influence the application of
metathesis, but it is related to phonological variation due to the influence played by
different Sudanese dialects. More in detail, in comparing Rendók as spoken in
Khartoum and Kadugli, I noticed different consonant realizations having reference
to the opposition between Eastern (ESA) and Western (WSA) Sudanic dialects.

Rendók: a youth secret language in Sudan 123
EDNA 12 (2008), pp. 113-129. ISSN 1137-7968
(25) ESA > Khartoum Rendók WSA > Kadugli Rendók
ʃūf > fūʃ
“see” IMP.SG.M
ʃīf > fīʃ
“see” IMP.SG.M
ʕirif-ta >
faraʕ-ta
“I knew”
(ʔ)irif-ta > faraʔ-ta, farā-ta
“I knew”
ʤabana > baʤana
“coffee jar”
ʤabana > bajana
“coffee jar”
Lastly, as far as diachronic change is concerned, it does not only pertains the
renewal of the Rendók templates (see 3.1.), but it also regards the increasing of
complexity in the morphological manipulation. This is particularly clear in Ka-
dugli, where the affirmation of metathesis in Rendók can taken as a proof for the
shift of Arabic from the status of
Lingua Franca
to that of mother-tongue language.
Here I list four variants of two local toponyms coupled with the meta-linguistic
representations given both by former and present-day Rendók speakers:
(26)
Miri Juwa, Miri Barra
a)
miri biri, mara barra
(most archaic variant)
b)
s-ibiri miri, s-amara barra
(archaic intermediate variant)
c)
reymi woʤʤa, reymi rabba
(recent intermediate variant)
d)
s-irmi s-oʤʤa, s-irmi s-arba
(most recent variant)
The list shows that there is a common tendency in considering metathesis as a
relatively recent procedure in Kadugli (variant c). This meta-linguistic
representation may find a linguistic explanation in the fact that metathesis is a
comparatively difficult change that requires a mother-tongue skill in order to be
applied. Likewise, simplest phono-morphological procedures such vowel alternance
and simple prefixation (variants a and b) represent earlier procedures adopted when
Arabic was still a predominately vehicular language in Kadugli. Thus, it is only
recently that Rendók speakers started to combine metathesis with prefixation
(variant d). As a further matter, it should be noted that the choice of certain conso-
nantal orders in Rendók can have a reference in the ethnic affiliation of its
speakers. For example, among Nuba speakers in Kadugli the template used for the
lexeme
ʕarab
“Arab” is
ba(ʕ)ar
(
C
1
vC
2
vC
3
>C
3
vC
1
vC
2
) while the majority of
speakers adopt the order
baraʕ (C
1
vC
2
vC
3
>
C
3
vC
2
vC
1
)
. If we consider that in SA
baʕar
means “dung”, the distinct morphological outputs can be easily explained in
the light of the ethnic tensions between Nuba and Arabs characterizing the Nuba
Mountains area.
4. Morpho-syntactic features
Alike other secret languages developed in largely monolingual settings, Rendók
just provides a vocabulary to be used with the morpho-syntax of the majority
language. However, Rendók speakers may also encrypt some SA idiomatic senten-
ce, showing that the border between syntax and phonology is quite fleeting in
perceptibility terms.
(27)
bi-l-lēl > s-ilbēl
“by night”
ma-gūl-a > gamūla
“really”
ma-l-ú > lam-ú
“what’s up with him?”

124 Stefano Manfredi
EDNA 12 (2008), pp.113-129. ISSN 1137-7968
In other cases, morpheme boundaries are not modified in Rendók. For example,
a morpheme inversion is preferred to the common metathesis for encrypting the
negative existential copula
ma-fi
NEG-EXS
> fi-ma
EXS-NEG “there is not” (not
*ifam
nor *
fami
). Moreover, syntactically functional morphemes such the definite
article
al-
, bound pronouns, gender/number suffixes, prefixed/suffixed pronominal
subjects and preverbal markers are in no case displaced by metathesis.
(28)
al-ʕasa
\
as-saʕa
\
DEF-watch
“The watch”.
∫amē-t
\
ma∫ē-t
\
go-1SG
“I went”.
sinī-t-ah
\
nisī-t-ah
\
forget-1SG-3SG.F
“I forgot it”.
b-i-lūk
\ b-i-gūl \
IMPF-3SG.M-say
“he says”.
xā-y
\
āx-i
\
brother-1SG
“my brother”.
dusān-i, dusān-i-ya
\
sudān-i, sudān-i-ya
\
Sudan-M.SG Sudan-F.SG
“Sudanese”
ramma nāti-ya
\
marra tāni-ya
\
time second-F.SG
“Another time”
Moreover, we can note that number/gender suffixes and suffixed/prefixed
pronominal subjects are productive in the integration of English borrowings.

Rendók: a youth secret language in Sudan 125
EDNA 12 (2008), pp. 113-129. ISSN 1137-7968
(29)
man > men
“man”,
men-a
“woman”
this is > disīs
“good”,
disīs-īn
“good-M.PL”
missed call
>
maskal-ta
“I sent a missed call (mobile)”
Looking at the verbal derivational stems instead, the Arabic morphemes
it-,
-
ta-
and
ista-
used for intransitive/reciprocal and reflexive verbal forms are not
displaced by metathesis.
(30)
it-kayyaf > it-fayyak
“rejoice in”
is-ta-lam > im-ta-las
“obtain”
it-kallam > it-mallak
“speak”
ista-ḥamma >
ista-maḥḥa
“wash”
An important characteristic of Rendók as compared to other structural secret
languages
is that, apart from the previous functional morphemes, everything can be
modified by metathesis. If in French Verlan prepositions and negative particles are
typically not inverted, in Rendók there are no restrictions to the modification of
morphologically independent items (Manfredi 2008: 110).
(31)
nim al-ḥabāṣ am din-í yiʔa ɣulu∫
\
min aṣ-ṣabāḥ ma ʕand-í eyy ∫uɣul
\
from DEF-morning NEG at-1SG any work
“I have nothing to do since this morning”.
Notwithstanding, every Rendók template can also appear in the etymological
form depending on its syntactic prominence within the sentence. For example, the
demonstrative
da
is inverted when is in adjective position, but it appears in the
Arabic form when it represents the subject of a NP.
(32)
al-gernót al-deʤīd yet
\
ar-rendók al-ʤedīd da
\
DEF-Rendók DEF-new this
“This new Rendók”.
da al-hafam lokko
\
da al-faham kullu
\
this DEF-matter all
“That’s all”.
Lastly, we can note that, in order to retain an apparent syntactic coherence,
coordination and subordination markers are not modified at all.
(33) adversative
lakín
“but”
al-ʤawāx-āt ɣurāṣ lakín sār-hum b-i-nūk barīk
\
al-xawāj-āt ṣuɣār lakín rās-hum b-i-kūn kabīr
\

126 Stefano Manfredi
EDNA 12 (2008), pp.113-129. ISSN 1137-7968
DEF-western-PL.F small\PL but head-3PL.M IMPF-3SG.M-be big
“Western people are tiny but they have a big head”.
Subordinator
ʕa∫ān
“in order to, so as to”
kiff-ah ʕa∫ān ta-hiʤi hēl-ak
\
fikk-ah ʕa∫ān ta-ʤi lē-k
\
release\IMP-3SG.F in order 3SG.F-come to-2SG.M
“Release it in order to make it come to you”.
Subordinator
innu
“that”
b-i-tfayyak innu bi-t-mallak amāʕ-u
\
b-i-tkayyaf innu bi-t-kallam māʕ-u
\
IMPV-3SG.M-rejoice that IMPFV-2SG.M-talk with-3SG.M
“He is glad that you are talking with him”.
5. Vocabulary and semantics
5.1 Metaphors and metonymies
Rendók is also characterized by a large use of metaphors which grant an
uncommon expressive potentiality to its lexicon. The occurrence of metaphors ge-
nerally varies in accord with the evocative ability of each speaker, although there
are some metaphoric expressions that have been definitely integrated in the Rendók
lexicon.
(34)
ḥanak
“palate”>
ganaḥ
“language, tongue, speech, matter”
ḥāʤa
“thing, stuff” >
ʤāḥa
“girl”
ḥāʤʤa
“make the Islamic pilgrimage” >
ʤāḥḥa
“womanize”
ka∫∫af
“see trough” >
fa∫∫ak
“look at”
duxxān
“smoke” >
xunnād
“marijuana
gadaḥ
“bowl” >
gadaḥ
“market”
naṭṭa
“jump” >
naṭṭa
“refuse”
In other cases Rendók draws its metaphoric expressions on other cryptic varieties
as in the case of the verb
bārak
“bless”, used with the meaning of “shadow some-
one” as in the Sudanese police jargon.
5.2 Synonymy and polysemy
Rendók lexicon is also characterized by a high degree of synonymy concerning a
number of common semantic references. In most of cases, synonymy is due to the
co-occurrence of Arabic lexemes and borrowings from both European and African
languages covering the same semantic field.
(35) “girl, woman”
ʤāḥa, loggo-ya
(COLL
loggó
),
madám
(PL
masmasén,
French
madame,
vulgar
English
mazmazēn
),
babūr
(SA “power engine”, French
vapeur) ciks
(COLL

Rendók: a youth secret language in Sudan 127
EDNA 12 (2008), pp. 113-129. ISSN 1137-7968
English
chicks
)
, fara, rama (s-arma), xuṣna
“food”
, aylayk
(English
I like
),
cuma,
kokók, ɲamɲám
“house”
, tēb, kontar
(English
container
)
, kakar, wakar, kōx
(MSA
kūx
“hut”),
santa
(English
center)
“money”
, ∫erōga
(SA
gurūʃ
),
kalasa, taʤdīr,
robṭa
“good”
, disīs
(see paragraph 4.),
ʤāmid, ṭibbi (biṭṭi), diŋdiŋ, ṣāli, bādiṣ
Polysemy is quite rare in Rendók and it is always induced by metaphoric speech.
For example, the lexeme
sámxa
carries two different meanings. The first is that of
the numeral “five” (
xamsa
) from which it derives. The second is that of “anus”
which, for its part, finds its origin in a figurative metaphor related to the numeral
symbol ٥ for “5”. Apart from the kinky sense of the metaphor, this case of poly-
semy is important because it shows how the written medium can interfere with the
development of a very spoken language.
5.3. Semantic bleach
A final remark concerns the semantic bleach that characterizes the most recent
varieties of Rendók. When Rendók speakers have exhausted all the possible mor-
phological options for encrypting a certain lexeme, they substitute the original
lexical referent with etymologically unrelated templates. This procedure obviously
produces a weakening of the relation between the phonetic representation and the
semantic referent. Even though, Rendók speakers generally seek for a broad
assonance with the Arabic form so as to give a phonetic reference for the semantic
recognition. Semantic bleach mainly modifies nouns, but it can also intervene with
functional morphemes and some idiomatic sentences.
(36)
māhi ad-dīn
“Mahi ad-Din” (given name) >
ḥammid an-nīl
(a Sudanese
Sheikh)
ma-fi
“there is not” >
fi-ma > fombastik
ma-l-ák > lam-ák >
salam-ák>
islām-ak
“what’s up with you?”
6. Conclusion
Rendók displays the typical features of numerous youth secret languages all
around the world. From a structural point of view, Rendók presents common
strategies of phono-morphological manipulation such metathesis, phonotactic
adaptations, ungrammatical affixation, and word truncation (Kiessling & Mouse
2004). From a sociolinguistic perspective instead, Rendók provides a tool for ex-
pressing the specificity of the urban youth culture by means of an innovative
lexicon. In truth, Rendók is particularly interesting if compared with other Arabic-
based secret languages. For example, alike Rendók, also the Moroccan Ghuz
(Berjaoui 2008) makes a large use of metathesis. But, if in Rendók functional
markers cannot undergo metathesis, in Moroccan Ghuz bound pronouns and
gender/number suffixes are considered part of the lexical input and they are always
displaced. Another interesting point is that, differently from an Arabic “cant”
diffused in the Gulf area (Searjeant 1948), Rendók does not develop new
morphological forms but it always reproduces the SA root/pattern schemes.
Thirdly, I showed that syllable insertion in Rendók represents a marginal strategy
used only by
Shammasha
speakers. On the contrary, this procedure is very

128 Stefano Manfredi
EDNA 12 (2008), pp.113-129. ISSN 1137-7968
common in other Arabic-based cryptic varieties such the secret language of the
‘Abbadi Sheiks in northern Sudan (Vycichl 1959: 225; Youssi 2008: 159). Looking
at the “argot”
based on Juba Arabic, this variety is mainly characterized by
neologisms and metaphors and it presents very simple morphological mani-
pulations (Miller 2004: 85). As observed above, the only feature that this Juba
variety shares with Rendók is the ungrammatical suffix -
īs
. The absence of other
procedures characterizing Rendók gives evidence for the different historical
development of the two linguistic varieties. The fact that Juba Arabic is an expan-
ded pidgin (that it is spoken as both first and second language) undoubtedly limited
the complexity of the cryptic strategies adopted in Southern Sudan.
All things considered, Rendók provides food for thought for conceptualizing the
different roles played by the root/pattern morphology in the development of
structural secret languages in Arabic. Besides, the study of Rendók can also bring
out important reflections in historical linguistics because of the rapid expansion of
its lexicon. In this article I tried to present only the basic features of Rendók,
further research would be needed for analyze how the different Sudanese dialects
influence the structures and the lexicon of this secret language.
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