A familect or marriage language is a set of invented words or phrases with meanings understood within members of a family or other small intimate group. Among the pioneers of research on familects is Cynthia Gordon, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, who discussed the concept in her 2009 book Making Meanings, Creating Family. Familects fall within the intimate register of communication.
Familects often gain vocabulary through the words young children create as they learn to talk, when these words are adopted by the family. Familects also gain vocabulary through slips of the tongue and word invention.
See also Idiolect - dialect of a single person Idioglossia - dialect of two people especially twins In-joke - idioms shared by two or more people
References
Further reading
External links
Georgetown University Linguistics faculty page, with info on Cynthia Gordon Kitchen Table Lingo, The English Project Mignon Fogarty, What's Your Family Slang, Quick and Dirty Tips