'It's a unique language spoken by two people': The twins who created their own language
Up to 50% of twins develop their own communication pattern with one another. Most lose it over time, but for the Youlden twins it has become a normal way of communicating.
If you've not heard of Umeri, there's good reason for that. Michael and Matthew are the only two people who speak, read and write it, having created it themselves as children.
"Umeri isn't ever reduced to a language used to keep things private," they say in an email. "It definitely has a very sentimental value to us, as it reflects the deep bond we share as identical twins."
An estimated 30-50% of twins develop a shared language or particular communication pattern that is only comprehensible to them, known as cryptophasia. The term translates directly from Greek as secret speech.
Nancy Segal, director of the Twin Studies Center at California State University, believes there are now better and more nuanced words for the phenomenon, and prefers to use "private speech". In her book Twin Mythconceptions, Segal also uses the phrase "shared verbal understanding" to refer to speech used within the pair.
