RENDÓK: 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.