Invented languages tend to be the stuff of fantasy or science fiction worlds. But as a child, you may have made one up yourself.

Take Pig Latin, which involves moving the starting consonant of a word to the end and adding an “-ay” sound. “Pig Latin” thus becomes “ig-pay atin-lay”, while words beginning with a vowel have a “-way” at the end. With a little practice, you can hold entire conversations in Pig Latin.

However, creating new forms of communication goes far beyond children’s games or brain exercises. Throughout history, people have invented or adapted languages – whether out of necessity, creativity, or scientific interest.

The process of creating a language can also offer a window onto how our brains work. From the code-speak of children’s games to “miniature” languages designed in laboratories, all new forms of communication reveal something about our ability to learn and adopt new rules.

Pidgins: languages born of necessity

Many novel languages are not born in offices or laboratories, but at points where multiple cultures meet. When two communities with different languages need to communicate in order to trade or simply coexist, a simplified version of language emerges known as a pidgin.

The word pidgin is thought to have emerged from the Chinese pronunciation of the English word business. These “contact languages”, as they are known,........

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