These twins finish each other's sentences, when they don't say them at the same time.
Only the spelling of their name and the center of gravity of the tips of their mustache seem to distinguish them.
We find them clearly in this twisting exchange taken from the adventures of Tintin:
“Laugh Madam, we Madam, in our profession, you want to laugh, Madam!
»
, protests Dupond.
And Dupont adds: “
I wouldn’t even laugh anymore Madam, in our profession, we don’t laugh!
»
To conclude both in one breath: “
We salute you!
»
Fiction is full of these fascinating pairs, and so is mythology.
Let us think of Romulus and Romus, Artemis and Apollo, Castor and Pollux.
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In reality, the phenomenon of twinning is a subject of questions, particularly for those mainly concerned.
“It’s part of my identity
,” explains Priscille, 22 years old.
“There are things that escape me.
Sometimes, when my twin makes a gesture, I have the impression that it’s me who is doing it, it’s very disturbing.”
A fusional or conflictual relationship, difficult to adjust, a disrupted relationship with oneself and with others, a great wealth too.
“Do you think you look alike?”
I am asked regularly… The question is completely stupid
,” laughs the young woman.
“A lot of people are curious, but there is a side that is sometimes voyeuristic and a little unhealthy.
They are waiting to be told what they are waiting for, namely that we have pain in the same place and at the same time, even though we may be a thousand miles apart.”
It must be recognized that ordinary people often like to imagine mysterious correspondences between twins, particularly those we call “
identical twins
”, homozygous.
They would have the same dreams, would not need to speak to understand each other... And they would have their own language elements.
What is it really ?
Media curiosity
Let's go back in time.
Scientific research into a hypothetical “
secret language
” between twins accelerated in the 1930s, when two Russian researchers caught wind of a curious phenomenon.
“Two twins left in almost complete self-sufficiency, Yura and Lioscha, had developed a whole structured language with truly terms, a grammar of their own
,” recalls psychologist and gemologist Fabrice Bak.
In May 1979, two eight-year-old twins from California made headlines.
Their names are Grace and Virginia Kennedy.
They use jargon that no one else understands, for example giving each other the names Poto and Cabengo.
A few years before this media resonance, the French psychologist René Zazzo already described this use of a language that twins would be the only ones to understand.
This phenomenon ?
It is called “
cryptophasia
”, from the Greek “
kryptos
”, which means “
hidden
”, and “
phemi
”, which means “
to say
”.
A “
secret language
” which finds its most perfect outcome in the twin relationship, but which also applies to a lesser extent to brothers and sisters very close in age, or certain couples.
The scientist finds it likely that mental and linguistic development are so synchronized in twins that they come to invent their own language.
But it would not be a specific language.
Could this be the end of a myth?
“
It still lingers in the societal imagination, but the debate around a specific language created by certain pairs of twins was settled in the 90s
,” explains Fabrice Bak to Le
Figaro
.
“
It can occasionally happen that we don't understand what they are saying.
But it is not really a structured language
,” he continues.
“
It's just words that are going to be mispronounced and copied by the twin.
When the child learns to speak, he has a model, that of his parents.
The particularity of the twin is that he has another model who learns to speak at the same time as him: his twin!
".
Language distortion
Thus, if twins exchange terms from their childhood that seem sealed to those close to them, this must be attributed to “
words that one pronounces incorrectly, and that the other will repeat identically, and therefore in a distorted manner.”
".
There therefore does not seem to be anything particularly specific to the twin relationship.
“
We will find similar things in the relationship of two brothers and sisters close in age who spend all their time together
,” specifies the psychologist.
“
We sometimes even talk about virtual twinning
.”
This therefore explains why these cases of language distortion, maintained by the proximity of twins, are taken to the extreme with regard to pairs left to their own devices.
As for the Kennedy twins, they were raised by a very quiet grandmother, with very little outside contact.
Hence words distorted to the point that they passed for verbal innovations.
“
This obviously does not exclude the possibility that there are language traits specific to twinhood
,” adds Fabrice Bak.
“
Twins will often create a term to characterize their twin relationship, by joining together the first syllables of each of their first names
.”
If there is a secret language of twins, it comes through something other than words, testifies Marie, mother of twins.
A proximity that is impossible to describe from the outside.
Marie remembers inviting each of her seven-year-old twins separately for ice cream.
“
They took exactly the same combination of flavors, and after the first spoonful...A single verdict in the same tone: Ah, I'm sorry, I should have taken something else!
»