Farfallino alphabet

The farfallino alphabet is a language game used primarily in Italy, which can be regarded as an elementary form of substitution cipher. It is usually used by children for amusement or to converse in privacy from adults. The name "farfallino" comes from the word "farfalla", which is an ordinary Italian word but sounds like the "codified" words in farfallino alphabet. The farfallino alphabet is similar to games found in other languages such as jeringonza, langue de feu, Fay Kee Bolee and pig latin.

Rules and variations

The usual rules for farfallino alphabet are based on the substitution of each vowel with a 3 letter sequence where the vowel itself is repeated with an interceding f.

casa → cafasafa
lago → lafagofo
stella → stefellafa
re → refe
cercare → cefercafarefe

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Its translation in Italian is:
Which means, in English:

There are several minor variations to this scheme. One such variation is based on the following substitution rules:

a → agasa
e → eghese
i → ighisi
o → ogoso
u → ugusu

Although rules for e and i look different, they are not; the additional h is needed in Italian to enforce a "hard g" sound for letter g, which is implicit in the other combinations. Another more complicated scheme, which is used in some regions of Italy, is as follows:

a → aufer
e → enghel
i → ix
o → older
u → uflez