Tutnese (also known as Tut) is an argot created by enslaved African Americans based on African-American Vernacular English as a method to covertly teach and learn spelling and reading.
The linguistics journal American Speech published the following table detailing syllables that replace consonants in Tutnese:[2][3] *When spoken before /dud/, /rut/ is changed to /rud/ A different set of syllables for the language game had appeared in The New York Times Magazine several decades earlier, and the author noted the similarities between the "Tutahash" and the "Double Dutch" language game, which he claimed to be the third most widely spoken language game in the United States when he was writing in 1944, but he also indicated several differences between the two, detailed in the following table:[4] Double letters in a word, rather than being repeated, are preceded by the syllable square[1][3] or squa[citation needed] to indicate doubling.
[citation needed] For example, "tree" becomes "Tutrugsquatee" and "I took a walk to the park yesterday" becomes "I tutsquatohkuck a wackalulkuck tuto tuthashe pubarugkuck yubesustuterugdudayub."
[citation needed] Enslaved African Americans were not permitted to read or write, and could be severely punished if they were discovered to be literate.
[citation needed] In Ernest Thompson Seton's book Two Little Savages, the protagonist, Yan, learns the "Tutnee" language from another boy at camp and tries to teach it to his friends Sam and Giles.