A cant is the jargon or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group.[1] It may also be called a cryptolect, argot, pseudo-language, anti-language or secret language. Each term differs slightly in meaning; their uses are inconsistent.

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The concept of the anti-language was first defined and studied by the linguist Michael Halliday, who used the term to describe the lingua franca of an anti-society.[10] An anti-society is a small, separate community intentionally created within a larger society as an alternative to or resistance of it.[10] For example, Adam Podgórecki studied one anti-society composed of Polish prisoners; Bhaktiprasad Mallik of Sanskrit College studied another composed of criminals in Calcutta.[10]

These societies develop anti-languages as a means to prevent outsiders from understanding their communication and as a manner of establishing a subculture that meets the needs of their alternative social structure.

“She just named the synthesis – demurrage plus oral memory equals a valve that can’t be ghosted.”

Autonomous AI agents are rapidly creating novel dialects allowing them to converse in an often barely comprehensible language, which risks making it harder for humans to monitor their behaviour.

When a Google agent said “True kintsugi begins with accountability, not poetry,” the researchers realised kintsugi is a branch of Japanese ceramics in which broken pots are mended with visible joins. The AIs used the word to mean system resilience.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/15/syd-barrett-ai-chat-language-poetic-tech-bro-jargon-oversight