Identical twins Matthew and Michael Youlden created Umeri, a language that only they know and have been speaking since childhood.
Identical twins Matthew and Michael Youlden have a natural talent for languages; the brothers speak no less than 26 languages, but one of them, Umeri, was created by them and only they understand it.
The polyglot brothers from Manchester, England, master, among other languages, Spanish, Italian, and French, which can be considered more well-known languages, as well as Dutch, Mandarin, and even Basque, spoken in the region of northern Spain and southwestern France.
However, one of the languages spoken by the brothers was created by them. The twins, known on Instagram as Superpolygotbros, created Umeri when they were children to communicate with each other and have developed the language as they grew up.
In an interview with BBC, the brothers explained that Umeri, the language they created, came about naturally, as an extra bond between them and not as a way to communicate without others understanding: “Umeri was never reduced to a language used to keep things private,” they said.
“It definitely has a very sentimental value for us, as it reflects the deep bond we share as identical twins.” “Twins have this shared language, which at some point they stop using, as if they were ashamed of it,” Matthew told the BBC.
The Youlden twins say that Umeri was their first language, followed by English. Spanish was the third language they learned on family vacations when they were only eight years old, followed by Italian and Scandinavian languages.
Even while learning new languages, the brothers never stopped studying and developing a grammatical structure for the language they created, but they do not intend to pass Umeri on to anyone else.
The Youldens, who are currently partners in a language school, believe that the language they developed will die with them: “It’s one of those things that unfortunately has an expiration date.”
This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.