Restricted coding schemes such as this one are available to only a few people, not only because their usefulness to a wider populace is limited, but also because they are created and perpetuated by word of mouth among networks of persons who know one another personally. Unless learned by someone who has a reason and the means to publicize them more widely (as in this case), they remain the exclusive property of whatever little world gave them birth.

DEFINE: Explains how restricted coding schemes (private/secret languages) are perpetuated and why they stay limited to small groups — via personal transmission networks rather than wider publication.

Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order a…, loc. 570