kitchenspeak

[Coffee Break]

Hello everyone. I encountered this expression, "kitchenspeak", but am struggling to understand it. Could you please let me know what it means in the following sentences:

I was about to throw in a possible guess when she ribbed me yet again, waving me away with her hand, as though anything I might breathe was sure to make her explode. Tears of suppressed laughter were welling up in her eyes—which finally gave me a case of the giggles as well. “Want more garly?” she began. It was my turn to brush her away.
It took me a few seconds to note that she had spun out a new version of a word I thought was intimate kitchenspeak between us. Can’t get too cozy with her.

- André Aciman, Eight White Nights, Second Night

This is a novel published in the United States of America in 2010. This novel is narrated by the nameless male protagonist. The protagonist meets Clara at a Christmas party in Manhattan. The night after the party, the protagonist runs into Clara standing in front of the movie theatre. (He had mentioned to Clara that he would go to the Rohmer festival during the previous night's party, and she appears to have waited for him.) To his surprise, he realizes that Clara even brought him something to eat. But then Clara seems to be unable to suppress her laughter because of the fact that she bought a garlic sandwich to the movie theatre.

Here, I wonder what the underlined expression means.
Actually, "noun + speak" seems to be repeatedly used in this novel, and another instance is "blandspeak" and "sadspeak" that appears in the same chapter:

She had used the exact same tone last night, lacing, as she always seemed to do in difficult moments, straight talk with double-talk, blandspeak with sadspeak.

So I am wondering what this "kitchenspeak" (which seems to be similar with "blandspeak/sadspeak") might mean. My only guess is that it might mean "what people speak in the kitchen", but I am not sure...

I would very much appreciate your help.

 

[emsr2d2]

It means that it's a word he thought they used only between them in the kitchen. When they're at home, cooking, they call garlic "garly". It's like their little secret and he suddenly noticed that she used the word outside of their private home.

 

[Coffee Break]

@emsr2d2,

Thank you very much for the explanation.
So "kitchen + speak" is what they spoke only in the kitchen! But then, because they do not live together, "kitchen" would symbolically mean "their private space", whether that space is a physical one or a spiritual one. He thinks there is an intimate area in their vocabulary, and the words in that area are being called "kitchenspeak" I guess.

By the way, I learned in the dictionary that "garly" can be an archaic English form of "garlic (noun)"! So they are speaking an archaic word between them, as a sign of intimacy.

Similarly, "blandspeak" would mean "banal/bland words", and "sadspeak" would be "sad words". That reminds me of "doublethink" or "doublespeak" in Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.

I sincerely appreciate your help.

 

[5jj]

By the way, I learned in the dictionary that "garly" can be an archaic English form of "garlic (noun)"! So they are speaking an archaic word between them, as a sign of intimacy.

Probably not. They have just come up with a new (for them) diminutive..

 

[Coffee Break]

@5jj,

Thank you very much for the explanation.
So "garly" is just a diminutive of "garlic"! And "garly", just like "garlic", is a noun rather than an adjective or an adverb.
I truly appreciate your help.

 

[5jj]

So "garly" is just a diminutive of "garlic"! And "garly", just like "garlic", is a noun rather than an adjective or an adverb.

Well, it's a noun in 'Want more garly?', but it would be an adjective in 'That's very garly'.