This type of thing makes a lot of sense! My friend and I developed a small set of hand signals in a day while working on a project in the desert with high winds that made radios all but useless. We worked together all through the day always at about a distance of 150ft carefully taking linked measurements and barely used words. We also grew other types of standards, like specific things left on/in the ground at the various points so we could communicate enough information to make the measurements accurate.

We didn't develop any jokes or casual language, but I imagine if we had been out there for a few more days it would have happened pretty quickly.