pig Latin

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Pig Latin is a language game of alterations played in English. To form the Pig Latin form of an English word the initial consonant sound is transposed to the end of the word and an ay is affixed (for example, trash yields ash-tray and plunder yields under-play). The purpose of the alteration is to both obfuscate the encoding and to indicate for the intended recipient the encoding as 'Pig Latin'. The reference to Latin is a deliberate misnomer, as it is simply a form of jargon, used only for its English connotations as a 'strange and foreign-sounding language'; it could also be because the transformed words sound similar to Latin.

Origins

The origins of Pig Latin are unknown. One early mention of it was in Putnam's Magazine in May 1869: "I had plenty of ammunition in reserve, to say nothing, Tom, of our pig Latin. 'Hoggibus, piggibus et shotam damnabile grunto', and all that sort of thing". The Atlantic January 1896 also included a mention of the subject: "They all spoke a queer jargon which they themselves had invented. It was something like the well-known 'pig Latin' that all sorts of children like to play with". Thomas Jefferson wrote letters to friends in pig Latin. (see Hailman in the references below)

Use

Pig Latin is mostly used by children for amusement or to converse in perceived privacy from adults or other children. A few Pig Latin words, such as ixnay ^[1](nix), amscray ^[2](scram), and upidstay (stupid), have been incorporated into American English slang.^{[citation needed]}

Rules and variations

The usual rules for changing standard English into Pig Latin are as follows:

1. In words that begin with consonant sounds, the initial consonant or consonant cluster is moved to the end of the word, and "ay" is added, as in the following examples:
   • beast → east-bay
   • dough → ough-day
   • happy → appy-hay
   • question → estion-quay
   • star → ar-stay
   • three → ee-thray
2. In words that begin with vowel sounds or silent consonants, the syllable "ay" is added to the end of the word.

Transcription varies. A hyphen or apostrophe is sometimes used to facilitate translation back into English. Ayspray, for instance, is ambiguous, but ay-spray means "spray" whereas ays-pray means "prays."

Other languages

In Bernese German, a variety of Pig Latin called Mattenenglisch was used in the Matte, the traditional working class neighborhood. Though it has fallen out of use since mid 20th century, it is still cultivated by voluntary associations. A characteristic of the Mattenenglisch Pig Latin is the complete substitution of the first vowel by i, in addition to the usual moving of the initial consonant cluster and the adding of ee.

The Swedish equivalent of Pig Latin is Allspråket, which uses the same or similar rules but with the suffix "-all". Additionally, the Swedish language game Fikonspråket ("Fig language") is similar to Pig Latin. In Fikonspråket, speakers split each word after the first vowel, switch places of the two parts, put "fi" before the second part and "kon" after the first part. The word "kallingar" (underpants) thus translates to "fillingar kakon". The word "fimp", meaning cigarette stump, originated from Fikonspråket ("stump" = "fimp stukon").

Hebrew has a children's language called the "Bet Language", named for the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The language is constructed by adding a "b" and the preceding vowel for every vowel in the word; so that "Ani" ("I") becomes "Abanibi". The Israeli hit song "Abanibi", written in Bet language (lyrics by Ehud Manor, music by Nurit Hirsh, sung by Izhar Cohen) won first prize in the Eurovision Song Contest of 1978.

French has the loucherbem (or louchébem) coded language, which supposedly was originally used by butchers (boucher in French).^{[citation needed]} In loucherbem, the leading consonant cluster is moved to the end of the word (as in Pig Latin) and replaced by a l , and then a suffix is added at the end of the word (-oche, -em, -oque, depending on the word). ex: fou (crazy) = loufoque

See also

• Back slang
• Dog Latin
• Language game
• Louchébem
• Rhyming slang
• Tutnese
• Ubbi dubbi
• Gibberish (language game)

Notes

References

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (October 2008)

External links

• English to Pig Latin translator
• Pig Latin to English translator
• "Pig Latin to English translator"
• Google in Pig Latin