Pig Latin

Pig Latin (''Igpay Atinlay'') is a language game, argot, or cant in which words in English are altered, usually by adding a fabricated suffix or by moving the onset or initial consonant or consonant cluster of a word to the end of the word and adding a vocalic syllable (usually -ay or /eɪ/) to create such a suffix. For example, "he does not know" would become ''"ehay oesday otnay ownay"''.

The objective is often to conceal the words from others not familiar with the rules. The reference to Latin is a deliberate misnomer; Pig Latin is simply a form of argot or jargon unrelated to Latin, and the name is used for its English connotations as a strange and foreign-sounding language. It is most often used by young children as a fun way to confuse people unfamiliar with Pig Latin.

Origins and history

Early mentions of Pig Latin or Hog Latin describe what is known today as Dog Latin, a type of parody Latin. Examples of this predate even Shakespeare, whose 1598 play, ''Love's Labour's Lost'', includes a reference to dog Latin.

An 1866 article describes a "hog latin" that has some similarities to current Pig Latin. The article says, "He adds as many new letters as the boys in their 'hog latin', which is made use of to mystify eavesdroppers. A boy asking a friend to go with him says, 'Wig-ge you-ge go-ge wig-ge me-ge?' The other, replying in the negative says, 'Noge, Ige woge.' ". This is similar to Língua do Pê.

Another early mention of the name 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", although the jargon is Dog Latin.

''The Atlantic'' January 1895 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."

The modern version of Pig Latin appears in a 1919 Columbia Records album by a singer named Arthur Fields. The song, called "Pig Latin Love", is followed by the subtitle "I-Yay Ove-Lay oo-yay earie-day". The Three Stooges used it on multiple occasions, most notably '' Tassels in the Air'', a 1938 short where Moe Howard attempts to teach Curley Howard how to use it, thereby conveying the rules to the audience. In an earlier (1934) episode, '' Three Little Pigskins'', Larry Fine attempts to impress a woman with his skill in Pig Latin, but it turns out that she knows it, too. No explanation of the rules is given. A few months prior in 1934, in the ''Our Gang'' short film '' Washee Ironee'', Spanky tries to speak to an Asian boy by using Pig Latin.

Ginger Rogers sang a verse of " We're in the Money" in pig Latin in an elaborate Busby Berkeley production number in the film ''Gold Diggers of 1933''. The film, the third highest grossing of that year, was inducted into the National Film Registry and that song included in the all-time top 100 movie songs by the American Film Institute. Merle Travis ends his song "When My Baby Double Talks To Me" with the phrase, "What a aybybay", where the last word is Pig Latin for "baby".

A 1947 newspaper question and answer column describes the Pig Latin as known today. It describes moving the first letter to the end of a word and then adding "ay".

Two Pig Latin words that have entered mainstream American English are "" or "icksnay", the Pig Latin version of "" (itself a borrowing of German ), which is used as a general negative; and "", Pig Latin for "", meaning "go away" or "get out of here".

Rules

For words that begin with consonant sounds, these are also known as consonant blends (two letters that make one sound: e.g., black, slack, clown). The initial consonant blend (or two letters) is moved to the end of the word, then "ay" is added, as in the following examples:
*"pig" = "igpay"
*"latin" = "atinlay"
*"banana" = "ananabay"
*"black" = "ackblay"

For words that begin with vowel sounds, "way" is added to the end:
*"a" = "away"
*"open" = "openway"

In other languages

In the German-speaking area, varieties of Pig Latin include , which originated around Hamburg harbour, and Mattenenglisch that was used in the ''Matte'', the traditional working-class neighborhood of Bern. Though Mattenenglisch has fallen out of use since the 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 Fikonspråket ("Fig language" – see Language game § List of common language games).

The Finnish Pig Latin is known as Kontinkieli ("container language"). After each word, the word kontti "container" is added, the first syllables are switched, so every sentence is converted to twice as many pseudo-words. For example, "wikipedia" ⟶ "wikipedia kontti" ⟶ "kokipedia wintti". Converting the sentence "I love you" ("Minä rakastan sinua") would result in "konä mintti kokastan rantti konua sintti".

In Italian, the '' alfabeto farfallino'' uses a similar encoding; in Spanish, a similar language variation is called Jeringonza. Spanish as used in Latin America has a further form, Vesre, in which the order of syllables is reversed.

In Estonian, the encoding used is 'bi' after the first syllable, e.g. "mina" ('me' in English) would be "mibina".

Another equivalent of Pig Latin is used throughout the Slavic-speaking parts of the Balkans. It is called "Šatra" (/sha-tra/)or " Šatrovački" (/shatro-vachki/) and was used in crime-related and street language. For instance, the Balkan slang name for marijuana (trava – meaning "grass") turns to "vutra"; the Balkan slang name for cocaine (belo – meaning "white") turns to lobe, a pistol (pištolj) turns to štoljpi, bro (brate) turns to tebra. In the past few years it has become widely used between teenage immigrants in former Yugoslavian countries.

French has the '' loucherbem'' (or ''louchébem'', or ''largonji'') coded language, which supposedly was originally used by butchers (''boucher'' in French). In ''loucherbem'', the leading consonant cluster is moved to the end of the word (as in Pig Latin) and replaced by an ''L'', and then a suffix is added at the end of the word (-''oche'', -''em'', -''oque'', etc., depending on the word). Example: ''combien'' (how much) = ''lombienquès''. Similar coded languages are '' verlan'' and ''langue de feu'' (see Javanais. A few louchébem words have become usual French words: ''fou'' (crazy) = ''loufoque'' or ''louftingue'', ''portefeuille'' (wallet) = ''larfeuille'', ''en douce'' (on the quiet) = ''en loucedé''.

Similarly, the French argot '' verlan'', in which the order of the syllables within a word is inverted, is also widely used. The term "verlan" is an autological example of the process it describes, derived from inverting the syllables of ''l'envers,'' meaning "reverse". Documented initially in the 19th century, Verlan was used as a coded language by criminals in effort to conceal illicit activities from others, including police. Over time, particularly in the late 20th century, its use has proliferated in suburban areas predominantly inhabited by migrant workers. Verlan has served as a language bridge between many of these diverse communities, and its popularity encouraged its spread into advertising, film scripts, French rap and hip-hop music, media, and some French dictionaries. In some cases, Verlanned words have even supplanted their original forms.

Here are some French words that have been Verlanned and their English meaning:

Notes

References

* Barlow, Jessica. 2001. "Individual differences in the production of initial consonant sequences in Pig Latin." '' Lingua'' 111:667-696.
* Cowan, Nelson. 1989. "Acquisition of Pig Latin: A Case Study." ''Journal of Child Language'' 16.2:365-386.
* Day, R. 1973. "On learning 'secret languages.'" ''Haskins Laboratories Status Report on Speech Research'' 34:141-150.
* Haycock, Arthur. "Pig Latin." ''American Speech'' 8:3.81.
* McCarthy, John. 1991. "Reduplicative Infixation in Secret Languages" 'L'Infixation reduplicative dans les langages secrets'' '' Langages'' 25.101:11-29.
* Vaux, Bert and Andrew Nevins. 2003. "Underdetermination in language games: Survey and analysis of Pig Latin dialects." Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, Atlanta.
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Language games
Classical ciphers
English-based argots
Cant languages