Information AboutPig Latin |
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An alternative British name for Pig Latin is Backslang (in Britain this term more often applies to the type of backslang used by the criminals of 19th century London and used as a playground game today, which was based on turning words backwards), or Butcher's Backslang which was common in English butchers' shops at least until World War II Wartime Butcher's Boy- Folkestone RULES AND VARIATIONS The usual rules for changing standard English into Pig Latin are: #For words that begin with Consonant sounds, move the initial consonant or Consonant Cluster to the end of the word and add "ay." Examples:
#For words that begin with Vowel sounds (including Silent Consonants ), simply add the syllable "ay" to the end of the word.
The most common variation in Pig Latin is to replace the "ay" in the second rule with other suffixes such as "way", "yay", or "hay"; thus, "eagle" → ''eagle-ay'', ''eagle-way'', ''eagle-yay'', or ''eagle-hay'', depending on the rules. The "ay" formulation is probably the original, with the variations arising due to Sandhi . Another variation is to take only the first letter and put it at the end, and add -ay, so "they" becomes "heytay", rather than "eythay" These variations may also be geographical. The following is an example of Pig Latin: The above formulation reflects only one of several rule variations of Pig Latin. Because Pig Latin is essentially a children's game, the rules vary from peer group to peer group, although the above generalizations are normative across most versions. Some less frequently used variations on the above rules include:
Depending on the rules, Pig Latin is not One-to-one ; that is, there exist pairs of English words that have the same translation into Pig Latin. For instance, in the "way" variation, "itch" and "witch" both become ''itch-way''. Due to the 'original' form of Pig Latin now being commonly known and understood by adults and children alike - it is common for certain groups of young people to have their own completely different forms of the 'private language' (varying from region to region), so they can continue to speak with privacy among others. PIG LATIN IN PROGRAMMING A common exercise in Programming classes to teach the concept of Recursion is to define a procedure or Function that, when given a word in normal English , yields the Pig Latin equivalent. The simplest way to write such a procedure is to set a base case for words beginning with vowels (add "ay"), and a recursive case that moves the first letter to the end of the word for re-evaluation. Internationalization and localization encoding The common Internationalization And Localization encoding used for Pig Latin is x-pig-latin or x-lap. It is not defined in any language specifications and is considered experimental, hence the 'x'. The proper way to get it to work on Linux and other operating systems which support the standard Gettext application is to set the po file to: en_US@piglatin.po. pig latin-igpay atinlay PIG LATIN IN 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 Association s. 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''. Sweden and Norway has the ''Rövarspråket'' ("Rovers' language"). To use it, just double-spell all consonants in each word and put an 'o' in between. The word "Rövarspråket" then becomes "Rorövovarorsospoproråkoketot". French has the ''loucherbem'' coded language. It was used by some butchers (''boucher'' in french). Similarly to Pig Latin, take the leading consonant cluster to the end of the word, then add ''l'' at beginning of word, and adding ''em'' to the end of the word. In Dutch there is a variation called "Oeks". It was invented by Jan van der Wal, a farmer's son from the village of Genemuiden . It was primarily used at a school called "Gereformeerde MAVO" in the city of Kampen . The goal of Oeks was to communicate in the classroom, without teachers being able to understand what was said. Oeks was only used by boys but not by girls. For words that begin with consonant sounds, move the initial consonant or consonant cluster to the end of the word and add "è" then replace all vowel sounds with "oe". Examples:
For words that begin with vowel sounds (including silent consonants), simply add the syllable "è" to the end of the word and also replace all vowel sounds with "oe".
The following is an example of Oeks: Oejè oentbè oenè oekdekèoekzè oenè oejè oedthè oenvè oelvèoekkènkè. Translation "Je bent een dikzak en je houdt van vulkoeken" The chances that Oeks is still spoken somewhere is really small, although former users should be able to speak and understand it fluently still. In Brazil , specifically in Rio De Janeiro , there is the ''teteca'', which is a variation named after ''Catete'', the neighbourhood where it allegedly began being used. To use it just revert the order of the syllables in the word:
The reverted syllables keep the phonetic sound of the original word, thus the 's' in "sil-bra" sounds like a 'z'. SEE ALSO
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