Pig Latin (Igpay Atinlay in Pig Latin) is a language primarily used in English, where the syllables of English words are spoken in inverse order and an "ay" is affixed, to both obfuscate the encoding and to indicate for the intended recipient the encoding as 'Pig Latin.' The reference to the Latin is a deliberate misnomer, used only for its English connotations as a 'strange and foreign-sounding language.' A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common proto-language. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Look up affix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

An alternative British name for Pig Latin is backslang (to translate, put the first letter behind, and add the letter ay there for; banana is ananabay). 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^[1]. Prior to this, Benjamin Franklin was known to use a version of Pig Latin in some publications. Pig Latin is usually used by children for amusement or to converse in (perceived) privacy from adults or other children. Conversely, adults sometimes use it to discuss sensitive topics they do not want very young children to overhear. A few Pig Latin words — ixnay (nix) and amscray (scram) — have been incorporated into English slang. Two forms of slang are known as Backslang. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Benjamin Franklin (January 17 [O.S. January 6] 1706 – April 17, 1790) was one of the most well known Founding Fathers of the United States. ... Slang is the use of highly informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speakers dialect or language. ...

Rules and variations

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

1. For words that begin with consonant sounds, move the initial consonant or consonant cluster to the end of the word and add "ay." Examples:
   • button → uttonbay
   • dough → oughday
   • happy → appyhay
   • loser → oserlay
   • question → estionquay
   • star → arstay
   • three → eethray
   • trash → ashtray
2. For words that begin with vowel sounds (including silent consonants), simply add the syllable "way" to the end of the word.
   • Amsterdam → Amsterdam-way
   • eagle → eagle-way
   • hour → hour-way

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. Most common though is "way". In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ... In linguistics, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... In an alphabetic writing system, a silent letter is a letter that, in a particular word, does not correspond to any sound in the words pronunciation. ...

Another variation is to take only the first letter and put it at the end, and add -way, so "they" becomes "heytay", rather than "eythay" These variations may also be geographical.

The following is an example of Pig Latin:

Is-thay is-way an-way example-way of-way Ig-pay Atin-lay? As-way ou-yay an-cay ee-say, it-way is-way illy-say, ut-bay ort-say of-ay un-fay or-fay ildren-chay.

Without the hyphens:

Isthay isway anway exampleway ofway Igpay Atinlay. Asway ouyay ancay eesay, itway isway illysay, utbay ortsay ofway unfay orfay ildrenchay.

It translates back into standard English as:

"This is an example of Pig Latin. As you can see, it is silly, but sort of fun for children."

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:

• moving only part of an initial consonant cluster to the end of the word, e.g. "street" → treet-say, reet-stay, or eet-stray

• applying changes to each syllable in a word, e.g. "backslang" → ack-bay ang-slay, "cellphone" → ell-cay one-phay

• transcription variations wherein the final syllable may or may not be hyphenated (Igpay Atinlay vs. Ig-pay Atin-lay)

• adding unnecessary words to make sentences more verbose

• instead of adding "-ay" for vowels, "-day" is added; "Art" → "Art-day"

• variant capitalization schemes; e.g. "Michael Jordan" → Ichael-may Ordan-jay, ichael-May ordan-Jay, Ichael-May Ordan-Jay, etc.

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. In linguistics, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. ... For other persons named Michael Jordan, see Michael Jordan (disambiguation). ... An injective function. ...

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. Computer programming (often simply programming) is the craft of implementing one or more interrelated abstract algorithms using a particular programming language to produce a concrete computer program. ... This article is about the concept of recursion. ... In computer science, a subroutine (function, method, procedure, or subprogram) is a portion of code within a larger program, which performs a specific task and can be relatively independent of the remaining code. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

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. Internationalization redirects here. ... gettext is the GNU internationalization (i18n) library. ...

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 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. Bernese German is the dialect of High Alemannic German spoken in the Swiss plateau (Mittelland) part of the canton of Bern and in some neighbouring regions. ... Mattenenglisch (German for meadow English), or in Bernese German, Mattenänglisch, is a name for the varieties traditionally spoken in the Matte (meadow), the old working class neighbourhood of Berne. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... A voluntary association (also sometimes called an unincorporated association, or just an association) is a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to form a body (or organization) to accomplish a purpose. ...

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.

This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details.(September 2007)

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: Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... This article is about the Brazilian city. ...

• Brasil → sil-bra
• favela → lavefa

The reverted syllables keep the phonetic sound of the original word, thus the 's' in "sil-bra" sounds like a 'z'.

natalie → atalienay

Fun Words in Pig Latin

eguin-pay............penguin oose-may............moose intendo-nay...........nintendo laystation-pay.........playstation box-xay ("xay" is pronounced "zay")...........Xbox ap-cray................crap

See also

• Language game
• Jeringonza, Lunfardo, Cocoliche, Germanía, Vesre.
• Verlan
• Ubbi Dubbi
• Dog Latin
• Secrecy
• Tutnese
• Farfallino Alphabet

A language-game is a philosophical concept developed by Ludwig Wittgenstein, referring to simple examples of language use and the actions into which the language is woven. ... Jeringonza is a Spanish language game played by children all over Latin America. ... Lunfardo was a colorful, slangy argot of the Spanish language which developed at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century in the lower classes in and around Buenos Aires. ... Cocoliche is an Italian pidgin spoken in Buenos Aires, Argentina. ... Germanía or jerigonza is the Spanish term for the argot used by criminals or in jails. ... Vesre (reversing the order of syllables within a word) is one of the features of the Rioplatense Spanish. ... In the French language, verlan is the inversion of syllables in a word which is found in slang and youth language. ... Ubbi Dubbi (also called Pig Greek or Double Dutch) is a language game spoken with English. ... The phrase Dog Latin refers to the creation of a phrase or jargon in imitation of Latin, often by directly translating English words (or those of other European languages) into Latin without conjugation or declension. ... Secrecy is the practice of sharing information among a group of people, which can be as small as one person, while hiding it from others. ... Tutnese is a language game primarily used in English, although the rules can be easily modified to apply to most any language. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...

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.

Lingua: An International Review of General Linguistics is a leading international peer-reviewed monthly journal in general linguistics, founded in 1949 and published by Elsevier. ...

Notes

1. ^ Wartime Butcher's Boy- Folkestone Kent Libraries- Shepway District (2003-11-19). Wartime Butcher's Boy- Folkestone. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-05-03.

For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st Century. ... is the 123rd day of the year (124th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• English to Pig Latin translator
• Pig Latin to English translator
• "Pig Latin to English translator" Translate from Pig-Latin To English and back again.
• Google in Pig Latin