What equivalents do other (non-English speaking) languages have for
“ig-pay atin-lay”???
I know that some Spanish-speakers will do this by inserting a consonant into every syllable, like so:
Chosen consonant is p: Español -> Epe-spapa-ñopol
Whopat opare yopou topalkoping opaopbout?
Hebrew does the same, but with “b”
Ani Ohev Otakh (“I love you”) -> AbanibiOboHebev Obotabakh
French has a couple of examples: loucherbem and verlan.
… didn’t “pig latin” mean “butchered Latin”? Does it just mean “nonsense code talk”?
Nava, “Pig Latin” is also a specific kind of code-speak where for every word, you remove the first consonant cluster (if it starts with a consonant), affix the letter(s) to the end of the word, and end with “-ay” (rhymes with “hay” or “day”). If the word starts with a vowel, you just end with -ay.
So Pig Latin would be ig-pay atin-lay. “I speak Pig Latin” would be “I-ay eak-spay ig-pay atin-lay.”
I know Japanese has at least one of these, but hell if I can remember how it works.
One of the most widely-known ones in Finland is kontinkieli, where the word “kontti” is inserted after every word and then the first syllables of words are switched. “My name is auRa” -> “Minun nimeni on auRa” -> “Minun kontti nimeni kontti on kontti auRa kontti” -> “Konun mintti komeni nintti kon ontti kouRa antti”.
Pig Latin, incidentally, is Pig German in Finnish - “siansaksa”. Used mostly in the sense of gibberish, but it also refers to a specific type of code language where the first syllables of concecutive words were switched and has been used since the 1600s in Sweden.
I think you may have misunderstood. I chose “p” for my example, because it’s the prototypical example (“Epespapañopol” is what it’s called), but you can actually insert any consonant: “Hañabloño Iñingleñes, Eñespañañoñol yñy Eñepeñespañapañañoñopoñol” (hablo Ingles, Español y Epespapañopol = I speak English, Spanish, and Authentic Spanish Frontier Gibberish)
… about the class of language games, with a long list of language games in various languages.
One language game popular with German children is not a language but a particular nonsensical song, Drei Chinesen mit dem Kontrabass where from the second stanza all vowels are exchanged with one single vowel.
Here are many such secret languages:
When I was in my early teens, I used to babysit for the neighbor kids, which occasionally involved being subjected to the particularly cruel and unusual form of punishment known as Barney. I remember a particular song from that that sounds similar. The lyrics were, “I like to eat, eat, eat / Apples and bananas,” which would then have the vowels in “eat,” “apples,” and “bananas” replaced with a succession of different ones. E.g., the long “o” version would sound something like, “I like to oat, oat, oat / Opals and boe-no-nos.”
For pig latin, contrary to what **SfG **posted, I was always taught that if the word begins with a vowel, then you don’t do anything with it at all. So my “I speak pig latin” phrase, when translated, would be “I eakspay igpay atinlay.” Or “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” becomes “an apple a aday eepskay ethay octorday away.”
Anyone else learn this way?
Huh, I never encountered anyone who didn’t use the “just put -ay after a word starting with a vowel” rule. Where did you grow up? (Milwaukee, here.)
In argentina, the “p” language is called “Jeringoso”, or more correctly “Jeperipigoponsopo”