# Pig Latin: Well, put me on a spit and roast me! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [May 28, 2004, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488 "2004-05-28T11:01:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/21 "2004-06-01T22:25:28Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > [hijack] > > In high school, I worked in food service with other high school kids, and middle-aged managers. > > This one particular manager was nice, but not too bright. > > Us kids were typical. We used to say right to her “Uckfay ouyay ya uckinfay itchbay” when she’d ask us to do stuff. > > “Could you mop the floor before you go?” > > “Uckfay ouyay ya uckinfay itchbay.” > > I think she thought it was a funny way of just saying “Okay”. > > It astounded me that > > 1. she didn’t know pig latin because both my parents did and everyone else I knew. > > 2. couldn’t at least detect the sounds of dirty words hidden in there. > > She once asked us what we were doing – she thought we were talking backwards. It didn’t help that sometimes we did that too with some common phrases. > > [/hijack] [hijack] In my high school “Health” class we had a whole unit on self-esteem. For one assignment, we had to list “Things we can do to make ourselves happy when we’re feeling sad.” I wrote the first item on my list in mirror writing. Obviously I can’t type it with the individual letters flipped but it was basically: .srehcaet ym esufnoc ot sdrawkcab sgniht etirw nac I I found out later that my Health teacher had actually had a meeting with my English teacher to ask if I often had these difficulties with my writing. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/22 "2004-06-01T22:25:44Z")
I’m curious, and maybe this should be posted somewhere else, but do any other languages have a similar game? ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/23 "2004-06-01T23:01:32Z")
I think some folks are confusing what I think would be considered “proper” pig latin from the colloquial and regional versions. For example, proper pig latin would be “Arkpay ehthay arcay inyay arvrrdhay ardyay” but a hortheastern regional dialect would be more '“Ahkpay ehthey ahcay inyay Arvahday ahdya” a mor esouthern dialect would sya it as, “arkpay atthay erethay eevay icklehay inay olday anmay arvardhay’s ardyay overay ehuhthay.” A more urban version is “arkpay imay ideray overay urthay innay arvarhay ardyaym, eeyatchbay.” ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/24 "2004-06-01T23:04:59Z")
Wow, what horrific typing that is. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/25 "2004-06-02T00:41:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Edsay ibliophagebay, icisneday Atinamlay orcorumpay? > > * * * > > Imetay avelstray inway iversday acespay ithway iversday ersonspay. > –_Asway Ouyay Ikelay Itway_, IIIway:iiway:283ay I’m torn between horror and admiration. Let me try to put this into words: **Chronos** , you’re a terrible person. Will you marry me? ::reads own post:: Well, _that’s_ an interesting juxtaposition… I wonder what it would sound like if you made real Latin into Pig Latin. ---
**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/26 "2004-06-02T04:46:36Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > I’m curious, and maybe this should be posted somewhere else, but do any other languages have a similar game? Yes. French has _Verlan_, wherein the syllables of words are reversed. An example is the French word for backwards, _l’envers_. Reversed, it’s pronounced _verlan_. (Hence the name…) “_Je m’appelle Stephen_” would probably be something like “_Je pelma vensti_”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/27 "2004-06-02T05:57:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Chronos, you’re a terrible person. Will you marry me? Well, that depends… I have some pretty high standards, you know. Are you female? ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/28 "2004-06-02T07:44:51Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > I’m curious, and maybe this should be posted somewhere else, but do any other languages have a similar game? In Swedish, we have _rövarspråket_ (bandit language). The vowels stay the same but after each consonant you add an o and then that consonant again. So “Sweden” would become “Soswowedodenon”. I used it mainly as a way to ask my mother for goglolasossos (glass=ice cream) without my little brother understanding what I was up to. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/29 "2004-06-02T09:52:39Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > perhaps they’ll all just argue about the rules of the modern ‘pig Latin’ rather than criticize my history. Don’t breathe too easy - the statement “the game never seemed to catch on in British countries” doesn’t ring true for me. Perhaps it wasn’t _quite_ so popular, or maybe I’m part of an Americanophile anomaly, but I grew up speaking it\* (and several variants\*\*) with many schoolfriends in Oxfordshire, England, as did my father and his schoolfriends a generation before in London. My mother could also speak it. In fact, according to Dad, he and a friend were speaking it on the London tube once in the early 1960s, and a rather pompous gentleman leant over to them and asked “Excuse me, are you speaking Swahili?” They replied in the affirmative. \*The variation to the rules in your report are that if a word begins with a vowel, then the letter “n” is added at the end: e.g. “added” =\> “addednay”; also polysyllabic words are broken down into chunks to make them less comprehensible - e.g “polysyllabic” =\> “olypay yllabicsay”. \*\*E.g. the language known as “hulfunting” = split the first syllable and insert the letters “lf” into it. “Goose” =\> “Goolfoose” (avoid saying the word “duck” in polite company). Also “bubble” where only the first part of the first syllable is used, and the entire rest of the word is replaced with “bble”. Thus “Hello there” =\> “Hebble thebble”. This is very tough to comprehend, and requires a knowledge of context, clearly! ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/30 "2004-06-02T11:47:52Z")
> [@](#): > > **Gangster Octapus** : a mor esouthern dialect would sya it as, > > “arkpay atthay erethay eevay icklehay inay olday anmay arvardhay’s ardyay overay ehuhthay.” "Emsthay ightin’fay ordsway ereway Iay omecay omfray. Translation: You hankering to become **Ganster Septapus**? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/31 "2004-06-02T13:07:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Edsay ibliophagebay, icisneday Atinamlay orcorumpay? > > * * * > > Imetay avelstray inway iversday acespay ithway iversday ersonspay. > –_Asway Ouyay Ikelay Itway_, IIIway:iiway:283ay Isquay, egoway? Onnay. * * * Oway emporatay, Oway oresmay!–Icerocay ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/32 "2004-06-02T13:50:41Z")
\<\< Oway emporatay, Oway oresmay!–Icerocay \>\> There was an Irish cop when I was a kid, named O’Tempore O’Mores. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/33 "2004-06-02T17:30:32Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Also “bubble” where only the first part of the first syllable is used, and the entire rest of the word is replaced with “bble”. Thus “Hello there” =\> “Hebble thebble”. This is very tough to comprehend, and requires a knowledge of context, clearly! There was a case in Baltimore a few years back where some big time drug dealer was being prosecuted. Well, they were putting together some wire-tapped conversations of his and he and his cronies were doing that with -ergy. So “Go have a talk with him” would be “Gergy hergy a tergy wergy hergy”. Again, I think there was a lot of contextual understanding, and nicknames, which made the speech less ambiguous. Don’t forget the prevalent “Snoop talk” either. “Fo’ shizzle my nizzle.” or . . . “Snoop Dogg in the motherfuckin’ hizz-ouse.” “H to the Izzo V to the Izzay” (H.O.V.A.) They were at least doing that in '91 when Snoop Dogg’s “Doggystyle” came out, and probably before then, and its still around. I can’t remember if it was on “The Chronic”, which pre-dated “Doggystyle”, or any other CDs and/or movies pre-dating it. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/34 "2004-06-02T19:39:01Z")
Do we have a policy on whether to open multiple threads on the same report? Oh well, I think this is tidier. In the pig-latin report: > [@](#): > > In pig Latin, one takes a word, i.e., bibliophage, moves the first letter to the end of the word, and adds an “ay” sound. Is “i.e.” correct there in your opinion? I would have used “for example” or “e.g.”, since while in this case we’re taking that specific word, he does say “In pig Latin, one takes a word”, which obviously isn’t ALWAYS “bibliophage”. I wouldn’t bring it up, but (1) we’re fighting ignorance here, Cecil & SDSTAFF normally set the best example and (2) I’m if people ever mix up “eg” and “ie” WHY? HOW? Do you muddle up “me” and “am” and all other two letter words? ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/35 "2004-06-03T00:22:39Z")
Why did it become more widespread in the US and than in Britain? Less to do in the colonial evenings? ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/36 "2004-06-03T01:18:09Z")
No competition from rhyming slang (“porridge” = “porridge pail” = “jail”, or to take one of the very, very few ones that crossed the Atlantic, “raspberry” = “raspberry tart” = “fart”) or backslang (“yob” = “boy”)? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/37 "2004-06-03T03:23:58Z")
> [@Shade](#): > > In the pig-latin report: Is “i.e.” correct there in your opinion? I would have used “for example” or “e.g.”, since while in this case we’re taking that specific word, he does say “In pig Latin, one takes a word”, which obviously isn’t ALWAYS “bibliophage”. > > I wouldn’t bring it up, but (1) we’re fighting ignorance here, Cecil & SDSTAFF normally set the best example and (2) I’m if people ever mix up “eg” and “ie” WHY? HOW? Do you muddle up “me” and “am” and all other two letter words? I vote that you are correct, sir(or madam)! I plead the following: 1. I _failed_ Latin in high school. My teacher, hereafter referred to as the old biddy, would call roll, give us an asssignment, and shuffle off, not to be seen again until the bell rang at the end of class. (Some say she _drank_, but I won’t go that far) 2. This column was edited by Little Ed at the last minute, through no fault of his own. He was probably trying to get the big things right. I think he did. But, _thank Cecil_, you can always blame your editor. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/38 "2004-06-03T04:20:30Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > I vote that you are correct, sir(or madam)! > > I plead the following: > > 1. I _failed_ Latin in high school. My teacher, hereafter referred to as the old biddy, would call roll, give us an asssignment, and shuffle off, not to be seen again until the bell rang at the end of class. (Some say she _drank_, but I won’t go that far) > > 2. This column was edited by Little Ed at the last minute, through no fault of his own. He was probably trying to get the big things right. I think he did. But, _thank Cecil_, you can always blame your editor. 😛 I never even _took_ latin… Thanks for responding. No worries, we all make mistakes. I just wonder if we can change the archive, just in case it puzzles anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/39 "2004-06-03T13:42:56Z")
Yep, we’ll get the archive changed. Unfortunately, Staff Reports are subject to far more human error than are Cecil’s Columns – aside from the proofreading and editing, which are done by mortals, the Staff Reports themselves are written by the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board and guest contributors, which means they are subject to author’s errors as well. Fortunately, Staff Reports are not published anywhere except for our online site, and hence corrections are possible. Thanks for finding that one! ---
**Author:** ![Banger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@Banger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banger)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488/40 "2004-06-03T15:13:03Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#): > > Yep, we’ll get the archive changed. > > Unfortunately, Staff Reports are subject to far more human error than are Cecil’s Columns – aside from the proofreading and editing, which are done by mortals, the Staff Reports themselves are written by the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board and guest contributors, which means they are subject to author’s errors as well. > > Fortunately, Staff Reports are not published anywhere except for our online site, and hence corrections are possible. Thanks for finding that one! It would have been even better if anyone bothered to notice that I made the same comment on the same subject matter in the same thread two days ago :mad: What am I, chopped liver? ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pig-latin-well-put-me-on-a-spit-and-roast-me/247488.md?page=3)