It’s been years since I thought about it so
I googled Pig latin to see what it’s about.
Well, I’m still kind of confused - does it have any real purpose other than entertainment?
In the Middle Ages, when all educated people learned Latin (or tried to learn it), they had a pejorative term, “Dog Latin,” for when someone used it badly.
The phrase Pig Latin first turned up around 1926, when some wag coined the term for this variety of wordplay. No doubt meant as a sly reference to the earlier phrase Dog Latin. Maybe the ostinato -ay -ay endings to all the words reminded someone of the way the final -e in Latin is supposed to be pronounced. The final -ay sound is unusual in English polysyllables, but not in real Latin. Just my guess.
There are several “secret” languages, but pig latin is by far the best known. It originally allowed people to speak to one another without a third-party catching on. Since everyone knows pig latin, however, that doesn’t really work any more. It’s primarily used now to obscure the meaning slightly, or to hint that you are trying to keep stupid people from understanding.
Another (and better) similar language is what I’ve heard called “Horse Turkish,” but we called “op-talk.” Opin opit yopou opadd opan “opop” opafopter opor opbeopfor opevopvry sylopaopbleop.
Chuck:
Very similar to what we called Obenglobish as kids. It worked great. You could learn it in about 5 minutes and it was pretty hard to understand if you didn’t know the code.
obinstobead obof “obop” obin frobont obof vobowobels, wobe pobut “obob”.
At last, Bill and Ben makes perfect sense to me.
Thopat’s probopoboply thope sopame thoping. Yopou lopearn hopow topo opignopore thope “opop” vopery quopicklopy.
Thobis obis thobe fobirst tobime obi’ve obevober wrobittoben obengloblish. Mobuch ibeasobiober tobo spobeak thoban tobo wrobite!