# Rules for speaking Alfalfa **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 22, 2005, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687 "2005-07-22T18:14:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/21 "2013-11-02T14:46:05Z")
Snoop Dogg was a carnie? ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/22 "2013-11-02T15:11:37Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Snoop Dogg was a carnie? Fo shizzle my carnizzle. ---
**Author:** ![Milfister\_Spulfud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8edcca/32.png) [@Milfister\_Spulfud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milfister_Spulfud)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/23 "2022-11-20T16:13:13Z")
Hi Sigene, (17 years later), here’s my experience with speaking Alfalfa. My college roommate taught me an easier dialect of Alfalfa. 1. Split the word in 2 parts, first part is the beginning of the word up until you reach a vowel sound. The second part keeps that same vowel sound in front of the rest of the word. For example: “mister” would be split up to become: mi ister 2. Add an L to the end of that first part. 3. Add an F to the beginning of the second part. For example, Mister Smith would become: MiL-Fister SmiL-Fith John Doe would become: JoL-Fon DoL-Foe Now is the time would become: NoL-Fow iL-Fis theL-Fe tiL-Fime Very simple, veL-Fery eL-Feasy !!! cheers! ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2022, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/24 "2022-11-27T09:02:56Z")
[exercism.org](http://exercism.org), a website with coding exercises to learn programming, has a Pig Latin exercise where you need to write a Python program that converts a sentence into Pig Latin according to the following rules: - **Rule 1** : If a word begins with a vowel sound, add an “ay” sound to the end of the word. Please note that “xr” and “yt” at the beginning of a word make vowel sounds (e.g. “xray” → “xrayay”, “yttria” → “yttriaay”). - **Rule 2** : If a word begins with a consonant sound, move it to the end of the word and then add an “ay” sound to the end of the word. Consonant sounds can be made up of multiple consonants, a.k.a. a consonant cluster (e.g. “chair” → “airchay”). - **Rule 3** : If a word starts with a consonant sound followed by “qu”, move it to the end of the word, and then add an “ay” sound to the end of the word (e.g. “square” → “aresquay”). - **Rule 4** : If a word contains a “y” after a consonant cluster or as the second letter in a two letter word it makes a vowel sound (e.g. “rhythm” → “ythmrhay”, “my” → “ymay”). I suppose they didn’t make up these rules at Exercism themselves, so probably this is a commonly accepted ruleset in the Pig Latin community (although I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that there are several different ones in circulation. It’s not as if there’s a supreme Pig Latin council or something.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2022, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/25 "2022-11-27T14:45:40Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > I suppose they didn’t make up these rules at Exercism themselves, so probably this is a commonly accepted ruleset in the Pig Latin community (although I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that there are several different ones in circulation. It’s not as if there’s a supreme Pig Latin council or something.) Yeah, when I learned Pig Latin, if a word began with a vowel sound, you would add “way” to the end of the word, so “apple” would become “appleway” instead of “apple-ay” as by those rules. (And I see some others add “-yay”, looking through the Internet.) ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2022, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/26 "2022-11-27T18:12:03Z")
way to resurrect a dead language/thread everyone. I’m oddly honored to see this thing pop up over and over again since july 2005 ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2022, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/27 "2022-11-27T23:17:26Z")
> [@MikeS](#): > > Duck” becomes “dullfuck” “Alpha” becomes “alfalfa” Whoa, so Alfalfa was really code for Head Little Rascal!? > [@Jake](#): > > Diazo youazo speazeak Ciazarnie? To my ear that’s easier to understand than pig Latin. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/28 "2022-11-28T20:00:19Z")
I’m sure I mentioned this in a similar thread here a few years ago, but as a kid in Norway what we learned was pig-latin’s distant cousin “the robbers’ language”. You just take all consonant sounds and double them with the vowel o in between. lolikoke thothisos. ---
**Author:** ![Ryukyu571](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Ryukyu571](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryukyu571)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/29 "2023-02-23T22:45:15Z")
So I study with Don Harry at the Eastman School of Music (whose teacher was Bill Bell of the Sousa Band). He expects all of his students to speak Alfalfa and has us recite the pledge of allegiance (plelfedge olfof alfallelfegilfiance) in Alfalfa weekly. The general rule that I’ve observed is that you replace the first vowel in a given syllable with: vowel lf vowel. Kelfep alfalfa alfalilfive! ---
**Author:** ![kbaldi52](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e5b9ba/32.png) [@kbaldi52](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kbaldi52)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2023, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/30 "2023-08-28T20:42:26Z")
Hello everyone! I’ve followed this thread for a few months now but have never posted. I learned alfalfa from my mom, who learned from her mom, who learned from her mom. What I do not know is how my great-grandma learned it. Does anyone know the origin of alfalfa? There isn’t even a wikipedia page for it. I would love to see it make it on there with a bunch of information. Thalfanks, K ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2023, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/31 "2023-08-29T11:26:42Z")
Hi kbaldi52…does your family have any Missouri connection? Note that this thread has been resurrected many times (still kinda proud of that), and both I and another poster had that Missouri family connection. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2023, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/32 "2023-08-29T12:03:01Z")
It was a High School fad in California in the fifties. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2023, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/33 "2023-08-29T12:32:02Z")
I found newspaper references to ‘Alfalfa language’ from 1931 and 1945, but neither indicating the origin. ---
**Author:** ![kbaldi52](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e5b9ba/32.png) [@kbaldi52](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kbaldi52)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2023, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/34 "2023-08-29T16:23:34Z")
I asked my mom about it and her assumption is that it was her grandpa not grandma who knew it. And she thinks he learned it during WW2 to be able to speak without the germans understanding them. After the war, he brought it back to California. A few of my California relatives are able to speak it too. I do have MO connections, but none that know alfalfa (at least that I know). ---
**Author:** ![LHeffington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@LHeffington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LHeffington)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2024, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/35 "2024-02-17T18:55:50Z")
I know the origin of Alfalfa. All of my family was comprised of musicians, two of whom traveled with a circus. This was probably in the 1920s but I’m not sure exactly. Alfalfa wasn’t just a fun thing to do or a fad or even a regional dialect. It was a language circus people and carnies used to communicate with one another so that patrons wouldn’t be able to understand them. I remember my grandmother speaking it, although she didn’t travel with the circus. She was a musician. My relatives wrote about this in their “memoirs” (not published), which a lot of them put down “for posterity.” I guess it worked. ---
**Author:** ![rooseveltnut1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4bbf92/32.png) [@rooseveltnut1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rooseveltnut1)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/36 "2024-06-15T22:05:18Z")
The first time I heard Ubbi Dubbi was on the Big Bang Theory. The thing I like about these jargon languages is you and your friends or family can chat away and others won’t know what’s being said. It’s also a great discussion starter. I have one problem though I am fluent in Alfalfa, no matter how hard I try, I cant understand it. My brother (he taught me) and his friends could chat away with each other. Sad that I can speak it so easily but can’t understand a word of it. I’m 77 now and I learned it when I was 10 or 11. Never forgot it. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/37 "2024-06-15T22:15:42Z")
Proud to see this as my most often resurrected thread get another jump start. almost 20 years old. Old enough to vote, but not yet drink ---
**Author:** ![rooseveltnut1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4bbf92/32.png) [@rooseveltnut1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rooseveltnut1)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687/38 "2024-06-15T22:22:22Z")
I am from Okla City, My brother taught me Alfalfa back in the 50s. He and his friends spoke it all the time. Funny thing though, I can’t understand it. I am fluent but no way do I understand it. Our version of it is a tiny bit different. We use the LF after all vowel sounds to speak it: Hello Helf-ell lolf-o, Goodbye would be Gool-food byelf-eye, Fucking hate would be fulf-uck-ilf-ing haylf-ate [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-for-speaking-alfalfa/313687.md?page=1)