What the f...? "Ipsnay on the icklesway" or something.

I keep hearing this ‘term’ being used in films and on television, but haven’t got the foggiest what it means? Can you help? Is being British not helping [for once]??
And no, I don’t know how to spell any of it! I’ve heard many different versions…

although I can’t help you directly on what you posted, it sounds like “pig latin” where you remove the first sound add it to “ay” and put it at the end of the word, so:

ow-hay o-day ou-ya o-day = how do you do.

You just said “snip on the swickle”, or possibley “wickles”. “ixnay on the icklespay” would be “nix on the pickles”. It’s Pig Latin, or i should I say It’s Igpay Atinlay - you just move the first phoneme to the end of the word and add “ay” (or “way” if it’s a vowel), leaving short words like “an” and “the” alone. It’s a child’s game, which I thought was fairly universally known among English speakers. Sometimes used by adults for rhetorical emphasis, particularly with the “ixnay” construct which provides a very funny sounding negative.

Ixnay = ‘nix’, generally meaning ‘don’t/ don’t bring up the subject/ don’t mention the particular <person/ /subject/ incident/ situation/ etc>’

In other words, code or an aside for “don’t go there!”

It actually reads as ‘Nips on the Wickles’.

HANKSTAY ON THE EPLYSRAY! did i get that right?
:confused:

almost, it would be “anks - thay” (first sound, IMHO)

Good point. “ipsnay” is ambigous as well as “icklesway”. It could either be “snip” or “nips”, just like “icklesway” could either be “wickles” or “swickle”.

Move the complete “th”, since it’s pronounced as a single element - anksthay on the epliesray. The “ies” form of the plural scans a little better.

Angitday, ingwray, itquay eatingbay meway otay ostspay!

And I went and goofed that up - emay.

Man, this is hard work! And can kids [and you guys] do this off the top of their heads without even thinking, like econdsay aturenay?

It akestay acticepray. Actually, it’s the sort of thing kids will learn to do quite proficiently. There’s another thing like this called “afalfa talk” that some children used to pick up, which involved sticking “op” and “bop” between all the syllables, IIRC.

There is another "Language "we used that was called “chopped up chineese” Simply spell the word and hang ong on the end of the letter. Say the vowels.

Song Hong I Tong

Well what can I say,we were kids.

Nizzot tizzo mizzention Dizzouble Dizzutch.

or for the more unintelligible:

Nizzot tizzo mizzentizzion Dizzoubizzle Dizz**utch.

There’s also Ubby Dubby which I learned from Zoom (glad that show is back so my kids can watch) which involves putting a “b” sound after ever vowel. Thank you comes out thabank yobubu.

Maybe some of you could be employed in deciphering what people are saying when they claim to be possessed!:frowning:

A fong oong oong long song onguetay shizzould otnay be cizzonnizzected to hong iong song unglay…

Anglicaway orcorumpay icisday, edsay icisneday Atimalay orcorumpay?

Clever, Chronos. Unfortunately, I lack the classical education to do more than get the general idea.