While looking through the latest collection of toys to add to my web site, I came across something I thought to be intrinsically useless – a program to change all the text of a page into pig latin. It was supposed to be an easy way to tell which parts of a web page would be translated by an automated translation service (Google or Babelfish for example). I don’t really see why you couldn’t just translate it into a similarly bizarre and strange language, like French, for example.
I thought at first it’d be fun to write a bit about pig latin. I need to stress the ‘thought’ part at this point, as this is, without doubt, the most difficult thing I have ever tried to get an etymology together for. None of my usual resources yielded even the faintest scrap of verifiable history for this ‘language’. Some reckoned it was invented by African-Americans in the early 20th century to keep secrets from “the whites”, which sounds a little paranoid, if you ask me. Others favoured the theory that it was “the hippies” (they weren’t specific). This also seems unlikely, as when your mind has been blunted by high-grade marijuana, I doubt that over-complicating a language could yield much in the way of a net benefit.
These and many other frankly absurd theories were all knocked into the proverbial cocked hat by the Oxford English Dictionary. Their earliest citation was from 1896. Even the mighty OED had nothing further to add by way of explanation of the origins of pig latin, and if the OED doesn’t know, I will have to just give up my search – unless of course you, the reader, have anything to offer?
“So, how do we speak pig latin, Tom?” I hear you cry. It’s pretty easy really, and if you really have nothing else better to be doing, you could be fluent in a matter of days. All you need do is take away the first letter of a word (if it’s a consonant) and stick it on the end, affixing the letters ‘-ay’ so:
- orseHay
- AnanaBay
- OttleBay
…and so on. If the word begins ch- ph- st- or sh- (and probably a few I’ve forgotten to mention), shift the first two letters instead of just the first:
- IpSHay
- OtoPHay
- EeseCHay
Simple, isn’t it? The only other things to watch out for are are single-syllable words starting with a vowel, which remain the same but are suffixed with -way (EggWay, ArmWay, OffWay, etc.) This doesn’t really make it much of a secret language – its alleged original function – but flows better when speaking.
For similar reasons, long words and compound words (e.g. toothbrush, headstrong) can be split into smaller parts, and the same rules applied. For example:
- AndSayOrmStay
- AinChayEckRay
- AterFayAllWay
…and so on adWay auseumNay.
The only earthly use I’ve ever found for it is when kids try to use it to obfuscate their language. It really gets their goat when they (finally) realize you know what they are talking about, so I suppose that simply for that reason, it’s fun.
Not to be left out, the internet community (often acknowledged as the largest collection of souls with far too much time on their hands) is given an easy ride with this online pig latin translator. Even Google have a version of their mighty search engine’s home page in pig latin. For an unverifiable ‘language’ of unknown origin, it certainly seems to have a special place in many people’s hearts. Fitting, then that the late, great George Carlin once said “Ybay andway argelay, anguagelay isway away ooltay orfay oncealingcay ethay uthtray”. I couldn’t agree more.
