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Pig latin

Pig Latin is a language game that can be created from, i.e., based on, any language, although it is most commonly based on the English language. The rules are roughly:

  • For words that begin with consonants, move the leading consonant(s) to the end of the word and add "ay." Thus, "ball" becomes "all-bay"; "button" becomes "utton-bay"; "star" becomes "ar-stay"; "three" becomes "ee-thray";
  • for words beginning with "qu," move the "qu" to the end of the word and add ay. Thus "question" becomes "estion-quay"; and
  • for words that begin with vowels, simply add "way" to the end of the word. Thus, "a" becomes "a-way"; "at" becomes "at-way"; "ermine" becomes "ermine-way." This rule tends to get varied a lot, with some variants using instead "h" (thus, "at" becomes "at-hay"), or some just using the bare syllable "ay" ("at" becomes "at-ay").

A Pig Latin example text follows:

Is-thay is-way an-way example-way of-way Ig-pay Atin-lay. As-way ou-yay an-cay ee-say, its-way illy-say, ut-bay ots-lay of-way un-fay or-fay ildren-chay.

Certain Pig-Latin translations, most notably ixnay, have been incorporated into English slang.



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