pig Latin

See also: Pig Latin

English

Alternative forms

• Pig Latin, pig latin

Etymology

"Latin" comes from the language of Latin (though it is not linguistically related; that is an intentional misnomer), but the origin of "pig" is unknown.

Noun

pig Latin (uncountable)

1. A type of wordplay in which (English) words are altered by moving the leading phonetic of a word to the end and appending -ay [eɪ̯], except when the word begins with a vowel, in which case "-way" [weɪ̯] is suffixed with no leading phonetic change.

Examples
"please be quiet or I'll cry" becomes "ease-play e-bay iet-quay or-way I'll-way y-cray"

Synonyms

• igpay atinlay

Hypernyms

• backslang

Translations

wordplay

• Dutch: pig Latin
• Finnish: kontinkieli (fi) (wordplay resembling pig Latin)
• German: Hühnersprache f, Mattenenglisch n (Bern), Ketelkloppersprook f (Hamburg), Pig Latin n
• Greek: κορακίστηκα n pl (korakístika)
• Polish: świńska łacina (pl) f
• Spanish: jeringoso (es) m (wordplay resembling pig Latin)

See also

• apothecary's Latin
• bog Latin
• cod Latin
• hog Latin
• dog Latin
• law Latin
• macaronic Latin
• mock Latin
• Canis Latinicus

• Category: English Pig Latin terms

Anagrams

• plaiting