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.