Mom and Dad spoke in a secret language.
So does my house phone (VoIP for those interested). Mere words into this article, it rudely interrupted to snarl. “Lobotomy. Lobotomy.”
I’ve previously mentioned an older resident of my childhood hamlet, one of those men crushed when the wife left, and emotionally unrecovered. He had a speech impediment when combined with abbreviations made his sentences difficult to decipher. Kids, however, learned to understand him and leveraged their translation skills into a private language.
Pity their poor teachers, a common target of childish insults. These days adults can check suspect words and phrases online. AFAIK, many are acronyms but IDK some slang terms. Nut? Seriously? 304 or 403? Make up your minds.
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Back to my parents’ private language when secret codes favored grownups. When adults didn’t want children to understand, parents of a certain era could rattle off conversations, helping to maintain a united front against the young and obstreperous. For example:
“Ettybay usway eanmay (o)otay erhay istersay. Iyay oundedgray erhay.”
Recognize that? It translates as:
“Betty was mean to her sister. I grounded her.”
In early grade school I read everything and stumbled upon Pig Latin. At last, I knew what my parents were up to. It’s dead easy to learn and for me at least, I could speak Pig Latin much faster than I could comprehend it.
And so I waited. (heh heh, maniacal laughter ensued) Next time Mom and Dad spoke Pig Latin at the dinner table, I casually interjected with a comment in Pig Latin. My parents stopped using their secret language. Had I been smarter, I should have pretended I couldn’t understand the conversation.
Igpay AtinLay
Here are Pig Latin rules (although algorithm might be a better word).
- Detach leading consonants from each word.
- Append them to the end of the word followed by ‘ay’.
- Thus “perfect children” becomes “erfectpay ildrenchay”.
- For words with leading vowels, say the word followed by ‘yay’ or ‘way’.
- Thus “I am useful,” becomes “Iyay amway oosefulyay.”
- Go by sound rather than English spelling, especially in rare instances of writing.
- Thus “To be or not to be,” is written “Ootay eebay orway otnay ootay eebay.”
[Grownups, don’t reveal to Generation Alpha! Eizesay eethay advantageway.]
Final Word
About my outrageous phone. It took a while before I realized it was trying to say, “Low battery. Low battery,” instead of “Lobotomy.”
By the way, the full English version of the above statement, “Betty was mean to her sister,” would more likely be spoken with asperity as, “Your daughter Betty was mean to her sister,” thereby disavowing parental knowledge of begatting DNA, placing responsibility on the other parent.
Uh-oh. Lobotomy. Lobotomy.
Love the illustrations!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Janice. It might not be kosher, but I couldn't resist the visual pun.
DeleteHow about the old song "The Name Game"? Shirley! Shirley, Bo Burley, Banana Fana Fo ...
ReplyDeleteI remember that, Elizabeth. It played with the initial letters of names. How did you think of it?
DeleteI love the illustrations, too! And yes, I remember pig Latin - and we all used it. Up until we got too cool to do something silly like THAT.
ReplyDeleteThank you, it was fun. I barely resisted working Cicero Pig into it (except for barely visible text in the middle picture).
DeleteI've scratched my head wondering if I could come up with a period piece that relied upon Pig Latin.
I'm giggling at low battery! Now, I will never hear it the same way again (when I was eight, I remember asking why pigs spoke latin in the first place....) Melodie
ReplyDeleteMelodie, we have all your questions covered, whereupon gall is divided into three parts.
DeleteYou must have the same make of phone I do. That's scary movie stuff: victim's phone keeps muttering "Lobotomy. Lobotomy," until one night…
I think I was about 10 when mother taught me Pig Latin.
ReplyDeleteI quickly taught my best friend, Mary and we thought we were so cool, speaking in a secret way others kids in our class didn't know. Esp the boys. I do know families of Italians or German, etc where the parents would speak to each other in their native tongue which their Americanized kids were no being taught on purpose The parent wanting the kids to be completely American. Of course the best part is the kids quicly learned all the curse words in their native tongue. The very few Spanish words I learned from friends were always curse words.
Yiddish is rich in words from gentle swearing to gross insults. People treat it like Spanglish, a mix of Hebrew, German, Yiddish, and English. Somehow it works.
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