Okay, I've got another question. Pig Latin - you know where you take the first letter of a word and put it at the end before adding an 'a'. Does everyone know about it? I need to know if it's as common for everyone else as it was for me when I was a kid.

For example:

Hi = Iha
how = owha
Are = Reaa
you = ouya

ML

It's pretty common knowledge as far as I know, but I would spell the words differently than you've got them there.

Hi = I-hay
how = ow-hay
Are = Are-hay
you = ou-yay

Not sure if that's "right" or "wrong" but that's how I've seen it spelled before.

~Anna

Yeah, we goofed around with it when I was in grade school.

Jen

I've always felt a little left out because I never learned it. (At least, not until I looked it up in college, and by then, I was too old to use it.)

When I was a kid, it always felt a little strange to hear about it because "pig" and "hebrew school" don't really go together.

In any case, yeah, I've always seen it spelled the way Anna has it.

I think it was used a time or two on the show (maybe by the Prankster or his assistant?), but I might just be thinking of a scene from The Mask.

Oh, and of course, everyone knows "ixnay," right? It's practically become a "real" word.

Paul

Heh, we did it in Greek too! Only it was called korakistika (='crow-ish') and consisted in adding a 'tsi-' before the beginning of each syllable of the word.

I never got very fluent at it, though

See ya,
TsiantsinaTsibitsiteeTsigee.

Of-way ourse-cay, I-way ave-hay earned-lay ig-pay atin-lay!

In the version I learned, though, when the word started with a vowel, you added a "w" in on the "ay" part. But still, it's ose-clay enough-way or-fay overnment-gay ork-way!

And it's easier to understand when it's spoken, not written!

PJ

My first exposure to this was in The Lion King, which used this particular word. Hadn't a clue what they were saying and I have to admit that it's still difficult for me to translate this easily - I have to stare at it a long time before I 'get' it. But the context was easy enough to understand, even without a direct translation.

I've heard it used in TV and movies since then, of course, so it wouldn't be new to me.

I don't think it's used very much here in the UK though. At least, not that I've heard. I always just considered it a US thing. I've not experienced its use much outside of the US.

LabRat

I've seen it the way Pam has it with the "way" at the end of words beginning with vowels but I've also seen it with only the "ay" following such words.

You should read the Wikipedia entry for Pig Latin .

Did you know you can Google in pig latin? Here is a search I did for upermanSay at the Google Igpay Atinlay page.

AmyN

Like a lot of stuff, I'd heard the term before but had no idea what it was. I guess I assumed, if I thought about it all, that it was like Franglais (French spoken by an English person who only knows a smattering of school French <g>).

Yvonne

PS - did all of you go through the craze at school for learning sign language? Weirdly, I still know most of the alphabet.

Yep! I still remember my alphabet. I had a year of it in middle school. They also added ASL as an option for the language requirement in college, but I never had time for it.

Jen

Okay, so to summarize what I'm seeing here. Basically, on this side of the big pond, most people would know Pig Latin. On the other side... it's not quite as common.

Thanks everyone for your input. And thanks for the spelling lesson, Anna. I don't think I've ever written Pig Latin before and for some reason, my spell check isn't much help in this area .

Also, I really enjoyed those sites, Amy.

It's funny because I've heard ixnay and amscray many, many times - and have instinctively known what they meant. And yet, for some reason, I never realized they were Pig Latin. (boy, do I feel like an idiot ).

So thanks all for your help.

ML (who also did the sign language thing in high school)

I didn't mean as a formal taught subject, but as just one of those things that you pick up from your schoolfriends and becomes *the* thing to do for a while - until the next craze comes along.

Yvonne

More input from across the Pond. Yes, my friends and I learnt finger spelling, probably at Brownies or something, and used it a lot to talk to each other.

I know of people who know pig latin and use it. I also had two friends (who'd known each other since they were babies) who had a different language that worked in a similar way, rearranging the words. They never shared it with the rest of us, and I'm never quite sure where they learnt it from. Frustratingly, I could understand what they were saying, but I could never figure out how they made the words, so I couldn't reply...

More recently, I've learnt some BSL (British Sign Language to those who don't know), and I've found it very useful for communicating with colleagues when we're stuck in long, drawn out meetings (bull**** is particularly useful)

Helga

interestingly enough your friends' own language is not a new phenomenon... there were a pair of twins amongst some of the collonialists (I don't remember what you call the first brittish settlers... but at the same time as the first thanksgiving stories etc.)
Anyway these twins were born deaf, to hearing parents... and being the only deaf individuals in the NEW WORLD... the twins invented their own sign language... and taught those arround them to understand using gesticulations at first... but this eventually turned into the standard AMS which you have now...

I remebered this from first year psychology at uni... and my american history is limited to mainly the simpsons and nickelodian cartoons etc., that i watched as a kid,


but hey... on a lighter note (or is it) a survey done less than 10 years ago found that aussie kids know more about american history than our own (through the same cartoons)... most of us could give accurate grade school accounts of the guetisberg address, or martin luther king jr, be able to name the first 5 or so presidents and more...talk about the bill of rights, and the constitution of the US,... but yet say only 1/10 kids could name our first PM... let alone the 2nd... let alone the important ones during the WW1 and 2 etc.

what does it say about us that we know more about JFK and those conspiracy theories than Harold Holt (one of our PMs who mysteriously drowned off the coast of victoria, and whos body was never found... presumed eaten by sea lice)...


[Note from Admin: Edited just to fix the glitch in your quote commands so they worked, Beethoven. ]

As someone who attended an Australian grade school for about 6 weeks (that's right, I had to go to school during my summer vacation!), and was stunned to be learning American history, I believe it.