Ana's been really sick since Friday or so.

[conuly]

She just started feeling better yesterday and today. So, after heading into Manhattan for the much delayed tetanus shot (and that was anti-climatic!), I bought her a book and a toy. (The book, The Dragon Machine, is so worth the $7 it cost.)

Anyway, I was discussing something having to do with toys with Jenn later, and Ana was listening, so I Pig-Latined it: "Oy-tays".

Oy-tays? Why did I do that? Why not "oys-tay"?

Hm.

So, what, exactly, are the rules of Pig Latin where you are? Do consonant clusters get split up (plit-say instead of it-splay)? How do you deal with vowels? Is it based on spelling (unique-ay) or sound (oonique-yay)? What about other, similar codes? Tell me! Please?

Comments

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

I would have said "oys-tay." And consonant clusters do not get split; "it-splay" is better. I learned that you just break at the vowel, and everything else remains the same. Only consonants travel. So it'd be "unique-ay." For words starting with "y," though, the y works as a consonant, so "you" becomes "oo-yay." (Spelled more phonetically, yeah, but it looks odd as "ou-yay.")

I spent a lot of time talking in Pig Latin, hee....

[conuly]

But unique, when you say it, starts with a consonant, not a vowel.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

I know, but I was big on spelling, and I recognized that words started with vowels even if they sounded like they started with consonants.

[conuly]

But they really start with consonants - we just can't spell properly :)

What about words like honor?

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

Heh, daughter of an editor, trained to be an editor, spelling was an absolute for me. Especially when I was young enough to still think Pig Latin was the bomb.

Honor.. hm. My instinct is to say "honor-ay," because "onor-hay" is just ridiculous. But then again, it's not something that was likely to be turned into Pig Latin. Mostly I used it to talk about the neighbor kids who never figured it out. ^_^

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

I think I've always kept consonant clusters together by pronounciation, but I don't think this is an issue of consonant clusters... I think, as strange as it may seem for something like Pig Latin, the issue is morphology - you kept the s at the end because your Pig Latin-ish (I was tempted to say "Pig-ish Latin") intuition was to piggify (yeah, I know) the noun, and then add the plural.
Or something.

[conuly]

Yeah, I know. But I also wanted to see how other people PigLatin words, and thought this was a good excuse.

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_latin

[bekijane.livejournal.com]

The way I was taught was that a plural did go at the end - making your oy-tays correct.

This is my hello, a post I can comment on. I never do comment unless I have something constructive to say, and I hate commenting for the sake of saying "Hi I'm Beki I like frosty mornings and real fires and I'm from Scotland." Because it feels false. Anyway, yes. Hello.

[dkmnow.livejournal.com]

First, obviously, all consonants before the first vowell get transposed: "am-scray", "at-splay" "uck-schmay"

Second, pluralization always follows the non-transposed syllables: "oys-tay", "enomena-phay", "atypi-play" (coll.)

Third, when a word begins with a vowel followed by a single consonant, said vowel is transposed and followed by "yay" as opposed to "ay" (this rule is usually overlooked in common usage): "nique-uyay", "nimal-ayay", "xen-oyay" (note pl.)

However, when a beginning vowell is followed by a consonant cluster, the first consonant is transposed with the vowell and the first "y" is dropped: "fect-afay",

Purists may follow this rule to the letter, however, many prefer to modify the rule for ease and/or aesthetics of pronunciation. In such cases, the first syllable may be wholly transposed inclusive of especially "tight" consonant clusters that "resist" division: "agonist-antay", "icile-imbay", "reperous-obstray"


Well, that's it for now. There are only so many silly rules I can make up in one sitting.

[dkmnow.livejournal.com]

Note not the missing examples and obvious blunders.

I'm in no mood for corrections.

[noodles-morgyn.livejournal.com]

I learned that if a word started (or sounded like it started) with a vowel you put a T in front of it - so 'unique' would be tunique-ay.

I think that was how it went, anyway... I haven't spoken Pig Latin for ages.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

I was never fluent in Pig Latin, so I don't know how I'd tend to handle unusual cases like "unique". Plurals I'd probably do like "oys-tay", since I'd be processing the words consciously rather than automatically. "Split" would be "it-splay", always. "Unique" would either be "oonique-yay" or "unique-way" – the way I learned it had the "w" as the default consonant when the word didn't provide any – but I'm not sure which I'd resort to under pressure. Ideologically, however, I'd support "oonique-yay" as the correct pronunciation.

Then again, I'd support many of the suggested modifications I've seen others list in the comments here. Especially dkmnow's. "Fect-afay" beats "affect-way" any day of the week.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

I would have said "oys-tay." And consonant clusters do not get split; "it-splay" is better. I learned that you just break at the vowel, and everything else remains the same. Only consonants travel. So it'd be "unique-ay." For words starting with "y," though, the y works as a consonant, so "you" becomes "oo-yay." (Spelled more phonetically, yeah, but it looks odd as "ou-yay.")

I spent a lot of time talking in Pig Latin, hee....

[conuly]

But unique, when you say it, starts with a consonant, not a vowel.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

I know, but I was big on spelling, and I recognized that words started with vowels even if they sounded like they started with consonants.

[conuly]

But they really start with consonants - we just can't spell properly :)

What about words like honor?

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

Heh, daughter of an editor, trained to be an editor, spelling was an absolute for me. Especially when I was young enough to still think Pig Latin was the bomb.

Honor.. hm. My instinct is to say "honor-ay," because "onor-hay" is just ridiculous. But then again, it's not something that was likely to be turned into Pig Latin. Mostly I used it to talk about the neighbor kids who never figured it out. ^_^

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

I think I've always kept consonant clusters together by pronounciation, but I don't think this is an issue of consonant clusters... I think, as strange as it may seem for something like Pig Latin, the issue is morphology - you kept the s at the end because your Pig Latin-ish (I was tempted to say "Pig-ish Latin") intuition was to piggify (yeah, I know) the noun, and then add the plural.
Or something.

[conuly]

Yeah, I know. But I also wanted to see how other people PigLatin words, and thought this was a good excuse.

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_latin

[bekijane.livejournal.com]

The way I was taught was that a plural did go at the end - making your oy-tays correct.

This is my hello, a post I can comment on. I never do comment unless I have something constructive to say, and I hate commenting for the sake of saying "Hi I'm Beki I like frosty mornings and real fires and I'm from Scotland." Because it feels false. Anyway, yes. Hello.

[dkmnow.livejournal.com]

First, obviously, all consonants before the first vowell get transposed: "am-scray", "at-splay" "uck-schmay"

Second, pluralization always follows the non-transposed syllables: "oys-tay", "enomena-phay", "atypi-play" (coll.)

Third, when a word begins with a vowel followed by a single consonant, said vowel is transposed and followed by "yay" as opposed to "ay" (this rule is usually overlooked in common usage): "nique-uyay", "nimal-ayay", "xen-oyay" (note pl.)

However, when a beginning vowell is followed by a consonant cluster, the first consonant is transposed with the vowell and the first "y" is dropped: "fect-afay",

Purists may follow this rule to the letter, however, many prefer to modify the rule for ease and/or aesthetics of pronunciation. In such cases, the first syllable may be wholly transposed inclusive of especially "tight" consonant clusters that "resist" division: "agonist-antay", "icile-imbay", "reperous-obstray"


Well, that's it for now. There are only so many silly rules I can make up in one sitting.

[dkmnow.livejournal.com]

Note not the missing examples and obvious blunders.

I'm in no mood for corrections.

[noodles-morgyn.livejournal.com]

I learned that if a word started (or sounded like it started) with a vowel you put a T in front of it - so 'unique' would be tunique-ay.

I think that was how it went, anyway... I haven't spoken Pig Latin for ages.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

I was never fluent in Pig Latin, so I don't know how I'd tend to handle unusual cases like "unique". Plurals I'd probably do like "oys-tay", since I'd be processing the words consciously rather than automatically. "Split" would be "it-splay", always. "Unique" would either be "oonique-yay" or "unique-way" – the way I learned it had the "w" as the default consonant when the word didn't provide any – but I'm not sure which I'd resort to under pressure. Ideologically, however, I'd support "oonique-yay" as the correct pronunciation.

Then again, I'd support many of the suggested modifications I've seen others list in the comments here. Especially dkmnow's. "Fect-afay" beats "affect-way" any day of the week.