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

[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.