pig Latin

A jargon systematically formed by the transposition of the initial consonant to the end of the word and the suffixation of an additional syllable, as igpay atinlay for pig Latin.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Pig Latin

(Languages) a secret language used by children in which any consonants at the beginning of a word are placed at the end, followed by -ay; for example cathedral becomes athedralcay

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

pig′ Lat`in

a form of language, used esp. by children, derived from ordinary English by moving the first consonant or consonant cluster of each word to the end of the word and adding the sound (ā), as in Eakspay igpay atinlay for “Speak Pig Latin.”

[1935–40]

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References in periodicals archive ?

it wasn't until about 11,000 years ago that humans brought home the bacon in the form of the Sus scrofa domestica (the Latin name for the pig, not to be confused with pig Latin).

This little piggy: whet your appetite with a few fun facts about our porcine friends

The chant is children's play language, pig Latin. When each second syllable is dropped, we have the word anima.

Healing the split between spirit and nature

But "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" isn't actually nonsense; it's Israeli Pig Latin. (Insert your own Jews-and-pork joke here.) Israeli kids sometimes use S'fat HaBet, or "B language," inserting the letter bet after each syllable.

Dance Fever

As you can guess, reading the book is a bit like talking in pig Latin: everyone knows who you are talking about; it just takes a bit longer to figure it out.

Brent Meersman. Primary Coloured: A Novel of Politics

When the truth emerges, Penelope endures trial by tabloid before the inevitable reversal of fortune as naysayers see the heroine for the kind and gentle soul she is ("Pig Latin banned from schools" declares one newspaper headline).

Hyperaction! Cinema

But the trembling majesty of Tony-winner Bernadette Peters--at her best a heart and voice in aching synchronicity--will stifle any cries of "Filler!" Despite the title, this time fewer than half the songs are Sondheim's, but they include a touching "Children Will Listen" and a lovely "(They Ask Me Why) I Believe in You." The rest is a more erratic compilation of styles, but her talent binds it all together: giving graceful muscle to Webber's "Unexpected Song," singing "We're in the Money" in pig latin, and delivering "If You Were the Only Boy" as if she were rocking us all into bed, her phrasing like a cloud on which to dream.

Stephen's girl

In his informative "Verlan: The French Pig Latin" in the Autumn 2005 edition of VERBATIM, J.J.

Epistolae

The deceptively thin Schott's Original Miscellany is a large and delightful collection of bizarre, interesting, or even sometimes useful bits of trivia such as how to wrap a sari, the knights of the Round Table, a discussion on pencil hardness and a the "to be or not to be" speech presented in Pig Latin.

Schott's Original Miscellany

His only means of communication was a Swahili version of pig Latin that involved nothing more than a series of clicking noises followed by "A." Upon arrival, he adjusted quickly to the life of an American teenager by learning the lyrics of every DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince song in a mere six hours.