Pig Latin
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Zazu: Ix-nay on the upid-stay... |
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Escribeday Igpay Atinlay erehay.
(For those confused, that translates to "Describe Pig Latin here.")
Pig Latin is an obfuscated form of English, which is translated into Pig Latin word by word. To translate an English word into Pig Latin, the beginning consonant or consonant cluster is shifted from the beginning of the word to the end of the word, and following it the vowel sound "ay" is added.
As the examples show, some of the rules of Pig Latin are not consistently defined:
- Words beginning in a vowel have no initial consonants to shift to the end of the word, but the affixed ending in this case may be "hay", "way" or just plain "ay".
- Articles, prepositions and other small words are often left as is, notably in the stock expression "ixnay on the (omethingsay)."
- Since Pig Latin is a spoken language trope rather than a written one, Pig Latin words may be spelled literally ("upidstay", Pig Latin for "stupid") or altered phonetically ("oopidstay"); hyphens may or may not be used to disambiguate.
Other obfuscated languages exist, such as:
- Tutnese or Double-Dutch (English)
- Ubbi Dubbi (English)
- Javanese (French)
- Verlan (French)
- Rövarspråket (Swedish)
- Farfallino (Italian)
Pig Latin is not related to dog Latin, except that they both tend to sound vaguely foreign.
Examplesway:
Omiccay OoksBay
- Once used by the very dorky supervillain in Empowered #1. "I can see her ipples-nay!"
- Knights of the Dinner Table #170, segment "Channeling Gary". When the protagonists use a Ouija board in an attempt to contact the spirit of Gary Jackson, the spirit they contact sends messages in this form.
Ilmfay
- "Ereway Inhay the Oneymay", as sung by Ginger Rogers, from Gold Diggers of 1933.
- The priest in Top Secret: "Ooreyay oingay ootay etgay iedfray in the airchay."
- The Mask. Stanley Ipkiss is escaping a police station with an uncooperative Lt. Kellaway when they encounter Kellaway's partner, Doyle, who is otnay ootay ightbray:
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Doyle: Hey, Lieutenant! Where you taking Ipkiss? |
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- Blues Brothers 2000:
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Cab Chamberlain: I thought you said she was old and ugly. |
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- A Dog's Breakfast:
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Marilyn: Ix-nay on the Ookie-may. |
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The Abbot: I will conduct the prayer in the New Latin. Oh ord-lay, ive-us-gay ore-yay essings-blay, amen-hay. |
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- In Short Circuit 2, Oscar directs his thugs to sneak behind Johnny 5 with the command "Et-gay ehind-bay im-hey!" Johnny 5 doesn't know Pig Latin, so they are able to nearly kill him. When he's eventually brought back to life and is now attacking the people that beat him up, he starts taunting them in Pig Latin.
- When the younger Frankenstein shouts the monster has a rotten brain, Igor hisses, "Ixnay on the ottenray!"
- In Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Eddie Valiant and Roger are hiding in a Prohibition era secret room in the bar. When Judge Doom enters the bar, Dolores says "Ixnay! Ixnay" to herself as she pushes the button that sounds a warning buzzer inside the room.
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas : "Why don't ou yay, and I-yay, o-gay and... et-gay the... uff-stay out of the ... unk-tray?" (points to Dr Gonzo, to himself and out the door)
- In Air Buddies, apparently Pig Latin is the language pigs naturally speak.
Iteraturelay
- Twilight's religion, Cullenism (it exists. Seriously.), has its main prayer in Pig Latin. As if the concept alone wasn't mind-boggling enough.
- Used as a code in Sixth Column by Robert A. Heinlein, under the theory that non-native speakers won't be able to understand it.
- Neil Gaiman's American Gods (rather meta, by the way):
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Message received on Planet Technical. Loud and clear. Ixnay on the Estionsquay. |
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- Dave Barry in Cyberspace tells of a top-secret cable, sent on December 3, 1941 from Tokyo to Washington, reading: "E-WAY ILL-WAY ATTACK-AY EARL-PAY ARBOR-HAY." The message was intercepted by U.S. agents, and the power of technology was demonstrated by the efforts to decode it by computer. The machine worked nonstop to decode it before giving up two and a half years later.
- Dave Barry Slept Here identifies Pig Latin as the code invented by and named after Samuel Morse.
- The Doctor Who New Adventures novel Original Sin has the Doctor working with some military types to stop an alien starship that's leaking dangerous radiation. When he has to go and retrieve the TARDIS, knowing that the military probably want to seize the ship for their own purposes, he gives their commander a message to pass on to Benny: "Ashtray the ipshay".
- In the Babysitters Club story Mallory and the Trouble With Twins, the titular twins (Marilyn and Carolyn) annoy people with their own made-up twin language. Mallory gives them a taste of their own medicine by confusing them with Pig Latin, and they learn a lesson about what it feels like to be spoken to in a language you don't understand. Then she teaches them Pig Latin and starts being better friends with them.
- In The Anubis Gates, the time-travelling protagonist writes himself a note across the centuries, using Pig Latin and 1970s slang to ensure nobody else who reads it in the meantime will understand it.
- In Holes, "X-Ray" is so nicknamed because it's Pig Latin for his real name, "Rex".
- The True Meaning of Smekday features a group of rebels who write messages in pig latin because the alien race invading Earth doesn't understand it.
- Bored of the Rings has a note written by Goodgulf, which includes a message to Frito in Pig Latin concerning Arrowroot's intelligence (or lack thereof).
Ivelay Actionay Eeveetay
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer has a monster that tends to appear and take form by listening in on their conversations. Anya suggests they start speaking in code, Xander immediately thinks pig Latin is the obvious choice. (Though he doesn't speak it particularly well.) "Ood-gay idea-yay, An-yay."
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode "Hobgoblins":
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Daphne: Icks-nay on the ogus-nay, okay! |
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- Rose on The Golden Girls claims to have studied Latin and been the top student in the class. When Dorothy is incredulous, Rose says it's true, "Orothy-day!"
- Muppets Tonight when John Goodman was the guest star, he was being bugged by some pigs. The following dialogue occurs:
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John: The igpays are a little upidstay. |
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- On the show The Adventures of Pete and Pete in the episode "On Golden Pete", the inscription on the fishing rod Big Pete's dad has given him reads "Inay ankay ountkay onyay ooyay."
- In a season three episode of The Office, Jim tells Andy to woo Pam using Pig Latin because Jim knows she hates pig latin
- Hodges uses this in the season ten CSI episode Death and the Maiden when he tells Greg about his attempt to persuade Ecklie to allow Wendy to transfer to the field.
- A Mash episode has Frank and Hot Lips commissioning a local Korean artist to carve a wooden bust of Colonel Potter's head. He tells them it will cost six dollars and Frank is about to accept, but Hot Lips interrupts, whispering to him, "Frank, these people have no espect-ray unless you aggle-hay over the ice-pray." Frank has to spend a few moments doing the translation to himself before agreeing.
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Frank: (to artist) Five dollars. |
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- Ubbi dubbi, also known as "Pig Greek", was popularized by the PBS children's program Zoom.
- In Honey I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, Diane gets a curse that only forces her to speak Pig Latin.
- Charmed uses this briefly in the fourth-season-finale "Which Way Now", when the three sisters are worrying not only about demonic troubles, but also about being caught by the (entirely mundane) police.
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Phoebe: Okay, Ix-nay on the angel-way talk. |
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- On an episode of The Three Stooges, Larry and Moe try to teach Curly how to speak Pig Latin. When Curly says that his Pig Latin name must be "Curly Q", Moe says "Boy, are you umday!" The Pig Latin later results in Moe being mistaken for a painter named Omay.
- In one episode of Lizzie McGuire where Gordo is teamed up with Kate, Kate tells Gordo, "Let's o-gay."
Ewspapernay Omicscay
- In Get Fuzzy (May 11, 2008), Robert tries to tell Satchel to "idehay the ingstray" before Bucky sees it. Neither animal understands, but the cat accuses Robert of sounding like a terrorist, or at least an annoyerist.
- In Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin sneaks a walkie-talkie into class during a test. When Miss Wormwood catches him, he's muttering "Ixsay inusmay ourfay! Urryhay!" into the speaker.
- In another strip he rejects Pig Latin as a secret code because everyone knows it.
- The Professor from the comic version of Little Nemo in Slumberland speaks only in Pig Latin.
Abletoptay Amesgay
Ideovay Amesgay
- The final incantation in Sam and Max: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak is "Umkay Oninnay, the Otterway's Inefay" -- "Come on in, the water's fine."
- When you subdue the Thraddash in Star Control 2 you can decide the rules of their new society, one option being that they have to talk in Pig Latin when greeting you.
- In The Secret of Monkey Island, one of the Cannibals, Sharptooth, tells Guybrush that he can't go through the Caverns of Meat to get the Voodoo Antiroot without something before Red Skull (another cannibal) interrupts and tells Sharptooth, "Ixnay on the Eadhay of the Avigatornay!", but Guybrush has no clue what they're talking about (they're talking, of course, about the Head of the Navigator). It is lampshaded, of course:
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Guybrush: Why are you guys talking in Pig Latin? |
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- In The Curse of Monkey Island, while King André is discussing the evil plans to Guybrush, André's assistant Cruff interrupts and tells him, "Ix-nay on the evil an-play."
- All of the characters in Rayman Origins speak Pig Latin.
Ebway Omicscay
- Captain SNES tried to use Pig Latin to get the Sailor Scouts to give him a clear shot a Dhaos. It didn't work.
- My Stupid Life: "Dude. Iksnay on the ittybar-tay"
- In El Goonish Shive, closeted lesbian Nanase hisses "Ixnay on the Ay-geth..way" at Justin because she's afraid discussing his Coming Out Story will out her as well.
- This Darths and Droids strip.
- Evil Inc. has this little incident in R&D department.
Esternway Animationay
- Zazu in The Lion King: "Ix-nay on the oopid-stay."
- Disney's |Hercules. "I got two words for you: am-scray!"
- Anastasia has Dimitri tell a terribly lovestruck Vlad this: "Ix-nay on the Ophie-say!"
- Monsters, Inc. has a scene where Sully tells Mike to "Ook-lay in the ag-bay." When Mike doesn't understand, Sully hisses: "Look in the bag!" Parodied in the 'outtakes'.
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Mike: You know, maybe you should just take a minute and ead-ray your ipt-scray. |
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- In the Jumanji cartoon, Alan and the kids use Pig Latin to appear foreign into order to infiltrate a secret gathering of Jumanji's various factions.
- Used as an example of a code on Cyberchase. Matt is surprised that The Hacker knows it.
- Buzz Lightyear of Star Command episode "Revenge of the Raenoks":
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Buzz: XR, is that you? |
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- Disney's Aladdin.
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Genie: And ixnay on the wishing for more wishes! |
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- One episode of The Simpsons features Bart and Lisa having a quick conversation that they didn't want Marge to hear. When Marge reminded them (in Pig Latin) that "I-ay as-way a-ay id-kay nce-oay oo-tay, ou-yay ow-knay", they chorus "Ap-cray."
- In the latter day Looney Tunes short "The Duxorcist", Daffy's demonically-possessed love interest says "Ouyay upidstay erkjay", to which Daffy responds "And I thought French was the romantic language!"
- Hanna-Barbera's The Adventures of Gulliver episode "Gulliver's Challenge". When Flirtacia insults the Black Knight holding them captive, Bunko says "Ixnay on the insultsnay".
- In South Park, Kyle brings a cake as a gift to Cartman when visiting him in juvenile hall, mentioning that there's an "ailnay ilefay" baked inside of it, which will enable Cartman to "eakbray out of isonpray". When Cartman informs him that they're not allowed to accept gifts, Kyle goes into a lengthy rant while still speaking Pig Latin. Stan on the other hand just calls Cartman "umbass day"
- On the Arthur season one episode Arthur's Family Vacation:
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"Did you tie Arkeyshay on ightay?" |
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- In American Dad!, Francine is fed up of not having any freedom as a woman in Saudi Arabia, and she cuts to singing again.
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Stan: Uh, seriously, Francine, ixnay on the inging-say. |
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- In one episode of Rugrats ("Superhero Chuckie"), after Angelica sees the actor playing Captain Blasto "fly" on a rope, she asks him if he can do it again without the rope, and the actor whispers to her, "Ix-nay on the ope-ray, kid."
- The entire episode of "Ferb Latin" in Phineas and Ferb demonstrates this, except the suffix is -erb instead of -ay.
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Phineas: All the fun of Pig Latin but it's safe for vegetarians to use. |
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- Pig Latin is present in "The Bully Code" (see page quote).
Otheray
- Some people speak Pig Latin around immigrants who speak poor English in order to hold a private conversation without the hassle of learning a new language. This tends to not end well.
- Interestingly, the Pig Latin word "ixnay" seems to be supplanting its untranslated source word in the English language. Certainly, a trope-page for "nix" wouldn't have as many examples as "ixnay" has on this one.