This mini episode teaches you how to use Pig Latin, an old language game based on English.
Episode 164 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you how to use Pig Latin, an old language game based on English. Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
I don't know if today's topic can really be called a... Secret of Native Speakers. But it is something that all native English speakers know about, and textbooks probably never talk about it. And besides, I really like saying... Secret of Native Speakers.
Anyway, the topic for today is a special language called Pig Latin. Pig Latin. That’s pig: p-i-g. Like the animal. And Latin: L-a-t-i-n. If you don't know, Latin is an ancient language of Europe.
And here is a simple sentence in Pig Latin: Ello-hay, ow-hay are-ay ou-yay, oday-tay? Do you know what I just said? Do you know what I just said in Pig Latin?
What I said was, “Hello, how are you today?” Because Pig Latin is a kind of language game. Pig Latin is based on English. And if you know Pig Latin, you can talk in a secret way. You can say regular English sentences but in a way that other people can’t understand. Actually, probably other people can understand it—if they are native English speakers or if they have learned Pig Latin. But especially for kids, this can be a fun way to be mysterious or to tell secrets or to say things that maybe you believe your parents or your brothers and sisters can't understand.
And I am going to teach you how to speak Pig Latin. It's actually very, very simple: If the word starts with one or more consonant sounds, you move that consonant—or that group of consonants—to the end of the word, and then you add the vowel “ay.” So, for instance, the word podcast starts with a P sound. So you take podcast, move the P sound to the end, and then add “ay.” And then you get odcast-pay. So if you want to say podcast in Pig Latin, that is odcast-pay.
And if the word starts with a vowel sound, then you just add “ay” to the end of the word. So, the word everybody in Pig Latin is everybody-ay. That word doesn't really sound very different in Pig Latin.
So if you apply these two simple rules to every word in the sentence “Hello, how are you today?” you get “Ello-hay, ow-hay are-ay ou-yay, oday-tay?” Does it make sense now?
Let me give you a little quiz. Let's see how good your Pig Latin is. I will give you a word in Pig Latin, and you see if you can tell me what the regular English version of that word is.
Okay. Here we go. Number 1: End-fray. End-fray. What do you think end-fray means in Pig Latin? End-fray is friend. [NOTE: Don’t worry about spelling in Pig Latin.] You take all of the consonants at the beginning of the word friend—the F sound and the R sound—you move them to the end of the word, and you add “ay.” End-fray. How about this word: og-day. Og-day. That is the Pig Latin version of what simple English word? Og-day. That is dog. And one more: Es-yay. Es-yay. What English word is that? Es-yay. That’s the word yes.
Now that you know Pig Latin, you can say things in a mysterious and secret way.
At’s-thay all-ay!