英语语法：230 Is Pig Latin a Real Language?

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Ammar-gray Irl-gay ere-hay.
Whoops¹! Sorry, I slipped into Pig Latin for a moment there. Today’s episode was inspired by a question that Jason sent me on Twitter, asking if Pig Latin is a real language.
What Is Pig Latin?
So before we return to the question of whether Pig Latin is a real language, I should explain what it is for the benefit of listeners who might have learned (or might be learning) English as adults, and not have encountered Pig Latin as children. Pig Latin is a way of distorting English words for fun, or to prevent someone who doesn’t know Pig Latin from understanding what you’re saying. Here are the basic rules:
If a word begins with a consonant² or consonant cluster, remove them from the beginning of the word, and put them at the end of the word, followed by “ay.” For example, to turn the word “grammar” into Pig Latin, we remove the “gr” consonant cluster at the beginning and put it at the end, followed by “ay.” The result: “ammar-gray.” “Girl” is easier, because it starts with just one consonant, “g.” In Pig Latin, it’s “irl-gay.”
If a word begins with a vowel³, pronounce the word as you normally would, but put “ay” at the end of the word. For example, the word “is” would become “is-ay.” (Other versions of Pig Latin add the syllable⁴ “way” or “hay” instead.) 
Is Pig Latin a Real Language?
Now we can talk about whether Pig Latin is a language. At first glance, Pig Latin does meet the main criteria⁵ that linguists⁷ use in deciding what qualifies as a language. The list varies depending on which linguist⁶ you ask, but five criteria that are pretty well agreed-on are the following (1):
Displacement⁸: Pig Latin has the property of displacement, which means that you can use it to talk about things in the future and past (so not just the here and now), and even hypothetical things. In contrast, your pets may communicate to you that they want to be petted, fed or left alone, but they can’t say that yesterday they wanted to be petted more than usual after coming home from the vet⁹, or tell you not to forget to feed them tomorrow morning, like you did last week when you were late for work.
Arbitrariness: As with English words, Pig Latin exhibits arbitrariness, which means that the sounds in a word don’t tell you what the word means. “Ammar-gray” could mean anything at all; that it means what it does is an accident of history.
Productivity: Pig Latin is productive because theoretically, it could be used to convey an infinite number of messages—you can say anything in Pig Latin. By contrast, your cat may be able to communicate its moods or some of its wants to you by the sounds it makes or what it’s doing with its tail, but those dozen or so messages are the limit of what it can communicate.
Discreteness¹⁰: Moving on to discreteness, I’m not talking about being politely inconspicuous—that’s “discreet” spelled D-I-S-C-R-E-E-T. I’m talking about “discrete” spelled D-I-S-C-R-E-T-E, which means decomposable¹¹ into individual parts. To illustrate¹², even though phonetically¹³, the word “ammar-gray” is an unbroken steam of sound, speakers of Pig Latin can easily count the individual language sounds in it: the number of consonants¹⁴, the number of vowels¹⁵, the number of syllables¹⁶. You can’t do that with a dog’s bark, even though different kinds of barking may indicate joy, fear, or the need to do some business outside. (By the way, both spellings of /dI'skrit/ come from the same Latin adjective—real Latin, that is—“discretus,” meaning “separate.” There’s more on these words and other funny homophones in Episode 130, Funny Homophones.)
Cultural transmission: Finally, Pig Latin is culturally transmitted: You don’t automatically know how to speak it by having the right genes¹⁷. You learn it from your friends at school, from your siblings¹⁸, by reading about it in a book, or maybe even by hearing about it in a podcast.
Is Pig Latin a Language or a Code?
So if Pig Latin has all these properties, does that make it a language? Well, no. Linguists actually would call it a code. Pig Latin has no syntax, semantics, or even sounds on its own; everything it has it gets from English. In the same way, Morse code or Braille writing are not languages, but codes. Pig Latin could in theory encode any language. You could have Pig Latin versions of Spanish, Navajo, or even actual Latin.
Real Codes Versus¹⁹ Language Games
Of course, this kind of easily breakable code is very different from codes used for serious secret-keeping. Linguists use the more specific name “language games” or “secret languages” to refer to Pig Latin and many other games originating in other languages. These games often add syllables to words, rearrange the syllables, add or delete various sounds, or use a combination of techniques (2). They are of linguistic²⁰ interest because they can shed light on a language’s phonology and syllable structure. They can also reveal variation in how speakers think about their language. In Pig Latin, for example, I turned the word “grammar” into “ammar-gray” by moving the entire “gr” cluster to the end, but some speakers would take just the “g” and produce “rammar-gay.”
The History of Pig Latin
If you’re wondering how Pig Latin came to be called Pig Latin, The Oxford²¹ English Dictionary’s earliest attestation²² is from 1869, and it referred to any fake Latin gibberish. Other names for it included “Hog Latin” and “Dog Latin.” By the late 1800s these terms, along with other animalized Latin names such as “Goose Latin” were being used for language games, and “Pig Latin” had developed its current meaning (3) In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Pig Latin seems to have surged in popularity in popular culture. Around this time, according to the OED, the borrowed German word “nix,” meaning “of nothing,” was Pig-Latinized into “ixnay,” and the word “scram” (meaning to leave quickly) yielded “amscray,” resulting in what to my knowledge are the only words to have been borrowed from Pig Latin to become English words in their own right.
Literal Minded and Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing
This article was written by Neal Whitman, who blogs at Literal Minded. The article was edited and read in the podcast by Mignon Fogarty, author of the New York Times bestseller Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing.
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1 whoops   

int.呼喊声

参考例句：

• Whoops! Careful, you almost spilt coffee everywhere. 哎哟！小心点，你差点把咖啡洒得到处都是。
• We were awakened by the whoops of the sick baby. 生病婴儿的喘息声把我们弄醒了。

2 consonant   

n.辅音；adj.[音]符合的

参考例句：

• The quality of this suit isn't quite consonant with its price.这套衣服的质量和价钱不相称。
• These are common consonant clusters at the beginning of words.这些单词的开头有相同辅音组合。

3 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

4 syllable   

n.音节；vt.分音节

参考例句：

• You put too much emphasis on the last syllable.你把最后一个音节读得太重。
• The stress on the last syllable is light.最后一个音节是轻音节。

5 criteria   

n.标准

参考例句：

• The main criterion is value for money.主要的标准是钱要用得划算。
• There are strict criteria for inclusion in the competition.参赛的标准很严格。

6 linguist   

n.语言学家；精通数种外国语言者

参考例句：

• I used to be a linguist till I become a writer.过去我是个语言学家，后来成了作家。
• Professor Cui has a high reputation as a linguist.崔教授作为语言学家名声很高。

7 linguists   

n.通晓数国语言的人( linguist的名词复数 )；语言学家

参考例句：

• The linguists went to study tribal languages in the field. 语言学家们去实地研究部落语言了。 来自辞典例句
• The linguists' main interest has been to analyze and describe languages. 语言学家的主要兴趣一直在于分析并描述语言。 来自辞典例句

8 displacement   

n.移置，取代，位移，排水量

参考例句：

• They said that time is the feeling of spatial displacement.他们说时间是空间位移的感觉。
• The displacement of all my energy into caring for the baby.我所有精力都放在了照顾宝宝上。

9 vet   

n.兽医，退役军人；vt.检查

参考例句：

• I took my dog to the vet.我把狗带到兽医诊所看病。
• Someone should vet this report before it goes out.这篇报道发表之前应该有人对它进行详查。

10 discreteness   

组件

参考例句：

• Based on flow-control's discreteness, configure, affair and concurrency transacting, one application is organized perfectly. " 这样一个基于流程控制的组件、配置、事务、并发处理，组织出一个完整的应用。
• Discreteness of eigenvalue spectra for a class of eigenvalue problems is proved through integral equation representation. 将一类本征值问题化成等价的积分形式，利用积分形式证明了这类本征值问题的本征值谱的离散性。

11 decomposable   

可分解的

参考例句：

• If yes, you are producing 170g of non decomposable garbage each day. 如果是的话，那么你每天会制造170克不能进行生物分解的垃圾。
• OBJECTIVE To study decomposable compound of oxazepam. 目的研究苯二氮牻类药物奥沙西泮的降解产物。

12 illustrate   

v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图

参考例句：

• The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
• This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。

13 phonetically   

按照发音地，语音学上

参考例句：

• In actual speech, a phoneme is realized phonetically as a certain phone. 在实际会话中，音位总是以某个音素的形式得以体现出来。
• Though phonetically alike, they are written with different ideographs. 虽然语音相同，它们的书写却不同。

14 consonants   

n.辅音，子音( consonant的名词复数 )；辅音字母

参考例句：

• Consonants are frequently assimilated to neighboring consonants. 辅音往往被其邻近的辅音同化。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

15 vowels   

n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Note the various sounds of vowels followed by r. 注意r跟随的各种元音的发音。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

16 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

17 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

18 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

19 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

20 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

21 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

22 attestation   

n.证词

参考例句：

• According to clew, until pay treasure attestation the success. 按照提示，直到支付宝认证成功。 来自互联网
• Hongkong commercial college subdecanal. Specialty division of international attestation. 香港商学院副院长，国际认证专业培训师。 来自互联网