Pig latin

Pig Latin is a language game that can be created from, i.e., based on, almost any language, although it is most commonly based on the English language. The rules are roughly:

• For words that begin with consonants, move the leading consonants to the end of the word and add "ay." Thus, "ball" becomes "all-bay"; "button" becomes "utton-bay"; "star" becomes "ar-stay"; "three" becomes "ee-thray";
• for words beginning with "qu," move the "qu" to the end of the word and add ay. Thus "question" becomes "estion-quay"; and
• for words that begin with vowels, simply add "way" to the end of the word. Thus, "a" becomes "a-way"; "at" becomes "at-way"; "ermine" becomes "ermine-way." This rule tends to get varied a lot, with some variants using instead "h" (thus, "at" becomes "at-hay"), or some just using the bare syllable "ay" ("at" becomes "at-ay").

A Pig Latin example text follows:

Is-thay is-way an-way example-way of-way Ig-pay Atin-lay. As-way ou-yay an-cay ee-say, its-way illy-say, ut-bay ots-lay of-way un-fay or-fay ildren-chay.

It should be noted that there is no "standard" for Pig Latin, although the principle of moving the initial consonant cluster to the end of a word and adding "ay" is universal. Most of the deviations involve words starting with vowels, however, the rule given is possibly the most common.

One rather common use of Pig Latin is by children, who will often use it to converse in (perceived) privacy from adults, or simply for amusement.

Certain Pig Latin translations, most notably ixnay, have been incorporated into English slang.