[Ads-l] Antedating of "Pig Latin"

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Early Modern Pig Latin"

Similar inspiration, but a little simpler:

1834 _Salem [Mass.] Gazette_ (June 6) 2 [Genealogy Bank]:  "Ziph Language"
[antedating? -JL]...A dozen or fifteen years ago, the Salem school-boys had
a flash language of a similar description, which they called "hog latin."
It was formed by suffixing the syllable -vus_ or -gre_ to every word,
and..was difficult to be understood by the uninitiated. ..._Dovus
youvus undrestandvus hog-latinvus? - Dogre yougre understandgre
hog-latingre ?_

Modern:

1889 _Evening News-Beacon_ (Wichita, Kans.) (Feb. 14) 4 [GenealogyBank]:
And the next time you hear a street urchin go up to another and ask,
"ava-hay ou-yay old-say any-may apers-pee [sic]  o-te-ite-nay [sic]?" if
you translate it, you will learn that he asked him, "Have you sold many
papers to night [sic]?" He speaks in Hog Latin.  [Etc.]

JL

On Mon, Sep 29, 2025 at 9:37 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Not "erethay"?  FWIW, my grandmother, who was a child in NYC in the 1890s
> and explained pig latin to me, would have said it that way.
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Sep 29, 2025 at 9:27 AM Shapiro, Fred <
> 00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
>> pig Latin (OED, 2., 1896)
>>
>> 1895 Evening Dispatch (Provo City, Utah) 27 Apr. 1 / 2 (Newspapers.com)
>>
>> The words are spelled after the style of schoolboy "pig-latin" ... Thus
>> the word "there" in "pig-latin" would be "ereth."
>>
>> Fred Shapiro
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org