WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Ig-pay Atin-lay (Sorry) 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:06.600 Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh. There's 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:09.200 Chuck and Dave and Jerry are both here in spirit 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:14.120 and this is short stuff. I'm sorry this is or 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:21.079 shay off stay. I had a hard time with this 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:26.079 episode research wise, because, uh, this how stuff works article 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:28.120 keeps talking about what a joke it is and how 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:31.360 easy it is, and it's like, it's not the Enigma code. 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.320 But I didn't do pig Latin growing up, so it's 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:39.839 just still confuses me. Like I get it, but I like, 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:42.280 I don't just hear someone speak it and I can say, oh, 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:44.000 this is what they're saying, and I have to write 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:45.640 it down and move a bunch of dumb letters around, 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:48.839 right right, yeah, you, I'm right there with you, Like 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:50.800 I have to stop and think about it. You know, 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:52.920 how to say a certain word or spell it or 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:56.040 what somebody's saying is very difficult too. But I think 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:58.440 that's kind of because pig Latin it wasn't like the 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:01.440 cool thing when we were growing up. Where were younger, 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:04.240 we probably or I should say way way older, we 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:06.920 probably um would have been a little better at pig Latin. 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:09.800 It's just it is very easy to learn the rules 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:12.600 of it are very easy, but to speak it fluently 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:15.440 would be, I'm sure very difficult and take a lot 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.920 of practice, for sure. Yeah, and there are so many 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:22.160 more things that you can do with your time. They're 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:24.880 more constructed to try and be fluent in pig Latin. 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:26.959 But when you're a little kid and the only the 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:30.160 only thing to play with is a hoop with a 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:32.560 stick that you chased down the hill, pig Latin is 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:35.920 pretty attractive, you know what I mean. Yeah, so pig 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:38.240 Latin is uh we'll talk a little bit about the 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:40.240 history in a sec but basically, if you take the 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:42.280 word cat and we got this from the House to 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:45.960 Works article at way is way big pay at and 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:49.000 lee what is pig Latin? And see that annoys me 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.160 just reading it? Uh, so what you do with cat 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:54.760 it would end up as at k. So you take 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.080 the letter at the beginning of the word, move it 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:03.160 to the end, add the syllable a y and that's 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:06.080 sort of it, right that, I mean that that is 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:09.320 all there is to it. So you'd have at k 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:13.520 that's pretty simple. At k um and that's it. I mean, 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.079 that's all there there really is to it. Like if 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:19.359 you run into a word that has a couple of syllables. Um. 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.880 They use the example of curtain. Um. There's a couple 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:24.760 of things you can do. You can say artn k, 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:27.600 That's what I would do. But if you're if you 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.400 were like fluent in pig Latin, you might say no, 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:34.040 no no. Each syllable gets messed around with this, so 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:40.120 you have um er k tin a no er k k, 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:43.880 which I mean like almost no one's going to know 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.160 what you're talking about, especially at first. But if you 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:48.240 and your buddy are really good at pig Latin, then 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:50.480 you've got your own little language that no one can 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:54.480 can come in too. And in your world is is 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:59.880 shatter proof. That's right. And uh. There were some predecessors 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:05.960 two pig Latin, dog Latin, and hog Latin, which they think, um, 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:08.400 the name hog Latin might have eventually gotten to pig Latin, 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.120 even though dog Latin and hog Latin were not anything 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:16.120 like pig Latin. Um. Apparently it was just like a 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:20.239 fake Latin that people made up. Like Shakespeare. I think 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:24.720 it did a little. Uh, I think dog Latin and 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:28.520 it's funny. They really explained the Shakespeare passage, which I 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:31.200 don't even think we should get into but no, no, no, 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:37.520 you co starred. I'll be Holofernes. All right, jeez, everyone, 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:42.520 we present to a dramatic reading from Shakespeare's Loves Labor Lost. 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:49.560 Oh I'm co co starring, yea, your co star man, 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:52.520 this is where our TV show didn't work. Oh wait, 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:57.560 I'm chuck alright, co starred. Go to thou hast it 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:02.800 add dung hill at fingers ends as they say, oh, 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:16.560 smell false latin dunghill for and then okay, we can't 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:19.760 go over that again. So this article takes great paints 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:22.280 to explains, to explain all that, and then at the 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:24.719 very end says, the joke is much funnier when you 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:26.920 explain it at links, and I'm like, no, that's never 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:29.560 been true for any joke ever. Right, well so, but 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:32.400 the point is is like what Shakespeare was calling this 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:36.320 dog latt or hog Latin or dog Latin is basically 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:38.960 more like Cockney rhyming slang than what we think of 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:43.240 as pig Latin. He was replacing dunghill for ungium, which 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:48.000 is fingernail, which was right, pretty clever words smithery, right, 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:50.440 and it's funny, like it's pretty rich. The two of 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:54.440 us just mocking Shakespeare right now, but but that that 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:58.080 this was like, not, it has nothing to do with 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.120 pig Latin, even though they're like clear, Really, hog Latin 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:04.440 was a direct predecessor of pig Latin, even even if 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:07.280 they aren't similar. Somebody said, oh, we'll call this one 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:10.480 pig Latin rather than hog Latin. Yeah, and I think 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:13.600 even Edgar Allan Poe mentioned both dog and pig Latin. 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:17.000 I'm sorry, dog Latin and pig Greek. Uh. And it 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.720 was pretty disparaging of those. But again, it was not 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:23.919 the pig Latin that we know. And maybe we should 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.599 take a break and talk about when that dumb thing 0:05:26.640 --> 0:06:02.080 came around right after this ko way, chuck okay, chuck um. 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:06.480 So pig Latin, as we understand, it was around by um, 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:10.680 the late eighteen hundreds at the latest. They think, Yeah, 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:15.120 there was I think in the Ox. It was in 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:18.000 the Atlantic. Rather, it says they all spoke a queer 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.320 jargon which they themselves had invented. It was something like 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.160 the well known pig Latin that all sorts of children 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:26.600 like to play with. Uh. And it looks like it 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.320 was invented by kids to talk about stuff that their 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:33.679 parents couldn't understand. That totally makes sense. Um. And again 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:37.080 here's where that famous Enigma code line comes in. That 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:41.600 like the parents could could crack it pretty easily. Um. 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:47.120 The point was, I think maybe that it became cute 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:51.960 and just widely appreciated because maybe this is my own 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:54.560 personal theory, kids thought that they were speaking in a 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:57.680 way their parents couldn't understand, and their parents did fully understand, 0:06:57.720 --> 0:06:59.640 so they allowed it to keep going on. Is like 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.359 the gret language, um with with this kind of like 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:06.719 little bit of you know, delight at the childhood nous 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:09.160 of the whole thing. That's what I think. That's why 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.680 I think pig Latin got traction originally. Yeah, And it's 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:14.720 it's kind of weird that I have such contempt for 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:18.280 it because I've seen examples in movies and in real 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:22.320 life where and it's usually seems like young girls have 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.440 made up their own little secret language, and I just 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:30.160 find that like exhaustively adorable and very funny and cool. 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:34.480 But there's something about pig Latin that just ugs baby me. 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:39.120 Oh good, one good one chuck, that was very good. Yeah. 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.920 So um, one of the things that I love about 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:45.240 pig Latin are twofold and they both come in the 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:48.160 early twentieth century. So pig Latin basically had its golden age, 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:50.640 It's heyday where it was like part of the popular 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:54.680 culture and like the first uh three or four decades 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:59.080 of the twentieth century. And um, it showed up Chuck 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:03.800 in this this this song called pig Latin Love, which 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.640 was an Arthur Fields record from and did you listen 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:11.800 to it? Of course it's adorable. I looked, I looked 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:13.760 everywhere to see if it's in the public domain, and 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:15.360 couldn't find it. So I'm not sure if we can 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:18.760 play anything. It's got to be I would think so too. 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:21.720 So we'll say, let's play a little bit here, and 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:23.680 then if do you don't hear anything, it means that 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:25.360 we found out it is in the public domain, in 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:27.480 which case go look it up yourself. But here's a 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:32.760 little clip of pig Latin Love by Arthur Fields. Maybe correctly. Goodness, 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.200 it really is. And so I just think it's an adorable, 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.520 adorable song. But the fact that somebody had a popular 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:42.480 song about this shows just how popular it was at 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:45.560 the time, how how prevalent it was in pig almost 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.560 in pig culture. And pop culture. I'm sure in pig 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:51.760 culture they're like, stop making fun of us. We don't 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:54.320 talk like that. Yeah, we used to have an old 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:56.600 patrola with some old records, and uh it was it 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:59.280 was always kind of fun to um to put those on. 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:02.080 Like we never did it as a family, like sat 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:03.680 around and listen to him, but when friends would come 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:05.760 over at papan on, it's kind of kind of cool. 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:11.120 My dad had um Jackie Gleason records, and uh, I 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:13.520 used to tell them that they were so square, the 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:17.760 records themselves were square. He would be like, what do 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:21.800 you mean that's great? Uh So the other use, I 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:25.640 think you were probably talking about The Three Stooges, right, Yeah, 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:29.320 did you watch that too? I didn't, Actually, I didn't 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:31.320 get around to that one. It's just adorable. I can't 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:33.920 wait to do our episodes on the Three Stooges or 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:37.360 five episode, seven part episodes on the Three Stooges. But 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:41.200 there's a particular one in UM ninety eight called Tassels 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:44.400 in the Air where Mo and Larry are trying to 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:48.240 teach Curly pig Land. It's a good like full minute 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:51.840 or so like lesson on pig Land. Curly just can't 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:55.640 quite pick up. But so he's like, so I'm oh 0:09:55.679 --> 0:10:01.440 may and that's airy lay and you're early and curly 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:04.600 goes que and they're like no, I think he gets 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:08.080 slapped as a result. But um, it's it's pretty cute. 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:12.040 So here's the deal, though, pig Latin is not I mean, 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:16.120 technically it's a language, but it's it's really um something 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:19.920 called back slang or a coded language. Um, it's not 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:22.800 like I know, we covered Esperanto many many years ago 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:26.240 on the show and uh like kling on. Those are 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:30.840 really invented languages with vocabulary and grammar and syntax, and 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:33.400 they don't rely on English as the basis of it. 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:37.080 This is not that. No, there's no pig Latin without English. 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:40.600 That's it. And it follows all of the same vocabulary 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.240 rules and like you said, syntax and everything that English follows. 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:46.480 It's just you're rearranging it a little bit. Um. One 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:49.360 of the other categories that pig Latin qualifies as a 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:52.320 coded language, Like the reason that this is done is 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:55.920 to disguise what you're saying. Even if it is not 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:58.880 just kind of a feeble attempt at disguise, it's still 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:02.600 qualifies it as a coded language. Yeah, and there are 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:06.880 examples of stuff like this in other countries. Apparently in 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.600 France there's something called verlon that switches up the first 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:15.840 and last syllables of a word. Um, Spanish has uh 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:19.199 here gonza. Oh nice. I guess that's how you pronounce it, 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:22.360 which where you double the vowels and put a P 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:26.440 between them. So gato, which is cat is gaba topo 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:30.360 sounds kind of cool? It does you take Japan? Okay? 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:32.560 Japan has something I was asking you me about this. 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:35.480 She knew exactly what I was talking about. Um called 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:38.079 bobby go b A b I g o, and g 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:42.320 O indicates a language in Japan, So like English go 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:45.199 or something like that would be the English language. This 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:48.880 is like bubba language. And it's because you insert be 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:53.680 sounding syllables into the already extant syllables of a word. 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:58.560 So sushi becomes subu shibi. I love that word. Yeah, 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.880 subushi bi subushibi. Yeah, and that's bobbigo in Japan. Let's 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.480 go get some superb I just think it's so great 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:07.640 that everybody's like this language interest is interesting, but we 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:11.880 could make it even even better. Let's try kids, Yeah, kids, 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:15.360 are great. Uh, well, you got anything else? I got 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:20.760 nothing else. I don't either so or we go or 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:32.400 stay off or shay off, stay to a that's that 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:39.120 all right. Stuff you should know is a production of 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:42.640 iHeart Radios How Stuff Works. For more podcasts my heart Radio, 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:45.600 visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:46.800 listen to your favorite shows.