LINGUIST List 2.413

Sat 17 Aug 1991

Disc: Language play (was Pig Latin)

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Fan mail from some flounder?, Re: Queries
2. , 'Pig Latin'

Re Peter Salus' query -- Moira Yip at Brandeis has done a lot of stuff on
Chinese children's language games, and there's also a lot of other literature
on the subject -- I wonder if the Opies' work deals with any of that.
Susan Fischer

Apropos of the recent query on Pig Latin-type games,
Indo-Aryan languages never seem to get mentioned when the
subject arises. So I thought I would note having ob-
served a couple of such games in Hindi, Bengali and Marathi; the rules seem
more or less the same from one language to
another, and one of the Bengali games sheds inter-
esting light on syllabification rules in that language. (I can
recall one morning spent interviewing an entire elementary
school class on the 'Pig Latin' forms of various common words in order to put
together something on Bengali phonology for a conference held Stateside later.)
 Anyone having a
burning desire for specifics on Indo-Aryan 'Pig Latins' is
welcome to get in touch.
Mimi Klaiman