Chinese Pig Latin
lǐ fángpái chèi qù guà te wùzi fa?
I was recently pondering whether Chinese had a Pig Latin or not. I’ve never heard of one, but those kinds of things just have to exist, at least somewhere.
Google tells me that Urban Dictionary has a definition. It’s kind of like normal Pig Latin (an alteration game), but with different, supposedly “Chinese” sounding rules. I think it has a lot of problems, like “vowels sound like they usually sound” (how do vowels usually sound?), especially when they are being taken out of their usual contexts. Also, what about the letter “c”?
Here is a different kind of Chinese Pig Latin. Interesting, but that’s not what we’re looking for either.
Fanqie could serve as a Chinese Pig Latin (and apparently has (see the “alteration game” link, under Chinese)), but it sounds a little complex to be serviceable; after reading the Wikipedia article, I understand generally how it works, but not specifically what the rules are.
So if nothing serves, why not make something up of our own? Like English Pig Latin, it has to be something one could learn quickly, and with a little practice, master well enough that one could use it to communicate.
Can you reverse-engineer what I’ve written at the top of the post? (The rules I chose are but one possibility out of a myriad, but I believe they pass muster.) If you can figure it out, don’t say what the rules are — just respond using this new Chinese Pig Latin in the comments. (And feel free to comment otherwise in English as well.)
Zhèigào Yuánrèigèn shēiguō yuánléigái zèigài Běijēigīng ěigǒu yīzhěigǒng “pig latin” [I’ve probably butchered the concept — see footnote 18]
What about a Chinese hubba-bubba language? The English version changes hello to hubba ebba lubba obba. The Chinese version could pull the radicals making up nihao apart and add some humorous nonsense.
Some more information on Chinese secret languages can be found in the first paper listed on this page and the following article: Chao, Y. R. (1931). Fanqie ye ba zhong (Eight Varieties of Languages Based on the Principle of Fanqie). Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology , 320-354.