Bonus 6: Language Play (Patreon)

You've probably heard of Pig Latin, or ig-Pay atin-Lay, where you bring the initial consonants to the end of the word and add -ay. But what about the inverse, where you bring the final consonants to the beginning of the word and add -ay? gay-Pi nay-Lati? In theory, it should be just as easy. In practice, the second one is way more difficult for your brain. But why?

This bonus episode of Lingthusiasm talks about language play! Games like Pig Latin, the Gibberish/Obbish family, rhyming slang, and the surprisingly old French Verlan may seem like childish fun or ways of keeping secrets, but they're also linguistically fascinating. Pulling language apart, even in play, can expose how our minds put it together in the first place. 

We also talk about fun board games for linguists, from IPA Scrabble to Taboo. If you have any language games you like to play, share them in the comments section below!

Links:

• Pig Latin 
• Verlan (Wikipedia)
• Talking Backwards, Looking Forwards 
• Linguists Against Humanity 
• IPA Scrabble 

This topic was nominated by Rob Hoelz (thanks Rob!), and voted on by all of our lovely patrons. 

You can listen to this episode on this page, via the Patreon RSS or download the mp3. A transcript is available for this episode as a Google Doc. Lingthusiasm is also on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter.  Email us at lingthusiasm [at] gmail [dot] com or chat to us on the Patreon page.

Gretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic. Lauren is on Twitter as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.

Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our producer is Claire Gawne and our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles. Recorded on August 5 2017.