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My mother and sister and various female cousin would never teach me their conspiracy dialect - now generally known as Backslang.
I get the general idea, I'm otnay at-thay imdray. but i need more examples - and variations.
How many different types of Backslang are there?
AND
How regional was/is it? How much need was there for it in northen mill towns where the women used to lip read instead to conceal feminine discussions from the menfolk in the same room?
I get the general idea, I'm otnay at-thay imdray. but i need more examples - and variations.
How many different types of Backslang are there?
AND
How regional was/is it? How much need was there for it in northen mill towns where the women used to lip read instead to conceal feminine discussions from the menfolk in the same room?
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Backslang - Lessons Required.
My mother and sister and various female cousin would never teach me their conspiracy dialect - now generally known as Backslang.
I get the general idea, I'm otnay at-thay imdray. but i need more examples - and variations.
How many different types of Backslang are there?
AND
How regional was/is it? How much need was there for it in northen mill towns where the women used to lip read instead to conceal feminine discussions from the menfolk in the same room?
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
Whereabout i live people speak backslang very different to what i've seen on several sites and this one such as iligi spiligeak biligacksiligang:i speak backslang! so i'm just never sure wether im speaking it right!
=D thx.Chris
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
Fantsatic.
there really should be an Annual Chamoinship. Possibly at The Edinburgh Festival.
How would the soliloquy from Hamlet translate: 'To be or..' how does it go?
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
Hello again,
Jemma's method (6 December)is one that my Dad taught me from his army days. Trouble is, it's a bit easy to understand. 'ontday ooyay inkthay osay' as against
'dagont yagou thagink sago'
Hello Jemma......no offence
Just once I heard a butcher use proper backslang where the spelling is reversed, and just once I was bawled out when I was an apprentice. I forget now what I did wrong, but it took me a long time to work out what, 'Geenikcuf
dratsad' meant!
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
Hi Bill
I personally think that "histay eonay" (when a word starts with a vowel, the first 2 letters are moved), is much harder to understand "thegan thegis w'gone", as the visual/aural structure of the word is disrupted. I also think it's much harder to speak - I can understand the latter without trying, whereas I find the first one often requires time to work out.
My preferred version of the latter, would be "reragitteragen leragike theregis", or "lerewike therewis". Not that any of this really does them justice compared with hearing them spoken at speed! (Ah, good ol' school days!)
[Edited by: admin on 07-Dec-2005 00:37]
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
Hello Jemma,
Thanks for your message. It occurred to me that the written backslang probably sounds quite different to the same thing when spoken. I didn't know we were going to get as deep as visual/aural considerations. There's a whole new world out there! If you want to HEAR mine I am quite happy for you to have my telephone number.
The guy who raised the subject in the first place isn't giving much input, is he?
Ragegards Bagill
Apologies, but in accordance with policy guidelines, we are unable to post personal telephone numbers on the forum.
[Edited by: Mercia on 08-Dec-2005 15:39]
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
> Hello Jemma,
>
> Thanks for your message. It occurred to me that the
> written backslang probably sounds quite different to
> the same thing when spoken. I didn't know we were
> going to get as deep as visual/aural considerations.
> There's a whole new world out there! If you want to
> o HEAR mine I am quite happy for you to have my
> telephone number.
>
> The guy who raised the subject in the first place
> isn't giving much input, is he?
>
Because I don't have a clue WHAT is going on...
Fascinating but baffling but goes to show the mysterious workings of the human mind.
I wonder if some people, right-brained or left-brained or no-brained, are more adept at this caper than others. Are there any examples of family members who simply coul;dn't get it, in spite of exposure? Apart from me...
Would it qualify as a sub-species of Pidgin english? What would be the technical term? And, does it happen in other languages. English is a very flexible language, could it be that we are the only ones who do it? Apart from me.
I can tell that this little appreciation society is tempted to start its own thread IN backslang. And it'll be all my fault.
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
They do it Brazil - and call it something like "Língua da Pe" - which my Portuguese friend translated as Pea Language. Don't know about anywhere else, but of course, once you can do it, you can do it in any language.
Leraga pluragume derege meraga tergante, would obviously be my aunt's feather in French!
[Edited by: admin on 08-Dec-2005 20:48]
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
Hello Jemma and Richard Littlejohn,
Plagume dage maga tagante! indeed!
Well Richard, you asked if backslang existed in other countries. As you have a website you could do a little homework on some of the others. France is mentioned on quite a lot of them because they have a system called 'VERLAN'. It's a bit complicated, and really a lot of it has to be learned, unlike those used by Jemma and me which come quite naturally.
I do not think a backslang appreciation society is a viable proposition because this website will not allow the exchange of telephone numbers so we would be meeting in a sort of vacuum. Or pehaps we could all put our hands on the monitor at a pre-arranged time and communicate by cosmic force. Or 'cagosmagic fagorce'if you prefer
regards Bill
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
Do 'To Be Or Not To Be.'
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
Hello R LJ
To be or not to be =
Tago bage agor nagot tago bage
Pronounced:
Tagoo bagee agor nagot tagoo bagee
You asked for the lessons, you graduated by doing 'lollipop' 'anemone'and 'psychological'
Regards
Bill
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
MORE MORE...
Don't stop now.
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
Hello LRJ
MORE! MORE! MORE! he cried.
Try 'Categorically', 'manufacturer' then a doubly whiskey and a deep breath and try the longest railway station name in Welsh Wales
'Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch'
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
I meant the rest of the soliloquy.
You do it so beautifully...
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
Hello RLJ
What's a soliloquy?
Put soliloquy into backslang for me,then we'll think about 'whether to suffer the arrows and slings of outrageous fortune...' etc
Bill
You're right. I do, don't I !
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
Hello Bill,
Yes, you do.
Bill
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
agi lagove cagallagum gagibsagon my cousins taught me pig latin but i need lessons on backslang is backslang the same as pig latin
pig latin
agi lagove cagllagum gagibsagon
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
There's another one which my school friends and I used to do, where you take the first letter and put it at the end of a word, then add "ay".
Ellohay, icenay otay eetmay ouyay = hello, nice to meet you
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
Hello,
true backslang where the spelling of the word is reversed is very difficult, you almost have to speak it from childhood.
Try instead this one: put AG in front of all the vowels. Y counts as a vowel, and vowels sounds like 'oa' or 'ou' count as one vowel.
So 'Thank you very much' would sound like
'Th AG ank y AG ou v AG err AG y m AG uch'
or at speed: 'Thagank yagou vagerragy maguch'
You can soon pick up speed and it baffles the kids if you want to go somewhere without them. Beware! They pick it up easily and don't tell you! E-mail me for more. Bill
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
there is one other type of backslang that i know about its called 'VG@ this is where you put a v and a g in between a syllable eg. hello has two sylables -hel-lo. you would say- hevel-lovogo
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
I think that's the one my infuriating sister and cousins and her friends used to use when talking about stuff i didn't need to know about.
In these days of sex-education and texting and family breakdown, does anyone actually use it anymore?
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
Hello
I have just read your message, there are many types to backslang. I know one incomplete and i am a 11yrs child.
In my type you just add ovago to every sillable. It is really quite easy. Find a friend who knows and ask him.
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
> Hello
>
> I have just read your message, there are many types
> to backslang. I know one incomplete and i am a 11yrs
> child.
> In my type you just add ovago to every sillable. It
> is really quite easy. Find a friend who knows and ask
> him.
Ryan,
Thank you very much.
'Ovago' to every syllable eh?
Likeovago as ifovago Thisovago?
That doesn't sound right.
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
Ryan,
Thank you very much.
'Ovago' eh?
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
Strictly speaking, that's pig Latin, LR. Backslang proper is when you esrever eht drow's gnilleps and pronounce it as best you can. "Riah" (REYE-ah: hair) is an example from Palare (actor-speak, as per Jules & Sandy), or "Ecaf" (EEK-aff, or just EEK: face).
Pig Latin was very common in the US, if old movies are anythingto go by.
Re: Backslang - Lessons Required.
Polare was something different, I thought, involving reverse words but also incorporating old Romany and circus words to exclude the uncool from the conversation.
"How bona to vada your dolly old eek again, Mr 'Orne." etc.
The thing about backslang is that there is a structure - often involving the substituted 'courtesy' syllable ('ay' - and 'ago' I also seem to remember. These are insertred to rhythmically disrupt the syntax, in a 'One-Step Forward, Two-Steps-Back' fashion, henace 'backslang' - I always thought.