Greetings Alexander --
I read your query regarding Umpchay. This is a child's secret
language. It may still be in common usage among school
children, although not having been a school child for some
time I don't know for sure.
The methodology is to take the first letter or consonant
grouping of the word you are encoding and place it at the end
of the word, and then add an "AY". Thus CHUMP, a derogative
meaning a stupid person -- or at least one who has done
something stupid or behaved stupidly usually on behalf of
another person -- becomes UMP-CHAY. Likewise, MORON would
become ORON-MAY. A word that begins with a vowel is left as
is with regard to structure, but an AY is appended to the
word. In that way Alexander would become Alexander-ay. It
becomes more complex when slang is inserted into the mix, as
in the word NIX
-- meaning NO, or a similar response in the negative --
wherein the word would become IX-NAY, a common phrase of Fred
Flintstone, if memory serves.
Example: IXNAY ON THE UMPSHAY, ALEXANDERAY.
(Dependent on style or regional versions of the "skill,"
pig-latinizing for smaller words like THE, AN, or THE may or
may not be done. The more complex version would be IXNAY ONAY
ETHEY UMPSHAY, ALEXANDERAY.).
Hope this helps. If you've received the same information
elsewhere, please excuse the duplication.
Best Regards, Erick
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 10 Apr 2002 EDT