How to Speak "Pig Latin" in Spanish
Ever wondered if there’s a Spanish equivalent to Pig Latin? Well, there is! In fact, there are several gibberish languages (jerigonzas) in Spanish, including idioma efe(commonly just called efe, pe, and vesre.
Efe
To hablar en efeor hablar con la efe(to speak “F”), you just need to keep in mind a few things:
- Every syllable of the original word will be repeated.
- If the original syllable begins with a consonant, when you repeat it, you replace this consonant with f. For example, dar(to give) becomes darfar.
- If the original consonant begins with a vowel sound, you say an f in front of the vowel. For example, al(to the) becomes alfal.
Here are examples of a few common words in Spanish and in efe.
| English | Spanish | "F" |
|---|---|---|
| today | hoy | hoyfoy |
| hi | hola | hofolafa |
| tomorrow | mañana | mafañafanafa |
| house | casa | cafasafa |
| homework | tarea | tafarefeafa |
Now let’s see how to greet someone in efe!
Pe
Instead of efe, some types of Spanish "Pig Latin" use letters such as peor te. In some versions, only vowels are repeated, and diphthongs (such as that found in soy) are split into different syllables. In others, the repetition of the syllable comes before the original syllable. Let's take a look at some words in these two variations of pe.
Let’s see how to greet someone in Vowel-Only "P"!
Crazy, huh?
Chi, Cha and Ti
- In chi, another common type of jerigonza, the syllable chiis inserted before each original syllable. For example, casa becomes chicachisaand mañana becomes chimachiñachina.
- In ti, the syllable tiis inserted before each original syllable. For example, casa becomes ticatisaand mañana becomes timatiñatina.
- In cha, the syllable chais inserted after each original syllable. For example, casa becomes cachasachaand mañana becomes machañachanacha.
As you can see, there are lots of different versions of Spanish "Pig Latin." Some are used more in certain countries than in others; efe, for example, is the jerigonza most commonly used in Mexico. Vesreis a type of back slang that originated in the River Plate region spanning Argentina and Uruguay. Let's learn a bit about it!
Vesre
Vesre is a play on the word revés, from the phrase al revés(backwards). The word vesre itself shows how this language works: if you take the syllables in revés (re and ves) and switch them, you get vesre. This River Plate jerigonza has linguistic brothers such as rosarigasino(Argentina), Verlan (France), caroleno(Mexico), and London back slang, and can be heard in tango songs.
Let's take a look at a few examples of words in Vesre.
Feeling a little backwards? Don't worry! You don't need to know these gibberish languages to speak good Spanish, but they are fun to play around with!
Now that you've learned Pig Latin in Spanish, take some time to learn how to sound like a local all over the Spanish-speaking world with these articles:
