Gibberish (language game)

Gibberish (sometimes Jibberish) is a language game or secret language similar to Pig Latin that is played in the United States, Canada and Ireland. Similar games are played in many other countries. The name Gibberish refers to the nonsensical sound of words spoken according to the rules of this game.

There are several variations of Gibberish in the English-speaking world. They use -itherg-, -uthug-, -elag-, -itug-, -uthaga-, -uvug-, -idig-, -atheg- (th in then and the two vowels are pronounced with a schwa), and -adeg-. The dialects are given different names. Another form of gibberish known as allibi is spoken using the insertion -allib-.

These four dialects of Gibberish are spoken by adding the infix to each syllable after the onset. Example:

When a syllable starts with more than one consonant, the infix is added after the onset consonants. Example:

When the syllable begins with a vowel, that vowel is used in place of the first i in the -ithieg- infix. Example:

Words of more than one syllable repeat the rules for each syllable.

This dialect works in much the same way as the previous dialects, with an additional rule. When a single syllable word begins with a vowel, the infix acts as a prefix, with the initial "a" becoming like that vowel.

The sentence "I hit the alarm clock when I woke up" could be "Ittiguy Hittigit thittagee addagalitigarm clidigock wittigen Ittiguy wittigoke uttigup".

Another paradigm involves infixing (V)rV+g following the onset of a monosyllabic word, or less usually after each onset or nucleus of polysyllabic words. In words consisting of a single diphthong, the Gibberish morpheme breaks up the syllable into a sequence of vowels plus a glide. The vowels of the Gibberish morpheme typically harmonize for quality with the vowel of the syllable nucleus, but can be reduced if unstressed according to English stress rules. The [ɡ] syllabifies into a new onset. Examples:

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