"eggy" - a language used in Northfield. Aberdeen

Robin   Thu Oct 26, 2006 5:37 pm GMT
This is a report of a brutal murder.

Mr Eddie said he could not understand what Leslie, Cowie and Stewart were saying during the journey from the harbour to Northfield as they were speaking "eggy" - a language used in Northfield.

http://www.thisisaberdeen.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=148331&command=displayContent&sourceNode=148314&contentPK=15710986&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

Eggy-Peggy

This secret language is used mostly by school children in England. The principle-- add "egg" before each vowel (in another version, add "ug").
Example:
Mary had a little lamb
Meggary heggad egga leggittle leggamb.

Sentences given to students (all taken from well-known films):

Eggall weggork eggand neggo pleggay meggakes Jeggack egga deggull beggoy.
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."(The Shining)

Eggi'll begge beggack!
"I'll be back!"(Terminator)

Sheggow megge thegge meggoneggy!
"Show me the money!"(Jerry McGuire)

Meggay thegge feggorce begge weggith yeggou!
"May the force be with you!"(Star Wars)

Leggife eggis leggike egga beggox eggof cheggoceggoleggates. Yeggou neggevegger kneggow wheggat yeggou're geggonnegga gegget.
"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."(Forrest Gump)

Egga leggong teggime eggageggo, eggin egga geggaleggaxy feggar feggar eggaweggay...
"A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away..." (Star Wars)
Mary   Thu Oct 26, 2006 7:34 pm GMT
Reminds me of that game where you try to say "meow" as often as you can before the person you're talking to mentions it. Especially fun to do on the phone to tech support:

"So when I connect(meow) the mouse to the computer(meow) a blue screen comes up (meow)and the whole(meow) computer restarts!"

The more foreign your target, the better, because they will not know what to think or say.
Robin   Fri Oct 27, 2006 1:12 pm GMT
I was given this example of 'eggy'.

Take a word like 'knife', a word that you might want to keep secret. Only the main words in sentences have to be translated. Also, as certain words are used quite often, the mental gymnastics only have to be done once, and then you remember the new words.

Take a word like 'Knife'.

place the first letter at the end nifeK.

add 'egg'. neggi-fek

I'll try it with 'Blade'

ladeb

legga-deb

This reminds me of the Film and Book: 'Clockwork Orange', which is quite appropriate given the context.

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/printed-books/clockwork-orange-a-anthony-burgess/416466/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clockwork_orange


This was all I could find on the internet.

/* Eggy Peggy Language is a secret language rather like Pig Latin or Cockney Rhyming slang. It takes a while to master, but was once used, in particular, by schoolgirls to talk privately when there was a chance of being overheard by outsiders, and it could be spoken and understood very rapidly, but was unintelligible to the untrained ear.

In essence, the string 'egg' is inserted before every vowel.

There are dialects of Eggy Peggy language and the same sort of idea is used in Pig Latin, Jeringozo, Verlan, and Ubbi Dubbi.
Rick Johnson   Sat Oct 28, 2006 7:28 am GMT
I was talking to a guy at work (from Yorkshire) the other day. He said he used to use it all the time when he was a kid, but I'd never heard of it before. I think it probably goes back a long way.
Hala   Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:30 am GMT
Amazing, i should learn that!
Damian in London SW15   Wed Aug 15, 2007 10:52 pm GMT
It sounds similar to the same sort of coded language used by Prunella Scales and Janine Wood (playing mother and daughter) in a TV series called "After Henry". The format of this hidden language was very much similar to that described above - apparently it was very easy to do if you could remember to put an "egg" or something like it in front of every vowel of every word you used...or something very much like that. Whatever, it sounded really weird when spoken rapidly, and both could understand exactly what the other was saying, but nobody else did, which is why they used so that nobody had a clue what they were talking about. It infuriated Joan Sanderson, who played the part of Prunella's incredibly interfering, nosey old busybody of a mother who revelled in gossip and disharmony.