O-day Ou-yay Eak-spay Ig-pay Atin-lay?

Yes, my friends. It's true. My youngest son is an absolutely brilliant linguist.

He can speak English. He can speak Athlete (yes, its a language all its own.... some of you will totally understand me on that). While not fluent yet, he has a basic grasp on Teenager.

And now, he can add Ig-pay Atin-lay to his list. (Huh. Did you know it is much easier to speak Pig Latin than it is to type it? Interesting tidbit, there.)

Every night for at least the last couple of weeks (and by every? I DO MEAN EVERY.SINGLE.NIGHT) he has been brushing up on his skills. He will spend huge chunks of time speaking to Coach and I in nothing but Pig Latin. Coach, bless his bean, just ignores him and goes about life. Me? I play along. Bug and I have entire conversations in Pig Latin. He's not quite on my level yet, but he's getting there.

However, in his never ending quest for knowledge, Bug has been asking me questions about the origins of this marvelous, lost language. The questions started small. He wanted to know if I had spoken in Pig Latin when I was his age (as if it had been in use back in the dinosaur era, and he's time-tracking its use!). Gee, mom, how did you get so good at it? Did you get to use it all the time (because nothing wins over your peers faster than saying something to them that not only can they NOT understand, but that sounds vaguely insulting at the same time?)? And one of my favorites: What country did Pig Latin come from? What nationality (new word for him this week, I think. I've seen it used more than once from him very recently.) are the people who speak it? So, I did what any good mother would do. I came straight out and told him.

It was originally developed in a far away country called Pig Latinia, as a secret language that kings and queens used to speak to their children; so that spies from neighboring countries wouldn't understand what they were planning. But sadly, one day one of the children was captured. (Must have been the Princess. Its a well known documented fact that only girl children buckle under torture and spill their guts about everything.) After torture so cruel (at least three baths a day, nothing but veggies for dinner, and hugs every ten minutes!) the Princess had no choice but to tell her captors everything they wanted to know. The code for the secret language. But the Princess was very clever. She told her captors that it could only be spoken by teenagers, or those not quite a teenager. It could never be spoken by an adult, or it would lose its power as a phenomenal language of power and secrecy.

Much like spam email, within a very short matter of time, this language was spread across the entire world.

Sadly, for all my efforts, I was rewarded with a rather large eye roll and a "Whatever, mom" from my child.

Of course, that might have been because I was maybe ~just maybe, mind you~ showing off.

Y-may Alent-tay or-fay ig-pay atin-lay eft-lay im-hay eechless-spay.

Which really? Not such a bad thing coming from a 9 year old who asks more questions than there are good answers for!