Matty and Bill for Keeps (14 page)

Pig Latin

Matty Grub suggested to me that you, the reader, might be interested to know more about Pig Latin, so here's some information. (You will also find a translation of Matty's letter to Crispin towards the end of this section.)

Pig Latin is a playful way to speak in code, but it's not Latin at all; it just sounds a bit like Latin because of the ‘ay' ending on the words. This word game seems to have been around since the mid-1800s in England. Of course, that means it spread to other English-speaking countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America.

There are no strict rules to speaking Pig Latin (and it's usually not written), but here's one way of creating the words:

• For a word beginning with a consonant, you take the first letter, place it at the end and add ‘ay'. For example, ‘top' becomes ‘optay'.
  
• For a word that starts with a cluster of consonants (like
  sh
  ,
  bl
  , or
  scr
  ), take the consonants at the start of the word, place them at the end and add ‘ay'. For example, ‘show' becomes ‘owshay' and ‘scribble' becomes ‘ibblescray'.
  
• For a word starting with a vowel (
  a
  ,
  e
  ,
  i
  ,
  o
  ,
  u
  ), don't move any letters to the back. Instead, just add ‘yay' at the end. For example, ‘apple' becomes ‘appleyay'.
  

Let's look at this sentence:
Meet me at my place.

This becomes:
Eetmay emay atyay ymay aceplay.

• The word ‘meet' is easy to change. Can you see how in ‘meet' the ‘m' was put to the end to become the Pig Latin word ‘eetmay'?
  
• For a word starting with a vowel like ‘at', it is too complicated to put the ‘a' at the back of the word. It would be hard to understand what someone meant if they said ‘taay'. Most people just add the ‘yay' at the end to make ‘atyay'.
  
• Notice the word ‘place' has two consonants at the start. You move both the ‘p' and ‘l' so the word becomes ‘aceplay'. I suppose you could still say ‘lacepay' if you wanted – it would just be harder for your friend to decode.
  

Were you able to decode Matty's letter to Crispin in Chapter Four? Here is what it said:

Dear Crispin,

You are in danger. If you want to escape from Isabelle, Bill and Matty will help you. Run to the road next to the school, the one with the dead end sign, walk to the top of the hill and walk into the garden that is like a jungle. Here you will be safe.

Now try changing this sentence to Pig Latin:

Let's go down to your cubby for a secret meeting.

And try decoding this Pig Latin sentence:

Iyay antway ouyay otay avehay unfay ithway isthay amegay.

(Answers are at the end of this chapter.)

P.S. Matty asked me to remind you not to use Pig Latin to tease or exclude people.

Rhyming Slang

Matty also mentioned that you might want to know more about Cockney rhyming slang. Even though Crispin is back home in his tower on Lord Greenthorpe's English estate, he has helped by emailing some information.

Crispin's already given a brief explanation of rhyming slang in the story. But here are a few more details: Cockneys are born and bred Londoners. In the 1800s, or maybe before then, a secret language or code that cleverly rhymes evolved out of their close-knit communities. Cockneys could carry on entire conversations in rhyming slang.

You might remember from your reading of
Matty and Bill for Keeps
that ‘dead horse' means ‘tomato sauce'. ‘Horse' and ‘sauce' rhyme; the last word of an expression will always rhyme with the word it is replacing. Many expressions in rhyming slang also have funny connections to the words they stand for. I think I can see a connection between ‘dead horse' and ‘sauce'. Can you?

Some people believe rhyming slang came out to Australia with the first convicts. Others disagree and think it became popular around 1900. The exciting thing is that Australia has some of its own expressions in rhyming slang:

Nails and screws – news

Plates of meat – feet

Dog's eye – meat pie

Mud pies – eyes

After darks – sharks

Captain Cook – a look

Maybe you could make up your own rhyming slang. Think of a word (usually a noun – a naming word, but sometimes a verb – an action word) that you use regularly and make up a rhyme for it.

Here are some words you might like to experiment with:

Cheese

School

Home

Joke (noun or verb)

(Answers: Etslay ogay ownday otay ouryay ubbycay orfay ayay ecretsay eetingmay. I want you to have fun with this game.)

My versatile publisher, Kristina Schulz, is one in a million. She wears many hats and, no matter what hat goes on, she excels in what she does. Kristina works closely with the author and has a strong understanding of a story's heart. Her suggestions are highly valued. Many thanks for the able way you steer and encourage me, Kristina.

Kristy Bushnell has been a most fastidious editor. I have learnt a great deal from her meticulous approach. I am so grateful for the huge effort you have put into making this story as good as it could be. I also appreciate Cathy Vallance's final polish of the manuscript.

I would like to thank Dr Gary Presland (author of
Land of the Kulin
and other works on Victoria's Aborigines) for a most helpful discussion about Indigenous practices. Jake Cassar has also given me constructive and valued information about certain aspects of Indigenous culture. I also wish to acknowledge Aunty Lila Kirby for her inspiring leadership in singing dolphins in to try to stop the environmental vandalism of sinking a ship off Avoca Beach, New South Wales; for her careful reading of the story where Nan sings Maggot (as well as her constructive comments); and for the beautifully expressed words she dictated to me where Nan talks to Mat about earning the privilege of learning secret cultural practices.

I would also like to acknowledge the real Aunt Victoria – The Lady Victoria Fletcher (my brother-in-law's mother) who was the inspiration for this character. In 1901, The Lady Victoria was born and brought up in an English castle that had so many rooms she never managed to see all of them. However, after an adventurous life that included many years in Kenya, she spent her old age contentedly living in a caravan in a country town in western New South Wales, during which time she wrote a short autobiography,
From Castle to Caravan
.

Finally, I would like to thank my sister, Pammy Fletcher, for continuing to be my Super-Duper Number One Research Assistant; Allison Etheridge for being a most observant and helpful reader; and my older son, Dr Alexander Fensham, for inspiring me to write about Bill's struggle with growing up. At the age of seventeen, my son wrote a poetic, heart-wrenching farewell to childhood. Through this piece, I could see how unknowingly we might play a special game or do something childlike for the very last time. He writes, ‘If only we were aware of those last moments of childhood.'

First published 2012 by University of Queensland Press

PO Box 6042, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 Australia

www.uqp.com.au

[email protected]

© Elizabeth Fensham 2012

This book is copyright. Except for private study, research, criticism or reviews, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.

Typeset in 13/19 pt Adobe Garamond by Post Pre-press Group, Brisbane

Printed in Australia by McPherson's Printing Group

Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

National Library of Australia

Fensham, Elizabeth.

Matty and Bill for keeps / Elizabeth Fensham.

For primary school age.

Friendship in children – Juvenile fiction.

A823.4

ISBN (pbk) 978 0 7022 4927 3

ISBN (pdf) 978 0 7022 4835 1

ISBN (epub) 978 0 7022 4836 8

ISBN (kindle) 978 0 7022 4837 5

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