Code Languages

This activity is mainly intended for fun. While discussing secret languages and street languages, students become familiar with syllable structure, consonants and vowels, and with general issues associated with the development of slang and languages used for special purposes.
Handout 1 introduces a set of statements from well-known movies in Pig Latin. Students are asked to identify the language and decipher the statements.
Handout 2 does the same thing in Eggy Peggy.
Handouts 3-6 deal with Verlan, a French dialect developed in the suburbs of Paris in the early 1980's as a new street language, and spoken today among teenagers across France. They are much more challenging than the first two, and the answers to the problems are given on the bottom of the page in case students cannot figure them out. A good strategy would be to fold the page and hide the answers, and use them only as a last resort. The Verlan handouts can be used as a separate activity.

Teacher Notes

piglatin cartoon

Student Handouts

Solutions to Problems in Student Handouts