Recently I was reading this post about conversions like おしゃれ->シャレオツ and I thought: "Wow, that seems very similar to Pig Latin!" (where e.g. "pig" becomes "igpay"; the main rule is that leading consonants rotate to the back of the word and get an extra "ay" appended).
I wouldn't be surprised if this is just a coincidence, but, is there a historical connection between these two? Whether yes or no, I'm looking for an evidence-based answer.
Side question: does this オツ construct have a "name" that would facilitate further research? [EDIT: Thanks to user4092: "it's generally called 逆さ言葉 and slangily 業界用語, and it seems that the linguistic Jargon is 倒語"]
[Fun side note: when I was trying to find the answer, I found out that there is something called babigo (バビ語)].
Answer
The practice of reversing a word's syllables to create a slang term is a common one across many languages. Compare Pig Latin and these Japanese terms, as above, or the South American argot called Lunfardo -- search the page for the word "vesre" for a description of how slang terms were derived by reversing the syllables.
In a nutshell: historical connection?
- If you mean, did the existence of Pig Latin as a spoken English code lead to the creation of these Japanese terms, probably -- almost certanly -- not.
- If you mean, is this a process of term derivation found historically, then definitely yes.
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