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Last week, Bill Piggot mourned being one of the last A-G speakers left on Earth. Since then, we have received a huge response to his lament from listeners, many of whom have at one time or another used or heard of a variation of Bill’s A-G language. These AgeyBagey speakers (or backslang as it is sometimes called) assured us that the language is indeed alive and well--so much so that Jim McCain and Chris Rigby, both non-conversant in the secret language, sometimes feel that they have missed the AgeyBagey bandwagon...

Chris first came across the language in the 1960’s when his sister and her friends used it. Although at first his sister tried to include him, he simply couldn’t fathom it and felt left out. "That was the main frustration, not being able to understand what they were saying. There was also a certain amount of intellectual frustration because I was doing Latin and Greek at school and it just seemed like a little thing like Agey language ought to be very simple. And it wasn’t."

When Jim began courting his now ex-wife, Jean, he encountered the family's A-G style language. When he was first introduced to his would be parents-in-law he remembers them talking in this funny language. "It did make me feel a bit paranoid because I did think at first that they were talking about me. Then it suddenly dawned on me that her younger sister was in the room and that they might be talking about something to do with her and that they were disguising it by using AgeyBagey. I did feel very alienated because I think I’m a fairly good communicator and I like to be communicated with. When people are using a language that they obviously know I can’t understand then that’s not just frustrating, it’s enraging."

When Jim and Jean had children, she tried to communicate to Jim in AgeyBagey. "I would get the odd bit now and then but I really did have to have it explained. I think I’m terribly thick where languages are concerned."

When asked how best for others to avoid the alienation and exclusion he felt, Jim recommended, "If at all possible learn the language. If not, and you feel a bit retaliatory, make up one of your own." Chris agreed and said, "Get together with your best friend, invent a secret language, and bother the hell out of everybody else!"

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