Gibberish

Gibberish language game

"Gibberish" is also used to refer to a group of similar Language game (linguistics)|language games. In general, these all work by adding a code syllable after the Syllable onset|onset. For example, in Ubbi dubbi|Ubbi Dubbi, the code syllable is ''-ub-'', and "How are you?" would be said as ''Hubow ubare yubou?'' Such language games in the Gibberish family are not unique to English-speaking countries, for example there is one spoken in Sweden called Allspråket and one in Germany called Lef-Sprache.

Origin of the term

There are a couple of possible theories of origin for the term "gibberish". One says that the basis is in the old word "gibber" which is allied to "jabber". However, "gibberish" was in use before the word "gibber", therefore making this a dubious theory. A better explanation says the word comes from Geber, the name of an Arabian alchemy|alchemist in the 11th century. He invented a strange terminology so that his works could not be understood by others; more importantly, he could not be accused of heresy, which was punishable by death. "Gibberish" in its modern sense was certainly used by 1811. Despite the intelligent purpose behind the creation of the term, "gibberish" today is used as a derogatory term to suggest something has no merit (i.e. "that's a lot of gibberish") rather than the (supposedly) more accurate use, which would be akin to "that sounds like a lot of encrypted information," which nobody says. Common usage dictates that gibberish means unintelligent, meaningless, uninformed, or worse, when in fact, the opposite is true. Often enough to be considered, the term happens usually to be aimed at politicians, public speakers and "pseudo-intellectuals" (depending on the point of view).

See also

Nonsense

Gobbledygook

Gibberish (language game)

Language game (linguistics)|Language game

Pig Latin

Simlish