From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids
- Not to be confused with Jibberish.
Gibberish is a generic term in English for talking that sounds like speech, but has no actual meaning (like "the mave's rint ist slanpehed up utyp yongrirsh"). This meaning has also been extended to meaningless text or gobbledygook, such as "hogtdkypopgjifgjdfgyfkk" or "spligindysporkmadork" or "fdhjfjklhfdhdfhgjfjj" or "Obasufferecumbi"
[edit] Gibberish language game
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Main article: Gibberish (language game)
"Gibberish" is also used to refer to a group of similar language games. In general, these all work by adding a code syllable after the onset. For example, in 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 Löffelchen-Sprache. Another version of it is used in Hungary, called "Madárnyelv" (Bird's language), and adds "Vv" or "Vrg" before the syllables, where "V" is the vowel of the syllable.
In Spanish spoken in Latin America, there is a game called "jeringonza" where one adds pX after every vowel in a syllable (where X is that vowel), for example "Hola mundo" would become "Hopolapa Mupundopo". There is a game with identical rules in the Portuguese language spoken by children in Portugal, called Língua dos pp (P's language) and looks like this in the sentence Eu amo-te (IPA: ['ew 'ʌmytɨ]) (I Love you): Eupeu Apamopo-tepe (IPA: [ew'pew ʌ'pʌmy'pytɨ'pɨ]).
In the United Kingdom, gibberish follows a similar pattern to most, but is ultimately different. For example "How are you?" would be said as "Haragow aragar yoragou?"
[edit] 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 'jaber ibn hayyan', the name of the 8th century alchemist. 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 or makes no sense (e.g. "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 is rarely used. Common usage dictates that gibberish means unintelligent, meaningless, uninformed, or worse; quite opposite to the original usage.
[edit] See also
- Nonsense
- Gobbledygook
- Gibberish (language game)
- Jabberwocky
- Language game
- Pig Latin
- Simlish
- Scat singing
- Asdf
[edit] External links
Other meanings.
- Gibberish, a Dutch band that fuses all sorts of musical styles, thus being alternative.
- And a Norwegian band from Sykkylven has also taken the same name, primarily rock-oriented.