Level 36. Pig Latin: A Secret Language

Have you ever spoken Pig Latin? It’s a fun word game where you scramble English words into a secret-sounding language. “Pig” becomes igpay. “Latin” becomes atinlay. “Elephant” becomes elephantyay.

Let’s build a Pig Latin translator in Hica!

The Rules

There are three simple rules:

Step 1: Is It a Vowel?

First we need a helper that checks if a single letter is a vowel:

fun is_vowel(c: string) : bool =>
  contains("aeiouAEIOU", c)

fun main() {
  println(is_vowel("a"))    // true
  println(is_vowel("b"))    // false
  println(is_vowel("E"))    // true
}

We pass a one-character string and check if it appears inside the vowel list.

Step 2: How Many Consonants at the Start?

Next, we count how many consonants are at the beginning of the word. This uses recursion – a function calling itself!

fun consonant_prefix_len(chars: list<string>) : int =>
  match chars {
    [] => 0,
    [h, ..rest] =>
      if is_vowel(h) { 0 }
      else { 1 + consonant_prefix_len(rest) }
  }

Read it like this:

• Empty list? Zero consonants.
• First letter is a vowel? Stop: zero consonants at this point.
• Otherwise? Count this consonant, then check the rest.

For "string", the letters are ["s","t","r","i","n","g"]. It counts s, t, r, then hits i (a vowel) and stops. Result: 3.

Step 3: Translate One Word

Now the main rule – translate a single word:

fun pig_latin_word(word: string) : string {
  let n = str_length(word)
  if n == 0 { word }
  else if is_vowel(word[:1]) { word + "yay" }
  else {
    let idx = consonant_prefix_len(split(word, ""))
    if idx == n { word + "ay" }
    else { word[idx:] + word[:idx] + "ay" }
  }
}

fun main() {
  println(pig_latin_word("pig"))       // igpay
  println(pig_latin_word("latin"))     // atinlay
  println(pig_latin_word("string"))    // ingstray
  println(pig_latin_word("elephant"))  // elephantyay
  println(pig_latin_word("gym"))       // gymay
}

• word[:1] … the first character
• word[idx:] – everything from index idx onwards
• word[:idx] – everything before index idx

So for "string" with idx = 3: "ing" + "str" + "ay" = "ingstray"

Step 4: Translate a Whole Sentence

One word is fun, but a whole sentence is better. We split the sentence into words, translate each one, then join them back together:

fun pig_latin(text: string) : string =>
  join(map(words(text), (w) => pig_latin_word(w)), " ")

fun main() {
  println(pig_latin("pig latin"))           // igpay atinlay
  println(pig_latin("elephant umbrella"))   // elephantyay umbrellayay
}

words(text) splits by spaces. map(...) applies pig_latin_word to every word. join(..., " ") stitches them back with spaces.

Step 5: The Full Program

Put it all together with an input prompt so anyone can use it:

fun is_vowel(c: string) : bool =>
  contains("aeiouåäöAEIOUÅÄÖ", c)

fun consonant_prefix_len(chars: list<string>) : int =>
  match chars {
    [] => 0,
    [h, ..rest] =>
      if is_vowel(h) { 0 }
      else { 1 + consonant_prefix_len(rest) }
  }

fun pig_latin_word(word: string) : string {
  let n = str_length(word)
  if n == 0 { word }
  else if is_vowel(word[:1]) { word + "yay" }
  else {
    let idx = consonant_prefix_len(split(word, ""))
    if idx == n { word + "ay" }
    else { word[idx:] + word[:idx] + "ay" }
  }
}

fun pig_latin(text: string) : string =>
  join(map(words(text), (w) => pig_latin_word(w)), " ")

fun main() {
  println("Pig Latin Translator")
  println("--------------------")
  let line = input("Enter your message: ")
  let msg = trim(line)
  if str_length(msg) == 0 {
    println("(empty message)")
  } else {
    println(pig_latin(msg))
  }
}

Run it:

$ hica run pig_latin.hc
Pig Latin Translator
--------------------
Enter your message: hello world
ellohay orldway

Try It Yourself

Challenge 1: What does your own name look like in Pig Latin?

Challenge 2: Can you make it handle uppercase words? "Hello" → "Ellohay". Hint: use to_upper on the first letter of the result.

Challenge 3: Numbers and punctuation get scrambled too. Can you make the translator skip words that are all digits? Hint: all_digits(word).

Challenge 4: Translate a full nursery rhyme or song lyric!