Dog Latin

Dog Latin, Cod Latin, macaronic Latin, or mock Latin refers to the creation of a phrase or jargon in imitation of Latin,^[1] often by "translating" English words (or those of other languages) into Latin by conjugating or declining them as if they were Latin words. Unlike the similarly named language game Pig Latin (a form of spoken code popular among young children), Dog Latin is more of a humorous device for invoking scholarly seriousness. Sometimes "dog Latin" can mean a poor-quality genuine attempt at writing in Latin.

More often, correct Latin is mixed with English words for humorous effect or in an attempt to update Latin by providing words for modern items.

Examples

A once-common schoolboy doggerel, which though very poor Latin, would have done a tolerable job of reinforcing the rhythms of Latin hexameters:

Patres conscripti took a boat and went to Philippi

Boatum est upsettum, magno cum grandine venti.

Omnes drownderunt qui swim away non potuerunt.

Trumpeter unus erat, qui coatum scarlet habebat.

Et magnum periwig, tied about with the tail of a dead pig.^[2]

The meter uses Latin vowel quantities for the Latin parts, and to some extent follows English stress in the English parts.

Another variant has similar lines in a different order, with the following variants:

Stormum surgebat et boatum oversetebat

Excipe John Periwig tied up to the tail of a dead pig.^[3]

Another verse in similar vein is

Caesar ad sum jam forti

Brutus et erat

Caesar sic in omnibus

Brutus sic in at

which "translates" into Cockney as

Caesar had some jam for tea

Brutus ate a rat

Caesar sick in omnibus

Brutus sick in 'at (hat)

See also

• Languages
  • Hiberno-Latin, playful learned Latin literature by Irish monks
  • Latino sine Flexione, a constructed language based on Latin, but using only ablative as the standard form
  • Latatian, Dog Latin in the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett
  • Macaronic language, using a mixture of languages, such as Latin and English
  • New Latin, post-mediaeval Latin used for international science
  • Pig Latin, simple verbal code language based on English

• Examples
  • HoboSapiens, a John Cale album
  • Homo Consumericus, a concept in social science
  • Illegitimi non carborundum, Dog Latin for "Don't let the bastards grind you down"
  • Mater si, magistra no, a macaronic mashup of Mater et Magistra and Cuba si, Castro no
  • Reductio ad Hitlerum, a Dog Latin phrase
  • Smugglerius, a Dog Latin name for a cast of a smuggler's body posed as a dying gladiator
  • Mots d'Heures, a book of verses in cod-French
  • Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner, two Looney Tunes characters, are given various Dog Latin Linnaean taxonomical names at the beginning of most of their cartoons

References