Talk:Dog Latin

Road-Runner
What about Wile Coyote and the Road-Runner? The scientific species names at the start are hilarious exanples of Dog Latin. Noel (talk) 21:03, 29 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Well, ad them if you think they need to be, like under "popular culture". Booger-mike (talk) 15:44, 15 October 2021 (UTC)

Discworld
In the Discworld books; the motto of the City Watch is FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC which is Dog latin for "Make my day, punk". Because many film directors used this motto for their police forces, some police forces in America now use this in theirs! For a project I'm working on, I've use the phrase VERITAS VOLO TU EXPEDIO which approximatly means "The truth will set you free". Gerkinman TNG 19:16, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

Term origin
I think it is worth mentioning that in Portuguese, for instance, the verb "to bark" is "latir". Brazilians (this is my experience) often think of "barking" when you say "latin". I guess this is related to the naming for "Dog Latin". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.27.2.42 (talk) 18:11, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Life of Brian names?
How about Biggus Dicus and Naughtius Maximus etc. from Monty Python's Life of Brian, do they qualify as examples for this page? --Hibernian 06:34, 7 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I would say go easy on the examples, there's far too many to want to list every bit of mock latin every made. :)  Maybe reorganising a bit into themes like names, films, literature, could help, or if there's a specific article on Biggus Dicus or whoever.  -- Kevin Ryde 01:57, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

English?
"On the other hand, these rhymes contain only Latin words, but are in fact English: Brutus ad sum iam forte/ Caesar aderat/ Brutus sic in omnibus/ Caesar sic in at."

What does it mean that it's "in fact English". Is it that it's Latin words, but English grammar? -- Tmhand 15:03, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

If you read it aloud, you'll find it's English. It just looks like Latin. If you can't get it, post here again and I'll put the "translation" on your talk page. When I first saw this, aged about 10, I laughed until I was sick. --Dweller 09:58, 9 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I think I get it, but would you mind posting the "translation"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by User:24.170.195.93 (talk • contribs)
 * It's on your talk page now. Please sign your posts with four "tildes" ( ~ ) so it's easier to know who posted them. --Dweller 09:35, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
 * A "translation" can be found on the 'Net: Brutus adds some jam for tea // Caesar ate a rat // Brutus [was] sick in omnibus // Caesar [was] sick in [a] hat.  --saimhe 15:24, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

It only "translates" into English if you use a BE dialect. ;) --Dante Alighieri | Talk 01:22, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

I don't get ANY of the last three examples. Can someone explain them to me? DrGaellon | Talk 03:37, 6 November 2006 (UTC)


 * O, see Billie, see her go;
 * Forty buses in a row.
 * O, no Billie,
 * Them is trucks!
 * What is in them?
 * Cows and ducks!


 * --Dante Alighieri | Talk 18:36, 18 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Brutus, is it? When I was doing Latin in school in England in the 1960s, we learned it in the form Caesar adsum jam forte, Pompey aderat, etc.  One lives and learns.


 * And what about poetry that's half-Latin and half-English?


 * What is that that roareth thus? Can it be a motor bus?
 * Yes, the noise and hideous hum, declarant motorem bum. Etc, etc, through every Latin case ending.


 * (I am quoting, probably misquoting, from memory. I can only remember one more line: 'Spare me, spare me, motor be!')


 * Djwilms (talk) 08:40, 21 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I too remember the version starting with "Caesar adsum jam forte," which works best if you use the traditional English way of pronouncing Latin. This way round, it places Caesar in a more favourable light than Brutus, whom those of a royalist disposition would have execrated as a near-regicide. Dante Alighieri placed Brutus almost at the centre of his Inferno. The version ending "Brutus sic intram" reminds me that as a child buses were modern and exciting whereas trams seemed slow and boring. NRPanikker (talk) 14:24, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

Camera necessaria
I believe that the "legal Latin" description of a kitchen, as found here is a spoof of legal Latin, rather than an authentic historical example of legal Latin. It is found (decades earlier than the Brewer's phrase and fable citation) in Sam Weller's Budget of Recitations (1838), a compilation of short stories and poems intended to be read aloud to amuse a small audience (doubtless a very useful thing before radio, television, or the internet). RandomCritic 23:30, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
 * what exactly are you saying? What would you like to see changed/added/removed? --rocketrye12talk/contribs 05:18, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm just explaining changes I already made. RandomCritic 16:00, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Sam Weller's Budget of Recitations has been misidentified as part of the Pickwick Papers since November 2007 on wikipedia. It appears to have been an attempt to clean up the original link to the Google Books copy of Budget of Recitations and mistakenly attributed the passage to the Pickwick Papers. Additionally, Budget of Recitations was attributed to Charles Dickens, though my quick perusal of the book on Google Books indicated no association with Dickens. If anyone has further information, please correct as necessary. Kylos h

Discworld Latatian
Oddly, I came to this article from the article on Discworld "Dog Latin", Latatian. However, there is no matching mention on this page, i.e. examples of Latatian. One has already been mentioned - Fabricati Diem, Pvnc - but should I add a couple more, and put them into the main article? I have got... um... all the novels. so I could dig out a few, or in fact probably fill an entir page. But that would be both excessive, and obsessive... WikiReaderer 11:14, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks, whoever added the link! WikiReaderer 16:52, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Article in need of an update?
"Pig Latin (a form of spoken code popular among young people)," This appears to have been written in the late 1880's. Seriously... most people under 65 don't even know/care about Pig Latin or any such thing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.110.198.236 (talk) 08:20, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Agreed. Fixed. 129.7.50.250 (talk) 18:27, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

What needs cleanup?
What, specifically, are the concerns that need attention here? —Latiligence (talk) 13:27, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

IUPAC New Element Nomenclature
The IUPAC example is pretty inaccurate. The Latin numbering system goes unus, duo, tres, quattuor, quinque for 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 whereas the IUPAC system is un, bi, tri, quad, pent - clearly borrowing from Greek, as well as Latin. 128.101.167.145 (talk) 21:34, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I agree. I think we should either cite somebody comparing it to Dog Latin (it might be a notably-used example, even if wrongly) or else take that example out. -- tiny plastic Grey Knight   &#x2296;  15:29, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Serious uses
Serious uses may be rare, but a good example is the European Pharmacopoeia, where monographs are given pseudo-Latin (Dog Latin) names as well as names in English and other contemporary European languages. For example: "Pantoprazolum natricum sesquihydricum" translates as "Pantoprazole Sodium Sesquihydrate" or "Producta cum possibili transmissione vectorium enkephalopathiarum spongiformium animalium" meaning "Products with risk of transmitting agents of animal encephalopathies". Goodness knows why they bother though! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.75.231.162 (talk) 14:37, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Cod Latin
What is cod-latin? Should it be discussed here? Roderick Spode (talk) 19:04, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

More from Red Green
In one episode (I don't remember which one right now), to show his concerns with one of his Uncle Red's schemes, Harold pronounced, ""Veni, vidi, vomite. I came, I saw, I ralphed." Should this be added beside the Possum motto? Nutster (talk) 07:33, 15 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I think this is more a play on Julius Caesar's famous quote "Veni, vidi, vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered"), spoken in 47 BC, rather than a good example of dog Latin. 86.150.96.171 (talk) 10:04, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

In Top Secret!
There's an episode when a sentenced person is accompanied by the prison priest, that chants some increasingly absurd pseudo-latin. The most vividly remembered part was "coitus interruptus". 213.171.63.227 (talk) 13:32, 29 January 2010 (UTC)
 * coitus interruptus is not dog latin--rocketrye12talk/contribs 21:48, 30 January 2010 (UTC)
 * But "illegitimi non carborundum" is. MrDemeanour (talk) 14:16, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

Hungary
I've seen various sources describe the Latin spoken in the early modern period by the Hungarian aristocracy as "Dog Latin". Should not this be discussed here? john k (talk) 15:10, 8 December 2010 (UTC)
 * I remember being told that Latin was also employed as a command language in the (multi-ethnic) Hungarian army in the early modern period (and as late as the 19th century?) because of its neutrality. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 15:09, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

Pseudo-Latin
I've seen the term Pseudo-Latin to describe this type of constructed Latin. Or does Pseudo-Latin refer to another form of Latin not related to Dog Latin? werldwayd (talk) 05:49, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

Caesar's Jam
I learned a slightly different version to that presented in the article. It goes:

Caesar adsum iam forte Brutus aderat Caesar sic in omnibus Brutus in is at


 * That would change the translation from "for the strong one" to "perhaps" or "by chance" IIRC and "thus in, but" to "thus in this" ... which may or may not make more sense. 62.196.17.197 (talk) 14:34, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Principal parts of verbs
I remember some mock-Latin principal parts of verbs. For example, rather than the real Latin: fallo, fallere, tuli, latus there is: fallo, fallere, slipsi, bumpus. TomS TDotO (talk) 01:14, 4 October 2015 (UTC)
 * It is fallo, fallere, fefelli, falsus. You have mixed it up with fero, ferre, tuli, latus. -78.8.84.158 (talk) 16:56, 7 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes, sorry, you're right.  TomS TDotO (talk) 00:26, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

Another one, going back to the days of corporal punishment in schools, is bendo, whackere, ouchi, sorbum. SamuelTheGhost (talk) 14:33, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

Canis Latinicus
Canis Latinicus as a translation for the dog Latin is an example of pseudo-Latin in itself. The reasl translation would be something along of Latinitas canina. -78.8.84.158 (talk) 16:56, 7 November 2015 (UTC)

"Reasl"? You mean "real"? But yeah, you're right. Booger-mike (talk) 15:43, 15 October 2021 (UTC)

Another verse in similar vein, from Ronald Searle's Down with Skool
The verse does not appear in "Down with Skool!" (note the exclamation mark in the book title). In chapter 3 "A Tour of the Cages" section 2 "Latin Masters" there is "Caesar adsum jam forte" as an example of tedious jokes made by Latin Masters (p41 of "The Compleet Molesworth" Max Parrish and Co Ltd, 1958). The claim that the verse appears in "Down with Skool!" appears to come from the comments page of the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-1184,00.html as does the line "Brutus sic in at" which isn't a very good ending to the verse.

The version given to his class by my Latin teacher was:

Caesar adsum jam forte, Brutus aderat. Caesar sic in omnibus, Brutus sic intram.

I also think the Latin translation needs attention but it has been a long time since I studied Latin.

Caesar is already (here), Brutus was present. Caesar thus in everything, Brutus thus within.

Lotaresco (talk) 08:51, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

"Cold Latin" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Cold Latin. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. Pam D  19:34, 6 August 2019 (UTC)

Butch
Can 147.10.229.146 (talk) 03:32, 22 December 2022 (UTC)

Add translation
Add a translation to English of the "Costard: ..." paragraph. Jidanni (talk) 07:17, 13 October 2023 (UTC)