Cod Latin

Dog Latin, or cod Latin, is a phrase or jargon that imitates Latin, often by what is referred to as "translating" English words (or those of other languages) into Latin by conjugating or declining them, as if they were Latin words. Dog Latin is usually a humorous device used for mocking scholarly seriousness. The term can also refer to a poor-quality attempt at writing genuine Latin.

Origins and History

The origins of Dog Latin can be traced back to early examples in literature. For example, Dog Latin predates Shakespeare, whose 1590s play, ''Love's Labour's Lost'', includes a reference to dog Latin:

The term was also mentioned by Thomas Jefferson in 1815, indicating its use in scholarly and literary contexts:

Examples

* '' Illegitimi non carborundum'', interpreted as "Don't let the bastards grind you down." Offred, the protagonist of the novel ''The Handmaid's Tale'', finds a similar phrase scratched into the wall of her wardrobe: ''Nolite te bastardes carborundorum''.
* ''Semper ubi sub ubi'' is unintelligible in Latin, but translates word for word as 'always where under where', interpreted as 'always wear underwear'.
* A once-common schoolboy doggerel which, though very poor Latin, would have done a tolerable job of reinforcing the rhythms of Latin hexameters:

:Which translates to:

: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:

:The meaning here is "The storm rose up and overturned the boat" and "Except for John Periwig", etc.

* Another verse in similar vein, from Geoffrey Willans' ''Down with Skool'', is:

:When read aloud using traditional English pronunciation of Latin, it sounds like the following:

:But really means:

* The following spoof of legal Latin, in the fictional case of ''Daniel v Dishclout'' (from George Alexander Stevens' "Lecture on Heads", 1765), describes a kitchen:

:In English, this is:

* In a similar vein, a humorous love song of 1782, the text of which is attributed to John O'Keefe, states:

* Starting with its second season, ''The Red Green Show'' closes each episode with the recitation of the Possum Lodge motto, ''Quando omni flunkus moritati'' – which can be translated as "When all else fails, play dead". In one episode, some of the members break away to form the rival Salamander Lodge, whose motto is ''Quando omni flunkus terra retreatum'' ("When all else fails, climb under a rock").
* Finnish death metal band Omnium Gatherum gets its name from 1500s era butchered Latin meaning "a hodgepodge of various things".
* The title of death/folk metal Verbal Deception's debut album ''Aurum Aetus Piraticus'' is Dog Latin for "Golden Age of Piracy".
* The songs of Era, a musical project by Eric Lévi, usually have nonsensical lyrics written in Dog Latin.
* Many of the Roman military officials in the English version of the cartoon Asterix by René Goscinny have Dog Latin names, e.g. "Crismus Bonus"
* The magazine name ''Atlas Obscura'', while not wrong in and of itself, is improper Latin. In Latin, Atlas is the name of either the Greek Titan, or the mountain range named after him, and does not refer to a collection of maps.
* A running gag in the series of ''Looney Tunes'' cartoons starring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner assigns different fake Dog Latin species names in each episode to Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, i.e. "Eatibus Anythingus" and "Acceleratti Incredibilus". The actual Latin species names for the coyote and road runner were used in a 2003 episode of the series, '' The Whizzard of Ow''.
* The Warhammer 40,000 wargame universe makes frequent use of pseudo-Latin (which is referred to in-universe as 'High Gothic') in its product names and background material.

See also

* Latatian, dog Latin in the ''Discworld'' novels by Terry Pratchett
* 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
* Law Latin, a form of Latin used in English legal contexts, similarly to Law French
* Lorem ipsum, nonsense filler text based on a Cicero work
* Macaronic language, using a mixture of languages, such as Latin and English
* Medieval Latin, including many influences from vernacular languages
* Neo-Latin, Latin used in the modern world
* Pig Latin, simple verbal code language based on English

References

{{Reflist

Latin language
Humour

Macaronic language