Of Latin there are three kinds: Latin Proper, or good Latin; Dog Latin; and Thieves’ Latin, Latin Proper, or good Latin, is the language which was spoken by the ancient Romans. Dog Latin is the Latin in which boys compose their first verses and themes, and which is occasionally employed at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, but much more frequently at Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Glasgow. It includes Medical Latin, and Law Latin; though these, to the unlearned, generally appear Greek. Mens tuus ego—mind your eye; Illic vadis cum oculo tuo ex—there you go with your eye out; Quomodo est mater tua?—how’s your mother? Fiat haustus ter die capiendus—let a draught be made, to be taken three times a day; Bona et catalla—goods and chattels—are examples.
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A HEAVY SWELL. |
Thieves’ Latin, more commonly known by the name of slang, is much in use among a certain class of conveyancers, who disregard the distinctions of meum and tuum. Furthermore, it constitutes a great part of the familiar discourse of most young men in modern times, particularly lawyers’ clerks and medical students. It bears a very close affinity to Law Latin, with which, indeed, it is sometimes confounded. Examples:—to prig a wipe—to steal a handkerchief. A rum start—a curious occurrence. A plant—an imposition. Flummoxed—undone. Sold—deceived. A heavy swell—a great dandy. Quibus, tin, dibs, mopuses, stumpy—money. Grub, prog, tuck—victuals. A stiff-’un—a dead body—properly, a subject. To be scragged—to suffer the last penalty of the law, &c.
All these kinds of Latin are to be taught in the Comic Latin Grammar.
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TOBY, THE LEARNED PIG. |
If Toby, the learned pig, had been desired to say his alphabet in Latin, he would have done it by taking away the W from the English alphabet. Indeed, this is what he is said to have actually done. The Latin letters, therefore, remind us of the greatest age that a fashionable lady ever confesses she has attained to,—being between twenty and thirty.
Six of these letters are called what Dutchmen, speaking English, call fowls—vowels; namely, a, e, i, o, u, y.
A vowel is like an Æolian harp; it makes a full and perfect sound of itself. A consonant cannot sound without a vowel, any more than a horn (except such an one as Baron Munchausen’s) can play a tune without a performer.
Consonants are divided into mutes, liquids and double letters; although they have nothing in particular to do with funerals, hydrostatics, or the General post office. The liquids are, l, m, n, r; the double letters, j, x, z; the other letters are mutes.