A commenter has asked for more information about the clever and delightful little poem on Latin pronunciation which L.P. Wilkinson cited in Golden Latin Artistry. Here’s a bit of the context (from pp. 4–5):
There were of course the inevitable jokes about wainy, weedy, weeky, and Punch displayed a picture of a don surrounded by girls chanting ‘We kiss ‘im—by turns’. … But even in 1950 Sir Alan Herbert complained of the ‘horrid “New” Pronunciation’ of the Public Orator of Oxford University. Eight years later Mr Higham was able to make an effective reply: when presenting Sir Alan himself for an honorary degree he asked (drawing on Ovid, Virgil, Varro and Plautus),
Then follows the poem in question, which was quoted in that previous post.
But for ease, here it is again:
- si ‘sub aqua sub aqua’ ranae ‘cecinere querelam’,
- cur sessineere velis dicere, cur sub akway?
- balat ovis ‘be be’, vocem effert noctua ‘tu tu’?
- haec bee bee, tew tew posse sonare putas?
— T.F. Higham, 1958 (cited in L.P. Wilkinson, Golden Latin Artistry p. 5)
And the references:
- ‘sub aqua sub aqua’: Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI 376
- ‘cecinere querelam’: Vergil, Georgics, I 378
- ‘be’: Varro, De agri cultura, II 1.7
- ‘tu tu’ Plautus, Menaechmi, 653
Higham added the second “be” for the meter. What’s really nice about this is that it not illustrates the correctness of the restored pronunciation, but also its utility. Only by observing restored pronunciation can we both recognize what Varro and Plautus were referencing, and appreciate the sound effects aimed at by Vergil and Ovid.
As to the story about the cartoon in Punch, I could not find any but I did find this letter to Notes and Queries for December 1877:
Latin As A Universal Language (5th S. viii. 67, 132, 355.) — In this matter of Latin pronunciation old fogies like myself are, like my Lord Panjandrum in another case,” on the side of the angels,” i.e. of the unscientific; and therefore I have much pleasure in reporting an anecdote, not yet, so far as I know, in print, of which the present Bishop of Manchester is the hero. A class of school-girls, says the story, highly educated on the newest principles, were pouring forth to his lordship a list of Latin words, with the English equivalents; and they came to the word which we elders should call vicissim, ” We-kiss- im,” said the girls; ” we-kiss-im — by turns.” ” Oh, do you?” answered the bishop; ” then I don’t at all wonder at your adopting the new pronunciation.” A. J. M.
Oh, ho, ho! What merry fun have we ignorami at simple puns that prove nothing!
Thank you. I am sorry to find that sub aqua sub aqua ranae cecinere querelam is not an extract from a gem of poetic pond-description, but am relieved to have been defeated by a cento and not by a classic of which I was in culpable ignorance.
Thanks so much for sharing this – that little poem is new to me! On the same subject, I should mention Mr. Chips and his “Lex Canuleia” (“Yes, you CAN, YOU LIAR”) – along with all the other bad puns in his teaching repertoire which made him so resistant to the new pronunciation; the old and new Latin pronunciation regimens provide a delightful motif in the old Robert Donat film version of Goodbye Mr. Chips, a film with many charms.