A conversation in GChat status...

[highlyeccentric]

eggs_maledict : Dear Latin: Eeeeeverybody hates you. Including people you haven't met. Please feel free to go cry in a corner, lonely and unloved.

 

goblinpaladin : Dear Eggs: You made me cry, I'm a telling my mummy on you.
highlyeccentric : Dear Latin: You don't have a mummy.
goblinpaladin : Dear Highly: I DO SO. AND ALSO SHE LOVES ME THE MUCHEST. Sincerely, Latin.
highlyeccentric : Dear Latin: My Supervisor says your mummy, Proto-Indo-European, didn't exist. So NER. Sincerely, your Germanic would-be-nephew-if-you-had-a-mummy.
goblinpaladin : Dear Highly: Proto Indo-European is EVERYONE's mummy. I am descended from...umm... Etruscan? I DON'T KNOW MY MUMMY. BOO-HOO-HOO. I am all ALONE in the world. Sincerely, Latin.
highlyeccentric : Dear Latin: Sorry about your mummy. We refuse to admit relation to you. Sincerely, the descendants of Proto-Germanic.
highlyeccentric : Dear Latin: I made a mistake. Frankish is my true love. I wish I could go back and divorce you. Sincerely, French.
goblinpaladin : Dear French: That is okay. You never treated me right anyway- you threw away my inflexions and what you did to my pronunciation was just awful. Also, I never loved you anyway. Sincerely, Latin.

And now I realised I missed the opportunity to make etymological 'I wish I could quit you' jokes.

Comments

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

... uh, would now be the time to admit that I have a huge unrequited crush on Latin?

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

Latin is a HIDEOUS BITCH QUEEN who will DESTROY YOUR LIFE while nonetheless you LIKE IT.

Guess who has an exam in half an hour!

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

You do!

I love Latin because I am a palaeontologist and all the things I love have long and complicated Latin names ... I never took the trouble to actually learn the language, so in fact I just *use* Latin for my own sordid ends ... but I've come to love it despite that.

Ours is a forbidden love!

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

I do!

Oh, palaeontology. A friend of mine's supervisor wrote an entire wossname, thingy wot names all the bones, in *correct* Latin as the appendix to his PhD because he was tired of the pseudo-Latin and ad hoc approach to the thing. It was amazing.

Man. I need caffeine. That made no sense.

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

Back in the day, you *had* to write your species descriptions in Latin. Proper Latin. Hopefully I'll be describing and naming a few new species for *my* PhD; I shall endeavour to make the Latin as correct as possible, and not hybridise it with Greek as so many people do these days.

Caffeine is good. Especially for impending exams.

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

Yes. I am sort of glad those days don't exist any more, because of the fact that I am bad at it and have been doing it for two years now. Except that I wish it did, because that would be awesome.

Ooh! What field do you work in?

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

I wish they did, because I'd like an excuse to learn Latin. Left to myself I haven't got round to it.

I'm going to start my PhD on molluscs in January :D Mostly working on morphology and evolution of one genus of New Zealand bivalves.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

Shh, don't tell IT that. At least not until Eggs and the Goblin have finished their exam.

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

... too late

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

Eh, my exam was okay. *grins*