"The Motor Bus" is a

macaronic Macaronic language uses a mixture of languages, particularly bilingual puns or situations in which the languages are otherwise used in the same context (rather than simply discrete segments of a text being in different languages). Hybrid words ...

poem written in 1914 by Alfred Denis Godley (1856–1925). The mixed

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

text makes fun of the difficulties of

declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence, by way of some inflection. Declensions may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and ar ...

s. It takes off from

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

s on the English words "

motor An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

" and "

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

", ascribing them to the third and second declensions respectively in Latin, and declining them. At the time of writing Godley, a distinguished Classical scholar, was Public Orator at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. The poem commemorates the introduction of a motorised omnibus service in the city of

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

and

High High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift ...

are the

colloquial Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom normally employed in conver ...

names of streets in the centre of the city; several

College A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

s of the University are located in High Street. The poem has since been cited in the context of the recent introduction of larger vehicles (including "bendy" buses). The poem may owe its continued popularity to the large number of pupils who formerly had to learn Latin as a compulsory subject for University entrance exams (not just for Oxford and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

) in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. Most of them will have used a

primer Primer may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Primer'' (film), a 2004 feature film written and directed by Shane Carruth * ''Primer'' (video), a documentary about the funk band Living Colour Literature * Primer (textbook), a t ...

in which Latin

noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...

s were declined; for example, ''servus'', ''serve'', ''servum'', ''servi'', ''servo'', ''servo'' (depending upon the order in which Latin's six cases—

nominative In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...

vocative In grammar, the vocative Grammatical case, case (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed, or occasionally for the noun modifiers ...

accusative The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘the ...

genitive In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...

dative In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...

ablative In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. T ...

—were listed). The poem provided interest to what was a very dry subject for most school pupils. The poem's rhymes assume that the Latin words are read using the traditional English pronunciation, which was taught in British (and American) schools until well into the 20th century.

Text

Following each repetition of the phrase "Motor Bus" is the Latin number and case of the words in the original poem.

Citations

The poem is quoted by

Dorothy L. Sayers Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...

in her essay "The greatest single defect of my own Latin education" and other texts. Herbert H. Huxley dedicated to A. D. Godley his short Latin poem "

Mars Bar Mars, commonly known as Mars bar, is the name of two varieties of chocolate bar produced by Mars, Incorporated. It was first manufactured in 1932 in Slough, England by Forrest Mars, Sr. The bar consists of caramel and nougat coated with mi ...

":Herbert H. Huxley (1975), ''Mars-Bar''. In '' LACT Newsletter''
''Translations & versions''
accessed on 2009-06-25. :Est praedulcis esu Mars-Bar. :Nil est cibo tuo, Mars, par. :Tune vis beatum larem? :Habe promptum Martem-Barem. :Captus dono Martis-Baris :Helenam liquisset Paris. :Dum natabunt ponto scari, :Dentur laudes Marti-Bari!

Version of ''Motor Bus'' 2022

In April 2022 a new version of Godley's Motor Bus, using less Anglicised pronunciation of Latin and adopting a more positive approach to the motor bus, was proposed by classicist

Armand D'Angour Armand D'Angour (born 23 November 1958) is a British classical scholar and classical musician, Professor of Classics at Oxford University and Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Jesus College, Oxford. His research embraces a wide range of areas acros ...

. Alternative phrases in English that scan in place of the Latin are given in square brackets. :Make a trip without a fuss: :What is best? The ''Motor Bus''. :Train or car is not our way: :''te amamus'' e just love you ''Motor Be''! :Bicycles may work for some: :''poscimus'' e demand''Motorem Bum''; :''amor'' – for Love is the key – :''implet nos'' ills our hearts''Motoris Bi''; :let us offer praise and glory :''excellenti'' o the splendid''Bo Motori'': :think ‘what fun!’, before we go, :''vehi'' idingin Motore Bo. :At the ready stand, we see, :''candentes'' hining bright''Motores Bi''. :(You would tell, I’m sure, some stories, :if you could, ''O Bi Motores''); :many others stationed close :''videmus'' e observe''Motores Bos''. :We admire the decorum :''omnium'' f all these''Motorum Borum''. :Fortunate are those like us :''usi'' ho use''Bis Motoribus''!

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Motor Bus English poems 1914 poems Latin language Buses in fiction Macaronic language

Text

Citations

Version of ''Motor Bus'' 2022

See also

References