Abstract

This paper describes a Perl module -- Lingua::Romana::Perligata -- that makes it possible to write Perl programs in Latin. A plausible rationale for wanting to do such a thing is provided, along with a comprehensive overview of the syntax and semantics of Latinized Perl. The paper also explains the special source filtering and parsing techniques required to efficiently interpret a programming language in which the syntax is (largely) non-positional.

Another article on perlmonks has a great example of a simple "Hello World" in Perligata.

Being rather canonical, here's something that should be recognisable.

scribe egresso dictum sic Hello World cis.

Literally translated, that comes out as.."Write to the Exit the result of saying (as follows) Hello world (to here).".

Or, more loosely, "print STDOUT q{Hello World};".

Note that it ends, as in English, with a period rather than a semi-colon. Lingua::Romana::Perligata doesn't like anything except alphanumerics and periods - all sigils are completely out of the egresso.

Taking that apart, we get "scribe" (print - that's an easy one we still use in English) , "egresso" (STDOUT, literally 'the exit') , "dictum" (like 'dictate' - a quote operator) and the 'brackets' "sic" and "cis" ('as follows' and 'to here' - almost too good to be true...). Even if you're not thinking about writing any code, check out the THESAURUS PERLIGATUS in the POD just for a laugh at the translations - my favourites are STDERR ('oraculo' - a place where doom is pronounced) and rmdir ('excide', or raze, as in '...to the ground').