5 ms·
FWIW some other catholic countries have beautiful blasphemous profanities: Italy and Spain come to mind, but I'm pretty sure Poland has some too. In Italy prof
by carlob 10y ago
FWIW some other catholic countries have beautiful blasphemous profanities: Italy and Spain come to mind, but I'm pretty sure Poland has some too.
In Italy profanities that attack religion are so pretty much a taboo that is weird to foreigners: you can have a prime time tv show with full frontal nudity and some violence, but you will not hear swearing against god until after midnight.
Edited to reflect a comment by gattilorenz
- icebraining 10y agoFor interested people, I recommend Your Mother's Tongue: A Book Of European Invective by Stephen Burgen. While it doesn't cover Quebec, it's an extremely funny and informative cross-continent compendium, and I think it reveals quite a lot of the culture of different countries and peoples.
- gattilorenz 10y agoI don't think the description of the italian situation is quite correct: it seems to me that "regular" profanity is much less censored, nowadays. On the other hand, "blasphemous" profanity (swearing at $DEITY) is still a no-no, even after midnight, and a sure way to get suspended from TV, even though you can easily hear people on the street saying that aloud in some regions (for example Tuscany, Veneto, Trentino and Friuli). By the way, in Trentino we also say "osti" (host) as a plain exclamation, exactly as in Québec.
- carlob 10y agoYou're right, when I wrote profanity, I meant blasphemous profanity not scatological or sexual profanity. I'll edit my comment. Thanks
- vdl0107 10y agoIn Argentina -also catholic- is not uncommon to hear "Me cago en Dios" (I shit in God) or "La concha de Dios" (God's pussy/God's cunt) not to swear another one but to express disgust with some event -e.g: the rival team scores a goal-