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I'd also like to see some cross-linguistic analysis of swearing. For example, English uses a nice mixture of profanity (religious references, like "goddammit")

by amyjess 10y ago

I'd also like to see some cross-linguistic analysis of swearing. For example, English uses a nice mixture of profanity (religious references, like "goddammit") and obscenity (sexual words and bodily functions, like "fuck" and "shit"), but not much literal cursing. But not every language does that. Quebecois French, for example, uses profanity almost exclusively (where the worst single word you can say means "tabernacle"), and nobody pays much attention to obscenity. And then there's Dutch, which relies on literally cursing people (among the worst things you can say to someone are to tell them to "catch cholera" or "cancer off", and the worst thing you can call someone means "cancer patient"), while obscenities are minor insults, and while profanities are historically more serious, they're not nearly as common as the curses.

ereyes01 10y ago
Would definitely be interesting to see a comparison of English/European swearing with other languages. For instance, it's my understanding that in Cantonese, a grave expletive is a phrase that roughly translates to something like "dead chicken" (source: my wife). I'm sure there's an interesting linguistic story behind that phrase, and it's quite different from normal western cursing.
ralfd 10y ago
Interesting. Wiki has an article about that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_French_profanity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_French_profanity
rvschuilenburg 10y ago
> And then there's Dutch Yes, it is really funny to see our swearing translated to English, as well as the other way around. I can say 'cunt' (kut) casually at work when something doesn't work as expected. However, saying 'cancer' (kanker) will raise eyebrows.
soylentcola 10y ago
Along the lines of more traditional "cursing" like you mentioned, would you count more modern/internet-popularized examples like "die in a fire" or "get canceraids"? Seems that sort of curse is still around on the English-centric parts of the web and now that I think about it, I wonder if it's just naturally emergent or if it's partially the result of US/UK English speakers coming into more contact with people from elsewhere where those sorts of curses never went "out of fashion".

by amyjess 10y ago

ereyes01 10y ago

Would definitely be interesting to see a comparison of English/European swearing with other languages. For instance, it's my understanding that in Cantonese, a grave expletive is a phrase that roughly translates to something like "dead chicken" (source: my wife). I'm sure there's an interesting linguistic story behind that phrase, and it's quite different from normal western cursing.

ralfd 10y ago

Interesting. Wiki has an article about that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_French_profanity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_French_profanity

rvschuilenburg 10y ago

> And then there's Dutch Yes, it is really funny to see our swearing translated to English, as well as the other way around. I can say 'cunt' (kut) casually at work when something doesn't work as expected. However, saying 'cancer' (kanker) will raise eyebrows.

soylentcola 10y ago

Along the lines of more traditional "cursing" like you mentioned, would you count more modern/internet-popularized examples like "die in a fire" or "get canceraids"? Seems that sort of curse is still around on the English-centric parts of the web and now that I think about it, I wonder if it's just naturally emergent or if it's partially the result of US/UK English speakers coming into more contact with people from elsewhere where those sorts of curses never went "out of fashion".