4 ms·
I didn't think it was a big deal until I spent significant time around swearers and non-swearers. There is just an ugliness in swearing both in the harsh conson
by jxramos 9y ago
I didn't think it was a big deal until I spent significant time around swearers and non-swearers. There is just an ugliness in swearing both in the harsh consonants that intrinsically reflect the ugliness of the words and the general attitudes surrounding the spewing of the words. I remember a non-swearer who shared with me the misperception she often felt was falsely accused on her. This surrounded her use of other words to express frustration or pain or anger or what have you that the underlying emotions of those softer words were curse oriented, just sugar coated or something to that extent. She told me that was a perennial confusion with her, that it just was not the case, her emotions did not reflect the harsh swearing attitudes/content. Pretty interesting thought, I used to think that internally they had all the rage/etc but just repressed it or whatever. I learned apparently cursing does reflect an internal state of one's heart that could very much be lacking entirely in others.
- lbebber 9y ago> There is just an ugliness in [...] the harsh consonants that intrinsically reflect the ugliness of the words I won't comment on the rest of the post, but come on. What is the ugliness in, say, "shit", that is not present in "shot" or "sheet"?
- jxramos 9y agothe logic here is "if curse then harsh", not "if harsh then curse", which raises an interesting question is there a soft curse word? Come to think of it, it's like an emotional mapping to auditory expression, similar to this concept I heard about many years ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect
- porpoisemonkey 9y ago> the logic here is "if curse then harsh", not "if harsh then curse", which raises an interesting question is there a soft curse word? I don't mean this to be insulting but rather to answer your question. I think the word "asshole" has relatively soft sounds.
- jxramos 9y agohilarious, good find! Just a few minutes ago, I tried an experiment to make a softword spoken as a curse word. It was kind of hard, at first I imagined screaming "banana" as a curse, but it just came off silly. Then I wondered if the silliness was because banana's are kind of silly and I was blurring the mental concept into the attempt, then I said "monana" to try to make gibberish so I couldn't lean on existing concepts. Fun exercise.
- dwesr2648 9y agoI'd say soft curse words are the "clean" variants we've developed, like shoot, or fart. My Spanish roommate used to say miercoles, instead of the poop alternative.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- mr_spothawk 9y ago> is there a soft curse word? i believe the common parlance is "alternative curse words"
- jxramos 9y agoI was speaking of phonetically soft, but I see what you're getting at with the interpretation that dwesr2648 shares with the "clean variants". Come to think of it this actually brings to memory all those safe for TV dubs they'd substitute for curse words. Those must surely be a direct application of "alternative curse words". After work I'mma try to see if anyone made a YouTube mashup for dubbed curse substitutions. I always got a kick out of those as a teenager.
- jxramos 9y agohilarious, a search suggestion for "alternative curse words" was this "alternative curse words for moms who swear". I love it :-p
- beeforpork 9y agoWell, certainly not the phonetics.
- dwaltrip 9y agoThis is something that you can't really generalize widely. People view words differently.