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Swearing in other languages

de Alkanadi, 17 de agosto de 2015

Aportes: 7

Idioma: English

Alkanadi (Mostrar perfil) 17 de agosto de 2015 15:25:56

Do you find it easier to swear in other languages. I never swear in English. When it comes to other languages, swearing is just another word in the vocabulary without any heavy connotation. For example, I can say fek or Kial la fek without feeling bad. Should I feel bad about it? Do the same rules of politeness apply?

boooman (Mostrar perfil) 17 de agosto de 2015 16:08:33

Alkanadi:Do you find it easier to swear in other languages. I never swear in English. When it comes to other languages, swearing is just another word in the vocabulary without any heavy connotation. For example, I can say fek or Kial la fek without feeling bad. Should I feel bad about it? Do the same rules of politeness apply?
Swearing in a native language actually uses a much less complex area of your brain. Explaining why many stroke victims (my grandmother included) are fluent in sailor. The words have been given the negative association because of how you were raised to feel about it and how people around you behaved towards their use, so while you may know what "fek'" means, your now-not-extremely-young brain has not been exposed to the negative reactions it may elicit, and have not from birth been told that "fek'" should absolutely not be repeated. At least that's my theory. I like to talk about this sort of thing as the human brain is as debatable as black holes. Gxis!

jagr2808 (Mostrar perfil) 17 de agosto de 2015 16:12:14

How swearing is persived various extremley from culture to culture.
To me fek has the same profoundness as fuck or faen (norwegian), but I dont feel bad for using those words either. I would say that the level of politness should be the same, depending on who you are talking to.

erinja (Mostrar perfil) 17 de agosto de 2015 16:21:50

It's easier to swear in a foreign language, it doesn't hit you that hard.

Also, saying "fek'" in Esperanto is the rough equivalent of saying "poop", since "feki" is the totally normal, non-swearing way to say "to defecate" in Esperanto. It's not super polite to go around yelling "poop" everywhere but it's not comparable to yelling "s::*" everywhere.

I wouldn't go using it if you are trying to sound professional and respectful, obviously, but it's fine for informal conversation with friends.

Vestitor (Mostrar perfil) 17 de agosto de 2015 17:00:31

You have to either grow up using a language or live among native speakers of a language to really appreciate the usages and levels of acceptability of such words.

I don't even swear that much, if ever, when talking to people I know well. It's rather uncouth.

sudanglo (Mostrar perfil) 19 de agosto de 2015 09:51:22

Whether a word in a particular language is taboo or uncouth or not depends on the values in the community that use that language, or its association with the usage of a particular class of person.

Given the peculiar usage of Esperanto (compared to the national languages) it is difficult for the 'fi-vortoj' to have the same force that their formal equivalents in some national language might have.

'Germanaĉo', for example, isn't technically a fi-vorto, but because of the values of Esperantistaro is likely to excite greater disapproval than say 'fekulo'. (I await the red pen of the admin)

Vestitor (Mostrar perfil) 19 de agosto de 2015 10:03:31

Learned a couple of new words there... I might shout them in the street later on. Anyone who registers offence is sure to be an Esperantist and I can start a local group.

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