How to Swear Around the World

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It’s not enough to feel strongly about something; it has to have a dominating societal power and control structure attached to it. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter . They try and learn a bacic gradp of the langague where ever they visit so as a joke gift i got these charms to learn together. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

Among Christian cultures, the line between those that swear a lot about mothers and whores and those that don’t looks quite like the line between those where Mary is a co-star with Jesus and those where she’s part of the supporting cast. In southern Africa, some cultures have a ‘respect’ speech that is imposed on women in regard to their in-laws: for instance, their father-in-law’s name is taboo, as is any word that sounds like it – but that doesn’t turn the father-in-law’s name into an expletive they shout when they hurt themselves. I understand you will use my personal data to improve services and send me marketing communications You must consent to the storage and use of your personal data as laid out in our privacy notice. I tu nastaje problem jer bivše jugoslovenske republike imaju gotovo identične psovke i ako već planiraš da ih sortiraš po državama, onda bi valjalo da daš neki kontekst a ne da ih samo podeliš kako ti se ćefne.

In Bikol (a language of the Philippines), there’s a special anger vocabulary – many words have alternative words that refer to just the same thing but also mean you’re angry. In the British-French-German circle, shit , merde, and Scheiße are bad words thanks to cleanliness-focused social controls (should we say anal retentiveness? The reason I can say this is because I am writing in English, not Finnish, Dutch, or Québécois French. It does show up here and there: Fijian and other Austronesian languages, Arabic, and Albanian, to name a few.

Ideal for the contemporary traveller who may need to compare a companion to a suggestively shaped fruit, curse an enemy with a painful death or imply that someone’s mother enjoys intimate relations with wild animals. Just remember to check under the sofa cushions, in the fridge, and in every handbag you own before you give up hope. I get the feeling this started as a "fun" idea for a project which rapidly became more work than the author expected.Featuring dozens of different languages, the sayings range from everyday swears to family curses to expressions for X-rated relations with animals. Words for genitalia are the most common focus of preferred strong language, the kind used by default for Pinker’s five functions.

pages packed with curses, phrases and elaborate insults, in dozens of languages; it even includes phonetic pronunciation and pictures.

Thankfully, here’s the only piece of kit you’ll need to really develop your arsenal of fruity phrases, the guide on How To Swear Around The World. Filled full of colourful language, each card contains a swear word in a particular language, an English translation and a star rating on how offensive the word is.