Obscenities in Foreign Languages

[Me: from Gen Dobry, a monthly Polish Genealogy Newsletter put out by Author Fred Hoffman]

* * * * * * * * * G E N D O B R Y ! * * * * * * * * *

Volume VII, No. 4 30 April 2006

Subject: Obscenity

[Editor -- Ray Marshall had a comment on a name I deleted from a list in the last issue because it happened to be spelled the same way as "the Queen Mother of all dirty words":]

I don't think this has to be printed, but you can make that decision. It does serve to point out the fact that in dealing with languages, it takes more than a dictionary sometimes to determine the "meaning" of a word and whether or not it should be used. I'm no linguist, but I can order a Bier and Kaeserahmschnitzel auf Deutsch.

With respect to the "Queen Mother of all dirty words," I recall that when I was stationed in the Army in a rural area in southern Bavaria in the 60s, that word was commonly heard in conversation in the Gasthaus. Not often, but no eyebrows seemed to be raised when it was heard. _Mist_ and _Scheisse_ were also used.

But you never heard blasphemies, or even the word _verdammt_, "damned," in that highly Catholic area.

Of course, none of those words would be seen in your average genealogical document. _Hoffentlich!_

Ray Marshall

[Editor -- This is something I've noticed, too, and somewhere I read a comment on it by linguists. In our culture we tend to regard as obscene both blasphemous language and language that refers to body functions. But in German culture, for instance, words for bodily functions are not that big a deal; references to _Mist_, "dung," or _Scheisse_, "s--t," while hardly welcome in polite society, are often heard. They're considered vulgar, but not terribly shocking. What really upsets people is any kind of blasphemy. You hear it sometimes, of course, but most people avoid it. I imagine they feel messing with God is taking on way more than any mere human can handle! This is especially true of areas where Catholicism has had a strong impact on the culture.
[I'm not sure about Polish culture, but I from what I can gather, Poles aren't too big on "four-letter words" of any kind. I suspect they, too, would regard blasphemy as much worse than an occasional scatological reference. But I don't know this for a fact.
[If anyone wishes to share his or her experience in this regard, I'd like to hear about it. Many people, of course, prefer not to even discuss this subject. But as a linguist I find obscenities fascinating, once you get past the shock value. They can tell you a lot about a culture!]