“There are 400,000 words in the English language, and there are seven of them that you can't say on television… Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits.”
-George Carlin
Carlin, one of the most controversial yet funniest people of the last 100 years, had an important point. There are so many words in the English language - what makes a few so special that we need to prevent television watchers from hearing such “foul” language? Who gets to decide that these combinations of mundane English characters, like f, u, c, and k, create a word so terrible that we must protect our children and families from hearing it?
Curiosity got the better of me, so I wanted to figure this out. What it is about swear words that makes them so bad?
The first discoveries I had seemed pretty obvious. These words are considered uncouth for polite conversation, and when used, seem to imply a “dirtiness” in the speech. The ones that Carlin specifically mentions all have to do with parts of the body that aren’t socially acceptable in public, and are all potentially used as insults. It makes sense then that you wouldn’t want kids referring to these body parts in frustration when they are learning language. So, the FCC, in an attempt to protect the ears of children everywhere, forbids these words on the airwaves.
(Aside: I always wondered why bitch is allowed on television, but piss is not, even though, in my opinion, bitch is definitely a worse insult/word that a person could be using. Anyone have suggestions?)
But what was incredibly interesting was the fact that most, if not all, English swear words had Germanic origins. And most of them have “polite” Latin-derived counterparts.
I have some examples below. I put definition in quotation marks, because these are just the official definitions that a dictionary might use, while we don’t necessarily use the original definition in casual conversation. (A conundrum addressed in Language Files as well)
shit
“definition": fecal matter
“polite” alternatives: defecate, excrete
fuck
“definition”: sexual intercourse
“polite” alternatives: fornicate, copulate, coitus
cunt
“definition”: the vulva
“polite” alternatives: vulva, vagina
piss
“definition”: to urinate
“polite” alternatives: urinate.
Now, I’m just a first year linguistics student, but I theorize that there were some hussy upper echelon English geeks who decided that Latin was the more “proper” language and the Anglo-Saxon spoken word was a language of peasantry and therefore considered vulgar. Since these particular words had Latin equivalents, it was to be expected that these vulgar words were not to be used in polite conversation. With the constant evolution that the English language went through, these words became impolite, uncouth, and disgusting. Eventually, modern hussy upper echelon people decided that these words were not fit for television.
I’m running out of space but the etymology/linguistics of swear words is really fascinating. And I was only able to go into English - I wonder what swearing in other languages is like, and I would love to learn (if only for the ability to say I can curse in a foreign language).
Fun Aside: If we swear when in pain, it actually alleviates some of the pain. Unless you swear all the time. Then it does a lot less. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-we-swear/
Sources:
Origins of the 7 dirty words: http://www.ranker.com/list/origins-of-the-7-dirty-words/analise.dubner
Full George Carlin rant: http://www.erenkrantz.com/Humor/SevenDirtyWords.shtml
PS. I curse like a sailor. At least I now know the majority of the words I use are Germanic in origin.
Avi, I love your post, not only because it is one of the few class-authorized use of swearing I've seen in my academic career, but also because it touches on an interesting geolinguistic question: do we favor certain words from certain origins?
ReplyDeleteMy English teacher in high school taught us that, upon the Norman conquest of Britain in 1066 A.D. by William the Conqueror, a French-derived dialect also conquered the British linguistic scene. She further claimed that upon the adoption of these French-like words, Old English words became associated with negative connotations.
I imagine that her analysis is flawed, but it would align nicely with your observation, Avi, in that the Old English words are likely derived from Germanic languages (spoken by the Saxons of England), whereas French dialects at the time may have had more Latin influence due to its contiguity with the Roman Empire.
I hope somebody with sufficient knowledge can deflate or shed light on these connections!
Thanks Avi for your post. Although I don't have too much knowledge on the topic, I tried to think a little about which words in French are deemed worse than others. I want to claim that the majority of swear words are 'bad' because of what they imply. But there are words, as you've suggested, that are not as bad despite meaning very similar things. During France's colonial age, many words were imported (including many swear words). In specific contexts in France, these imported words are less 'proper'. This draws an interesting parallel between what happened with the Germanic words you described.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post! I generally don't swear that much, but this is a fascinating post. I think the reason we consider these words "swear words" is because we decided that they are "dirty" words. As in, if we didn't think these words were "dirty," they wouldn't be banned on television! For example, what makes words such as "shit" so impolite? That's because the society determined that such words are impolite. But in the long run, we ourselves are the ones dictating what is polite and what is impolite. In other words, we have control over what is considered impolite, and what is considered polite - so we have control over which words are considered "swear words" and which words are not.
ReplyDeleteThat's probably why saying "shit" in the U.S. elicit a different reaction than saying "shit" in, let's say, an Asian country. Imagine everyone considering "shit" as a normal word, just like "poop." Then we'd be teaching it to kids, saying it in normal conversation, etc., and it wouldn't be so bad! It'll just be a normal word.
Great post Avi! Despite there being synonyms of these words, it is definitely interesting to figure out why these words are deemed so special. Personally, I believe that these words are regarded unacceptable because by being raised learning that these words are taboo, people inherently associated them with being the highest form of an insult. However, I feel that society determines the appropriateness and the degree of insult of such words. Consequently, I feel that as a society we should teach children to just view some of these words as for just what they are denotatively and not associate any unnecessary connotations and power to them. This way, words such as "bitch" won't be any more effective in eliciting someone's emotions as "dog". This is probably why people who use profanity indiscriminately around their closest friends are mostly unperturbed by others who use it on them since they have mentally made the association that swearing is socially appropriate.
ReplyDelete