This article possibly contains original research .(July 2007) |
Profanity in Finnish is used in the form of intensifiers, adjectives, adverbs and particles. There is also an aggressive mood that involves omission of the negative verb ei while implying its meaning with a swear word. [1]
Contemporary Finnish profanity often has old origins; several such words have Pagan roots that after Christian influence were turned from names of deities and spirits to profanity and used as such. In general, the etymology of Finnish swears can be traced either from these formerly religious words or from ancient Finnish words involving excretion or sexual organs or functions. [1] Nowadays, few Finns know of the origins and intended original use of the words, though such definitions have since been compiled in Suuri kirosanakirja ("the great dictionary of profanities"). [2] People of countries neighbouring Finland often consider Finnish swear words harsher than their own, and even use heavily mispronounced versions of them, most notably perkele. Native Finns tend to consider the harshness exaggerated, while others use it to their advantage.[ citation needed ] Finns swear more than their Nordic neighbours or Central Europeans, reaching the same level as Scots or Russians. [3] [ unreliable source? ]
Euphemistically, virtually any word can be used in place of profanity by, for example, preceding it with voi (an interjection meaning "oh!"), for example voi paska! (oh shit!) or adding vieköön (third person singular imperative of the verb viedä "to take"), for example hiisi vieköön (may the goblin take it). [1] These were more prominent in older Finnish, e.g. raato is closest to (corpse) or like peto (the beast). There are also other similar non-offensive constructs like taivahan talikynttilät (tallow candles of heaven). There is also an inventory of non-offensive curse words. [1]
Profanity, also called cursing, cussing, dirty words, swearing, obscenelanguage, strong language, foul language, obscenity, expletives, vulgarism, vulgarity, or simply strongwords involves the use of notionally offensive words for a variety of purposes, including to demonstrate disrespect or negativity, to relieve pain, to express a strong emotion, as a grammatical intensifier or emphasis, or to express informality or conversational intimacy. In many formal or polite social situations, it is considered effrontery, and in some religious groups it is considered a sin. Profanity includes slurs, but there are many insults that do not use swear words.
Perkele is a Finnish word meaning 'evil spirit' and a popular Finnish profanity, used similarly to the English phrase god damn, although it is considered much more profane. It is most likely the most internationally known Finnish curse word.
Damnation is the concept of divine punishment and torment in an afterlife for actions that were committed, or in some cases, not committed on Earth.
The term four-letter word serves as a euphemism for words that are often considered profane or offensive.
Quebec French profanities, known as sacres, are words and expressions related to Catholicism and its liturgy that are used as strong profanities in Quebec French and in Acadian French. Sacres are considered stronger in Québec than the foul expressions common to other varieties of French, which centre on sex and excrement.
Profane, or profanity, refers to a lack of respect for things that are held to be sacred, which implies anything inspiring or deserving of reverence, as well as behaviour showing similar disrespect or causing religious offense.
The Spanish language employs a wide range of swear words that vary between Spanish speaking nations and in regions and subcultures of each nation. Idiomatic expressions, particularly profanity, are not always directly translatable into other languages, and so most of the English translations offered in this article are very rough and most likely do not reflect the full meaning of the expression they intend to translate.[c]
Profanity in Mandarin Chinese most commonly involves sexual references and scorn of the object's ancestors, especially their mother. Other Mandarin insults accuse people of not being human. Compared to English, scatological and blasphemous references are less often used. In this article, unless otherwise noted, the traditional character will follow its simplified form if it is different.
The Korean language has a number of words that are considered profanity.
Italian profanity are profanities that are blasphemous or inflammatory in the Italian language.
The five most common Cantonese profanities, vulgar words in the Cantonese language are diu (屌/𨳒), gau (鳩/㞗/𨳊), lan (撚/𨶙), tsat (柒/杘/𨳍) and hai (屄/閪), where the first ("diu") literally means fuck, "hai" is a word for female genitalia and "gau" refers to male genitalia. They are sometimes collectively known as the "outstanding five in Cantonese" (廣東話一門五傑). These five words are generally offensive and give rise to a variety of euphemisms and minced oaths. Similar to the seven dirty words in the United States, these five words are forbidden to say and are bleep-censored on Hong Kong broadcast television. Other curse phrases, such as puk gai (仆街/踣街) and ham gaa caan (冚家鏟/咸家鏟), are also common.
The following is a list of words and formulations commonly used as profanity throughout Romania.
Like natural languages, the constructed language Esperanto contains profane words and indecent vocabulary. Some of this was formulated out of the established core vocabulary, or by giving specific profane or indecent senses to regularly formed Esperanto words. Other instances represent informal neologisms that remain technically outside the defined vocabulary of the language, but have become established by usage.
Profanity in science fiction (SF) shares all of the issues of profanity in fiction in general, but has several unique aspects of its own, including the use of alien profanities.
Profanity in the Norwegian language is referred to in Norwegian as banneord or simply upassende språk. Many words are characterized by dialect. The offensiveness and strength of a word may be very different between regions.
Swedish profanity can be divided into several categories. A substantial number of curse words in Swedish have religious origins. Euphemistic variants of the religious curses are commonly used as well. References to genitalia or bodily functions are common in the Swedish profanity vocabulary. Notably, no word for sexual intercourse is commonly used in invectives, unlike many other languages. However, calques of English fuck using knull (noun), knulla (verb) do occur; this comes across as more offensive than fuck does in English. In general, knull(a), along with genitalia slang words like kuk ('cock') and fitta ('cunt') are the most offensive single words. By contrast, most of the traditional religious profanities are not considered very offensive today; this is in line with Sweden's long-standing secularism.
Tagalog profanity can refer to a wide range of offensive, blasphemous, and taboo words or expressions in the Tagalog language of the Philippines. Due to Filipino culture, expressions which may sound benign when translated back to English can cause great offense; while some expressions English speakers might take great offense to can sound benign to a Tagalog speaker. Filipino, the national language of the Philippines, is the standard register of Tagalog, so as such the terms Filipino profanity and Filipino swear words are sometimes also employed.
Georgian profanity refers to inflammatory vulgar, obscene or profane language in Georgian that some of the words and phrases even evolved into a modern Georgian slang. For exact and comprehensive pronunciation of words and phrases, especially ones written with the apostrophes, the rules of Romanization of Georgian and IPA are essential.
The Polish language, like most others, has swear words and profanity. Some words are not always seen as very insulting, however, there are others that are considered by some greatly offensive and rude. Words that might be considered most derogatory, based on multiple sources, are not necessarily a general and have not been decided upon in a more definite manner.
The Hindi language employs a large number of profanities across the Hindi-speaking diaspora. Idiomatic expressions, particularly profanity, are not always directly translatable into other languages, and make little sense even when they can be translated. Many English translations may not offer the full meaning of the profanity used in the context.