space1in Newbie United States Joined 5480 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 1 of 7 23 November 2009 at 3:32pm | IP Logged |
Hi, my sociolinguistics group is having trouble a little trouble gathering information for our research project and were going to see if you could help.
Our topic is on cross-cultural insults, so you can see why this might be a sensitive topic. If you are comfortable with answering these questions, please email me directly rather than posting the answers on here.
I'm looking for responses from people who speak a foreign language as their first language. When you respond, please include a)the original, b)a literal translation and c) a cultural explanation of why this is a bad thing to say in your language and culture.
Thank you for your help!
The questions:
1. Do you have insults using a persons mother (or other parent figures) as the subject matter?
(an example in English would be the "your mama" jokes)
2. What is the worst general insult (without creative embellishment)?
(The most prominent English example is the "F" word.)
3. What are some common conversation insults?
(English examples are: crap, shit, damn, hell)
4. What are some common gender specific insults?
(Insults that might only be spoken by or two one gender or the other?)
5. Please describe some gestures that may be used as an insult.
(if you are feeling really charitable, send us a picture of this gesture)
just as a reminder, please do not post you responses on the forum, but please email me.
thank you!
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Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6034 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds
| Message 2 of 7 23 November 2009 at 4:05pm | IP Logged |
1. yes, it's quite a popular subject matter
2. f* your mother
3. literally 'by the devils'; shortened version of 2 ( f* your.. );
4. men generally curse more but there are no gender specific insults
5. nothing specific
email, where's the email? You probably mean to send as PM... too late.
Edited by Sennin on 23 November 2009 at 4:09pm
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Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6439 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 3 of 7 23 November 2009 at 4:06pm | IP Logged |
You should probably provide your email address if you want any replies.
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Woodpecker Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5811 days ago 351 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian) Studies: Arabic (classical)
| Message 4 of 7 23 November 2009 at 5:43pm | IP Logged |
In my opinion, the two most offensive words in the English language start with an N and a C, respectively, not an F.
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space1in Newbie United States Joined 5480 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 5 of 7 24 November 2009 at 12:46am | IP Logged |
could you send it in a private message then? does that not work?
the N word is more of a racial slander, i'm going for common, universal, something you could say to anyone, not just black people.
although, the C word would fit into gender questions well. but i'm not really looking for English answers...
but i know this is an unconventional method to ask unconventional questions, but i'm doing a conventional paper. mostly conventional.
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space1in Newbie United States Joined 5480 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 6 of 7 24 November 2009 at 1:00am | IP Logged |
i need to know what the language is, and the original words.
thanks
yes i mean PM...
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cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian
| Message 7 of 7 24 November 2009 at 2:06am | IP Logged |
I ran across this, which essentially solves your problem.
It seems accurate
http://www.df.lth.se/~cml/strasbourg/gros-mots.html
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