It’s been a long day. A day that has felt like a year. You’re ready to go home, put on comfortable PJs, play your favorite music, and relax. So much has gone wrong that one more thing might make you explode. As you cross the street, you see a light getting closer and closer and closer, and you think to yourself, “This car is about to hit me!”
Luckily, the driver snaps to reality and slams on the brakes until there’s just an inch between you and the car. The rage, fear, and exhaustion all build up, and you can’t help yourself from just blurting out “*#$&%%(#).”
I wanted to know what that word blurted out would be across the world.
I began this project with a curiosity to know how curse words and taboo topics would contrast across various cultures compared to American English. As Laura Miller wrote in her Anthropological piece about Taboo and Transgressive Language: “The taboo language arena provides clues to cultural values of appropriateness” (Miller, 19). I sought to investigate not only the literal vocabulary that constructs curse words across many languages but also the way the topics are perceived and the emotions associated with cursing. On Emory’s campus, the use of curse words and language is extremely accessible, through a stroll through dorm hallways or an average post-exam conversation, on social media, etc. Yet, there are some areas and contexts where these words would be entirely out of place and inappropriate if used. The value of an investigation on curse words and taboos is the insight these words provide into the unspoken and hidden dynamics that dictate semantics and expression in many social scenes across cultures. This paper seeks to explore: How are curse words understood in English compared to other languages? What is the relationship between socially taboo topics and cursing? To explore this topic I conducted a series of semi-structured interviews, as well as primary source document analysis of social media pages, and consultation of expert knowledge on the matter that has been published via Anthropological academia.
Methods
When selecting this topic I knew that the most valuable information would come from semi-structured interviews. Additionally, I was confident in the creative web of social media to support findings and help construct the paper. Semi-Structured Interviews: The power of semi-structured interviews is that they allow for a deep and dynamic analysis with another person. I wanted to treat this research as scientifically as possible, given its inconsistent nature. I chose my controlled variables to be: 18-20-year-old individuals, who grew up in bilingual households, are fluent/native speakers in at least one other language than English that they share with their parents, and who have lived in an English-speaking environment. By the end of my interviews, I had an impressive collection of internationally hyphenated Americans: Dmetrey from Uzbekistan, Luisa from Germany, Maria and Nayla from Lebanon, Louisa from Brazil, and Coco from Mexico. With a topic like taboos and curse words, there is already a barrier of discomfort, and as anthropologists, we cannot escape society in our research. This is both the rose and the thorn of the field. In this context, it was powerful that the topic was provocative as this fueled a lot of people into a more exciting, ambitious, and relaxed setting for the interview. The age proximity allowed for the easy destruction of a shyness barrier. Being the same age, and relatably enthusiastic as my interviewees allowed for the interviews to flow as conversations. Nonetheless, there was still a limit to the extent that people were willing to dive into the nitty-gritty curse words, especially in the context of their words being used in a university-affiliated assignment read by a professor. While I wanted to establish a comfortable setting, I needed not to ask probing questions or leading questions to remain ethical and professional during these interviews (Moran).
I also chose to analyze a podcast on the topic as a primary source. I wanted to find people who focused on the more shocking and provocative curse words in non-English languages, and their respective translations into English. This is how I found “Foul-Mouthed”, a comedic podcast series with the motto: “Celebrating the delightful peculiarities, linguistic oddities, and different flavors of swear words across different languages.” This source provided the filler for the gaps that the interviews would have in terms of the more shocking curse words individuals felt uncomfortable sharing. However, unlike for the interviews it was harder to maintain a system of controlled sources. Instead of limiting age and personal environment, I chose primary sources based on popularity and comments. Episodes with high like counts were evidence of insightful information.
Findings
The most fascinating part of my findings was the clear establishment of a gradient from personal context to cultural particularity to cultural generality to cultural universality in the weight attributed to curse words and taboos.
Personal Context: Defining Limits
While language is a community-based system of expression, it is highly individual in its construction. There is quite literally a time and a place that varies from human to human when they choose how they want to articulate themselves. When beginning my interviews I wanted to compare how individuals defined curse words and taboos. I began with an academic definition which stated that: “Taboo words, are those that must be avoided, either by an entire speech community or just by certain speakers in certain contexts; the prohibitions against taboo words are often supported by feelings of profound transgression, offense, sin, or even supernatural sanctions” (Mcintosh 1).
Luckily, the driver snaps to reality and slams on the brakes until there’s just an inch between you and the car. The rage, fear, and exhaustion all build up, and you can’t help yourself from just blurting out “*#$&%%(#).”
I wanted to know what that word blurted out would be across the world.
I began this project with a curiosity to know how curse words and taboo topics would contrast across various cultures compared to American English. As Laura Miller wrote in her Anthropological piece about Taboo and Transgressive Language: “The taboo language arena provides clues to cultural values of appropriateness” (Miller, 19). I sought to investigate not only the literal vocabulary that constructs curse words across many languages but also the way the topics are perceived and the emotions associated with cursing. On Emory’s campus, the use of curse words and language is extremely accessible, through a stroll through dorm hallways or an average post-exam conversation, on social media, etc. Yet, there are some areas and contexts where these words would be entirely out of place and inappropriate if used. The value of an investigation on curse words and taboos is the insight these words provide into the unspoken and hidden dynamics that dictate semantics and expression in many social scenes across cultures. This paper seeks to explore: How are curse words understood in English compared to other languages? What is the relationship between socially taboo topics and cursing? To explore this topic I conducted a series of semi-structured interviews, as well as primary source document analysis of social media pages, and consultation of expert knowledge on the matter that has been published via Anthropological academia.
Methods
When selecting this topic I knew that the most valuable information would come from semi-structured interviews. Additionally, I was confident in the creative web of social media to support findings and help construct the paper. Semi-Structured Interviews: The power of semi-structured interviews is that they allow for a deep and dynamic analysis with another person. I wanted to treat this research as scientifically as possible, given its inconsistent nature. I chose my controlled variables to be: 18-20-year-old individuals, who grew up in bilingual households, are fluent/native speakers in at least one other language than English that they share with their parents, and who have lived in an English-speaking environment. By the end of my interviews, I had an impressive collection of internationally hyphenated Americans: Dmetrey from Uzbekistan, Luisa from Germany, Maria and Nayla from Lebanon, Louisa from Brazil, and Coco from Mexico. With a topic like taboos and curse words, there is already a barrier of discomfort, and as anthropologists, we cannot escape society in our research. This is both the rose and the thorn of the field. In this context, it was powerful that the topic was provocative as this fueled a lot of people into a more exciting, ambitious, and relaxed setting for the interview. The age proximity allowed for the easy destruction of a shyness barrier. Being the same age, and relatably enthusiastic as my interviewees allowed for the interviews to flow as conversations. Nonetheless, there was still a limit to the extent that people were willing to dive into the nitty-gritty curse words, especially in the context of their words being used in a university-affiliated assignment read by a professor. While I wanted to establish a comfortable setting, I needed not to ask probing questions or leading questions to remain ethical and professional during these interviews (Moran).
I also chose to analyze a podcast on the topic as a primary source. I wanted to find people who focused on the more shocking and provocative curse words in non-English languages, and their respective translations into English. This is how I found “Foul-Mouthed”, a comedic podcast series with the motto: “Celebrating the delightful peculiarities, linguistic oddities, and different flavors of swear words across different languages.” This source provided the filler for the gaps that the interviews would have in terms of the more shocking curse words individuals felt uncomfortable sharing. However, unlike for the interviews it was harder to maintain a system of controlled sources. Instead of limiting age and personal environment, I chose primary sources based on popularity and comments. Episodes with high like counts were evidence of insightful information.
Findings
The most fascinating part of my findings was the clear establishment of a gradient from personal context to cultural particularity to cultural generality to cultural universality in the weight attributed to curse words and taboos.
Personal Context: Defining Limits
While language is a community-based system of expression, it is highly individual in its construction. There is quite literally a time and a place that varies from human to human when they choose how they want to articulate themselves. When beginning my interviews I wanted to compare how individuals defined curse words and taboos. I began with an academic definition which stated that: “Taboo words, are those that must be avoided, either by an entire speech community or just by certain speakers in certain contexts; the prohibitions against taboo words are often supported by feelings of profound transgression, offense, sin, or even supernatural sanctions” (Mcintosh 1).
| Dmetrey | Louisa | Luisa | Nayla and Maria | Coco | |
| How do you define curse words? | Detailed descriptions to insult | Shame and insults | Taboo and shame | A part of the culture, Insults | |
| What are taboo topics in your home? | Tattoos, piercings, homosexuality transsexuality | Something that doesn’t fit the norm in certain cultures | Class, money, and society | Uncomfortable and triggering, sexuality, sex | Sex, religion-changing, atheism |
Figure 1: depicting how interviewees self-defined curse words and taboos
While the definition of curse words seemed to align, there was lots of diversity in taboos in the home context. Additionally, a dominant theme was the relationship between age and the “tiers” of curse words. Nearly all of my interviewees spoke about 3 levels of curse words: those which can be said with low stakes, often the first ones said by children; those with mild stakes, which could insult if said in the wrong context but have some flexibility; and those with the highest stakes, who will certainly turn heads if said no matter the context. When asked about their experiences with cursing, many people spoke about an age when individuals started at level one. The way most described this timeline was a starting point, at tier 1, between 13-15 years old. Each year, the cursing vocabulary would grow exponentially, until around 19-20 years old when it became acceptable to use tier 1 and 2 words around family, occasionally.
Cultural Particularity: Context
Zooming out from the individual homes, I then noticed a theme of uniqueness in the topics that most curse words were surrounded by, and how they were delivered. As Miller wrote, “The source for what constructs language as taboo might arise from a number of concerns, including religious prohibition, gendered expectations, cultural beliefs, and expected social roles.” (Miller, 21). When looking at two Foul Mouthed episodes, one explores curse words in Thailand, while the other in Canada. When contrasting the two languages, we see that as a Buddhist country animals have hierarchical positions in Thai society and this directly translates into the lexicon of curse words; while in Canada, there is a large social resentment of the church, and so words regarding anything to do with the church are used as curse words.
Furthermore, when looking at Germany, according to Luisa, because of the historical ghosts of World War Two outward rage and explosion of anger are extremely taboo and shunned. Meanwhile in Lebanon, as Maria said: “Curse words can be used even if something is cute. In Lebanon, our culture is very expressive, so it would be weird if you just said a curse word with no emotion”. When we consider these various angles, there seems to be a direct linkage between linguistic relativity and the Sapir Whorf Hypothesis. This hypothesis states that: “the way people think is influenced by the language they speak”(Perlovsky). Essentially, the cultural context shapes the value that emotional language holds, especially in the context in which curse words are used.
Cultural Generality: Alliances
Zooming out yet again, there started to be more overlap across the languages explored when the negative and insultatory connotation of curse words was replaced with one of friendship. As many people shared, their first experiences of uttering curse words were around their friends. The capacity to express oneself uncensored underscored a deeper bond between individuals.
An example that interestingly arose in every interview was that of cursing in an educational context. As Luisa explained: “If the teacher curses it's rare, and it's an almost intimate moment of connection and friendship. Sometimes cursing can be friendly by mellowing professionality,”.This idea is not novel it has been extensively studied and quoted by anthropologists in the field of taboos and linguistics. In Daniel Sulsak’s piece “Using Bad Language in the Classroom”, he writes about how the use of expletives is not always used with the intention of offending, but rather to reinforce intimacy. When considering the multiculturality of this theme, it is interesting to explore how censorship and the freedom to be uncensored reside most with these taboo words. Perhaps, there is a sense of trust that exists in cross-culturality that can be felt when one “breaks” the social rules and allows these taboo topics to seep in. Perhaps it is the taboo weight that these words are given, that allows them to have this counterintuitive effect.
Cultural Universality: Women
When looking at all the collected data from the most zoomed-out perspective possible, there is in fact one theme that is recurrent consistently across the research: women. In every language I explored, German, Thai, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic, there was a consistent way to insult and shame women through multiple phrases.
Every language had at least one translation for “whore” or some form of insult that included female reproductive systems. While monogamy cannot be universally assumed, many of the insults included sex-shaming women for having multiple partners. This concept of gender-biased vocabulary has been previously studied, one notable example was digested by Emily Martin’s piece the sperm and the egg. Martin’s piece and my research both display how the use of misogynistic words and vocabulary passively dominates our language. Whether it be in science, or casual settings, or moments of emotional expression.
Curse words and taboos are often hidden and packed away. Still, through my findings, I learned about the beautiful diversity and depth each of these words hold in their greater anthropological value. It was fascinating to see how certain themes completely contrast, while others align across various cultures and languages. The most fascinating part of my findings was the constant contradictions, these words that have timelines and contexts can harm but also cause alliances. In terms of anthropology, this is one of the very human parts of our existence. The constant dance between meaning and expression guides how we construct relationships and connections in our environments. The capacity to speak many languages and exist within multiple cultures through linguistics is also fascinating. If I could extend this project and continue it I would develop it to dive deeply into the expressions that do not translate into English fluidly. I would want to gather an immense sample of languages and conduct longer and more detailed interviews as well as participant observations. There is an interdisciplinary overlap between anthropology and psychology, and so if given the opportunity I would love to research curse words from an individual cognitive perspective and a social perspective. If you’re still searching for what word to use in the hypothetical near-death from the introduction, a few resources at the bottom of this paper may help…
Cultural Particularity: Context
Zooming out from the individual homes, I then noticed a theme of uniqueness in the topics that most curse words were surrounded by, and how they were delivered. As Miller wrote, “The source for what constructs language as taboo might arise from a number of concerns, including religious prohibition, gendered expectations, cultural beliefs, and expected social roles.” (Miller, 21). When looking at two Foul Mouthed episodes, one explores curse words in Thailand, while the other in Canada. When contrasting the two languages, we see that as a Buddhist country animals have hierarchical positions in Thai society and this directly translates into the lexicon of curse words; while in Canada, there is a large social resentment of the church, and so words regarding anything to do with the church are used as curse words.
Furthermore, when looking at Germany, according to Luisa, because of the historical ghosts of World War Two outward rage and explosion of anger are extremely taboo and shunned. Meanwhile in Lebanon, as Maria said: “Curse words can be used even if something is cute. In Lebanon, our culture is very expressive, so it would be weird if you just said a curse word with no emotion”. When we consider these various angles, there seems to be a direct linkage between linguistic relativity and the Sapir Whorf Hypothesis. This hypothesis states that: “the way people think is influenced by the language they speak”(Perlovsky). Essentially, the cultural context shapes the value that emotional language holds, especially in the context in which curse words are used.
Cultural Generality: Alliances
Zooming out yet again, there started to be more overlap across the languages explored when the negative and insultatory connotation of curse words was replaced with one of friendship. As many people shared, their first experiences of uttering curse words were around their friends. The capacity to express oneself uncensored underscored a deeper bond between individuals.
An example that interestingly arose in every interview was that of cursing in an educational context. As Luisa explained: “If the teacher curses it's rare, and it's an almost intimate moment of connection and friendship. Sometimes cursing can be friendly by mellowing professionality,”.This idea is not novel it has been extensively studied and quoted by anthropologists in the field of taboos and linguistics. In Daniel Sulsak’s piece “Using Bad Language in the Classroom”, he writes about how the use of expletives is not always used with the intention of offending, but rather to reinforce intimacy. When considering the multiculturality of this theme, it is interesting to explore how censorship and the freedom to be uncensored reside most with these taboo words. Perhaps, there is a sense of trust that exists in cross-culturality that can be felt when one “breaks” the social rules and allows these taboo topics to seep in. Perhaps it is the taboo weight that these words are given, that allows them to have this counterintuitive effect.
Cultural Universality: Women
When looking at all the collected data from the most zoomed-out perspective possible, there is in fact one theme that is recurrent consistently across the research: women. In every language I explored, German, Thai, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic, there was a consistent way to insult and shame women through multiple phrases.
Every language had at least one translation for “whore” or some form of insult that included female reproductive systems. While monogamy cannot be universally assumed, many of the insults included sex-shaming women for having multiple partners. This concept of gender-biased vocabulary has been previously studied, one notable example was digested by Emily Martin’s piece the sperm and the egg. Martin’s piece and my research both display how the use of misogynistic words and vocabulary passively dominates our language. Whether it be in science, or casual settings, or moments of emotional expression.
Curse words and taboos are often hidden and packed away. Still, through my findings, I learned about the beautiful diversity and depth each of these words hold in their greater anthropological value. It was fascinating to see how certain themes completely contrast, while others align across various cultures and languages. The most fascinating part of my findings was the constant contradictions, these words that have timelines and contexts can harm but also cause alliances. In terms of anthropology, this is one of the very human parts of our existence. The constant dance between meaning and expression guides how we construct relationships and connections in our environments. The capacity to speak many languages and exist within multiple cultures through linguistics is also fascinating. If I could extend this project and continue it I would develop it to dive deeply into the expressions that do not translate into English fluidly. I would want to gather an immense sample of languages and conduct longer and more detailed interviews as well as participant observations. There is an interdisciplinary overlap between anthropology and psychology, and so if given the opportunity I would love to research curse words from an individual cognitive perspective and a social perspective. If you’re still searching for what word to use in the hypothetical near-death from the introduction, a few resources at the bottom of this paper may help…
A few words that the interviewees were willing to share:
| German | Arabic | Spanish | Portuguese | |
| Tier 3: High stakes | Fotze - cunt Hure - whore Schlampe - slut | Your sister’s pussy (can be substituted for any female relative): كس اختك عاهرا: whore | Puta - more than whore | Filha da puta - son of a bitch Arrombado - sucker |
| Tier 2: Medium Stakes | Wichser - wanker Arschloch - asshole | Dicks on you: ايري فيك Bitch: شرموطة | Cabron - male goat Perra - bitch | Caralho - penis |
| Tier 1: Low stakes | Scheiße - shit verdammt - oh damn | لحاس طيز:up your ass | Pinche - lousy (used if you stub your toe for example) | Puxa vida - push life Eu hein - ew Eita ferro - holy iron |
Bibliography:
Babou, M. “A THREE DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF INSULTS IN TLEMCEN: ANTHROPOLOGICAL, PRAGMATIC AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC.” European Journal of Research in Social Sciences, vol. 2, 2014, p. 13, https://www.idpublications.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/A-THREE-DIMENSIONAL-ANALYSIS-OF-INSULTS-IN-TLEMCEN-ANTHROPOLOGICAL-PRAGMATIC-AND-SOCIOLINGUISTIC.pdf.
Join, Dora. Foul-Mouthed. https://open.spotify.com/show/43hScbxqozL6FoZCw4ZCRF?si=7246949c07e24048.
McIntosh, Janet. “Maledictive Language: Obscenity and Taboo Words.” In The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, edited by James Stanlaw, 1st ed., 1–9. Wiley, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118786093.iela0248.
Miller, Laura. “Bad Mouths: Taboo and Transgressive Language.” Annual Review of Anthropology 51, no. 1 (October 24, 2022): 17–30. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-041420-112543.
Moran, Melissa. “The Art of the Semi-Structured Interview Part 1: Developing an Effective Interview Protocol.” Statistics Solutions, 7 Dec. 2017, https://www.statisticssolutions.com/the-art-of-the-semi-structured-interview-part-1-developing-an-effective-interview-protocol/.
Perlovsky, Leonid. “Language and Emotions: Emotional Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis.” Neural Networks, vol. 22, no. 5, July 2009, pp. 518–26. ScienceDirect, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neunet.2009.06.034.
Reilly, Jamie, et al. “Building the Perfect Curse Word: A Psycholinguistic Investigation of the Form and Meaning of Taboo Words.” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, vol. 27, no. 1, Feb. 2020, pp. 139–48. Springer Link, https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-019-01685-8.
Suslak, Daniel. Using Bad Language in the Classroom. www.academia.edu, https://www.academia.edu/7754398/Using_Bad_Language_in_the_Classroom
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