Now there’s ranting: from different cultures and times, guaranteed uncensored and not suitable for minors. Namely by a woman who studies cursing academically.
Barbara: Ms. Havryliv, you are a German specialist and an expert on aggressive speech acts and swear words in the German language. Which is your favorite?
Dr. Havryliv: “Shit” – I use that so often that neither I nor my family perceive it as a swear word. When my mother couldn’t open the front door because it stuck, my little son said: “You have to say shit. Mom always says that, and then the door opens.”
What are the most common abuse?
In two surveys of around 1000 people I did a few years ago, the most common names were idiot, asshole, idiot. In this order. I don’t think much has changed since then. In Austria, “Schleich di” and “Go shit” are popular with the aggressive prompts, the German says “Piss off” in the same context.
Sounds a bit antiquated …
Well, in a conflict or affect situation, you don’t have time to create something new. You fall back on familiar things, also in dialect, because it is closer to us in emotional situations. A Bavarian and Austrian classic: “Are you stupid!” Incidentally, it was the dialect that made me deal with swear words.
As the?
When Ukraine became independent in 1991, Western guest lecturers came to the university for the first time, including the renowned Austrian German studies specialist Peter Wiesinger. He gave a lecture on Austrian German that made me feel as uncertain as it was fascinating. Confused because I was studying German and didn’t understand anything. On the other hand, I was fascinated by the force of the expressiveness of the expressions that are included in all dialects. I came to Vienna for the first time in 1994, and when I told fellow students how impressed I was by all the swearwords, someone said to me: You’re looking for an unexplored and lively topic for your doctorate – you can’t find anything better. So I did my PhD on swear words.
Is there something typically German about swearing?
German is very much anchored in the fecal-anal culture of abuse, just like Ukrainian, my mother tongue. In Russian, English and Serbian there is a very sexual culture of abuse.
How come?
These are the taboos of cultures. When scolding, there is always a taboo break. Nations that are originally more chaste and prudish are therefore familiar with heavily sexualized swear words. Germans are internationally regarded as a particularly orderly and clean nation, so anything contrary to it is used disparagingly. In the Balkans or in the Middle East, family is very important, the mother is paramount, so we find curses like “I’ll fuck your mother” in these languages.
This is now also established in German.
Yes, its frequency is comparable to “shit” – and a good example of the fact that these words no longer have a direct meaning. One can also call them out of amazement or joy.
You have to explain that.
The most common and most important function of curses and swear words is the cathartic function, with which one reacts to oneself and strong emotions. Mostly negative, but also positive, something like this: “Shit, is that good!” In adolescents, the provoking function plays a very important role. It also sets them apart from adults and other groups. And they use it for self-expression, the coarser the better: “I’m cool, I’m tough, what’s up, motherfucker?”
So is the youth mobbing more and more internationally?
There are still expressions like cuckold, pervert, lollipop. Up until about ten years ago, the English-language influence on swear words was very large, “fuck” or “shit” remained. In recent years we have seen a lot of minority language use of expressions in the country spread through social media. For example “AMK” – the abbreviation for Amina Koyim, Turkish for “I fuck you”. Or “Sippi” from Arabic. That means tail. And then there is the horror of all parents: the rapper Capital Bra. He has Ukrainian-Russian roots and uses many swear words from his mother tongues, which are enthusiastically received. These words are also often used to add rhythm to a conversation. “Suka Bljad”, for example, is a very harsh swear word, maybe you can translate it as “bitch-whore”.
A really bad bitch?
No, the context plays an important role with swear words, bitch is no longer a swear word. It can now be used as an award by girls and women. The boys were expropriated and the word upgraded. This is a sign of emancipation through language.
The enthusiasm for strong expressions already starts with small children, why is that?
Children absorb these words because they realize that the expression has great emotional significance. Then they say “asshole” at home and find out – oh, that looks great! My youngest son, when he was annoyed with me, came up with the saying: “Mom is stupid.” I said: You don’t get angry like that. If you get angry, you say: “Oh dear Mamilein!” That really worked for a while. As a toddler he stamped his foot, cried and yelled: “Oh dear Mamilein!” That was very funny.
Who is swearing particularly nicely in your ears?
In Viennese I like the curses: “Go in ‘ass, in’ Heaven don’t come anyway”, “Slip my hump down and brake with your tongue”. Much of it is influenced by Yiddish curses. When it comes to cursing, Yiddish has a long tradition and incredible creativity: “You should get scabies on your ass and your arms are too short to scratch”, “You should lose all of your teeth, except one, so that you know what a toothache is “. In the case of particularly insidious curses, something good is wished in the first part, which then turns against you in the second part: “You should have a house with ten rooms. Each should have a bed and the fever drives you from one bed to the next” “You should win a million euros and all your friends should find out”.
That is creative indeed. Is there a culture that doesn’t abuse itself?
I think there is ranting everywhere. I read about a language in Asia that supposedly doesn’t use swear words. The hardest thing there is: green monkey. But maybe there is a green monkey there, who knows. We can hardly judge that with another culture. If you translate literally “asshole” to a Ukrainian, he will not know what to do with it. For him this is an anatomical vulgarism. That’s why I translate “asshole” with the Ukrainian word for “scrotum”, a very common and equally crude universal abuse there. That hits the right note. In Ukrainian, by the way, we have a whole series of words for corrupt people that I can’t get translated into German. I am open to suggestions!
Dr. Oksana Havryliv teaches and researches at the University of Vienna – also on intention and consequences of verbal aggression.