Q: No "offensive" words in Amerindian languages?

[Jonathan Lighter]

[WARNING: THIS PERSON MAY NOT KNOW WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT ! ! ]

  But maybe the "obscenities" aren't thought of as  "obscene."  Just amusing.

  I believe that Ian Fleming observed in one of the later Bond novels (_You Only Live Twice_?) that there are no obscenities in Japanese either.

  It's that land bridge, all right.  Anybody need more proof ?

  JL

"Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
Subject: Q: No "offensive" words in Amerindian languages?
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Someone wrote elsewhere:
>There is a bit of linguistic folklore to the effect that the
>Amerindian languages have no "offensive" words in their lexicons. I
>somewhat suspect that this situation would be preferable to ours.

Sounds like a sub-urban legend to me. Particularly when (on this
list?) others have written of anthropologists reporting having been
taken in and unknowingly having referred to important people with
obscenities. Is this "linguistic folklore" supported or refuted? By
whom, and where?

Joel

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