Joke on Liverpudlian speechways

[Jonathan Lighter]

Chris, the motivation behind my somewhat facetious question about sexism and the C-word is that here in the States feminists sometimes object to gender-unspecific use
of the G-word ("guy") as intolerably sexist.

  I believe this position was more frequently expressed in the '80s. My own opinion is that most or all such claims for the culturally revelatory power of linguistic usages are essentialist and logically unsupportable.  They seem to assume a kind of neurotic though transcendental Superspeaker (cf. Emerson's "Oversoul") whose habits both reveal and program predictable attitudes and behavior in ultimately robotic speakers. Reduced to absurdity, this view would claim that generic "he" is as significant an index to women's experience of society as are factual sociological data.

  It is interesting, however, that the use of "cunt" to mean "stupid or offensive man" remains quite uncommon here.

  JL

Chris F Waigl <chris at LASCRIBE.NET> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Chris F Waigl
Subject: Re: Joke on Liverpudlian speechways
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> Yeah, flapping ! And "Worral" is a surname in the Liverpool area ! I'm still laughing !
>
> BTW, are the Brits more (or less) sexist than we are because they so often apply the word "c*** " to pests and fools of either sex ?
>
This is a discussion I've been having with a number of Brits lately.

My own impression is that the sex-unspecific use of "cunt" is less
sexist than applying it to women only. Which is of course a totally
unsuitable measure of the respective sexism of Brits and Americans in
general. Be that as it may, "cunt" is extremely common here in England,
just a few degrees above the equally sex-unspecific "wanker".

But then, I've also met a (sexist) Brit who was genuinely surprised that
some might wish to apply "twat" to a woman. For him, this was for men
only. (The prime minister is fabled to have called one of his male
cabinet ministers a twat. I have it from a good source, but haven't been
able to pin down the cite.)

As for flapping, there's lots of it in Irish English, too.

Chris

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



---------------------------------
Get your own web address for just $1.99/1st yr. We'll help. Yahoo! Small Business.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org