Swear Language and National Identity

[Alexandre Enkerli]

Folks,

Just heard about an intriguing project by Quebec thespian Simon
Boudreault. It's called «Semaine du sacre» ("Week of the Swear") and
includes a few public events about swearing and foul language.
The official description of that series of events is in French:
http://www.espacelibre.qc.ca/sacree-sauce-brune

This "swearing week" features diverse interventions by Artiom
Koulakov, linguist at Saratov State University working with Vassili
Klokov (who does research on North American varieties of the French
language).
Not finding any relevant info in English but here are two links in
(Quebec) French which provide a bit of context:
http://www.voir.ca/publishing/article.aspx?zone=1&section=11&article=72664
http://masabourin.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/jure-sacre-kamarad-le-devoir/

Given Judy Pine's blogpost about "bad words," thought this might be à propos.
In fact, the connection with national identity makes a lot of sense.
In part because swear words and foul language are salient features
differentiating Quebec French from other language varieties, including
Acadian French. Swear words have figured prominently in discourse on
language identity in Quebec, in the 1970s. Not to mention that
Québécois swearing language is intimately associated with Catholic
religion, which is possibly a bigger taboo in Quebec than sexuality.
Perhaps it's not that surprising that Steven Pinker, one of the
best-known people to talk about foul language these days, was born and
raised in Montreal... ;-)

Cheers!

--
Alexandre Enkerli
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Concordia University