LL-L: "Language maintenance" LOWLANDS-L, 06.MAR.2001 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 06.MAR.2001 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans, Ap=Appalachean, D=Dutch, E=English, F=Frisian, L=Limburgish
LS=Low Saxon (Low German), S=Scots, Sh=Shetlandic, Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: Criostoir O Ciardha [paada_please at yahoo.co.uk]
Subject: LL-L: "Language maintenance" LOWLANDS-L, 05.MAR.2001 (04) [E]

A chairde,

Colin wrote:

> By "swearing" I
> mean specifically
> "vocabulary related to swiving, the privy, and the
> body parts related
> thereto, not in a literal sense but metaphorically
> for emotive effect".

Thank you for the clarification. I can assure you we
have very different notions of what constitutes
swearing. When I referred to swearing forming an
integral part of certain mother tongues I meant as
adjectival intensifiers or as lexicon (e.g. "it were
fucking ace" where "fucking" does not refer to any act
but rather to an intensification; and "arse" as
opposed to "anus/rectum"). I certainly do not mean to
imply that misogyny or sexual degradation is a valid
integral.

However I would take umbrage with Colin's assertion
that

> swearing is more strongly
> associated with the male sex
> than the female, and with youth rather than age.

This is rather a strange assertion. From my own
experience (as all opinion is subjective), coming from
working class communities located near Nottingham in
England in in Camborne in west Cornwall, there is
certainly no discriminative use of swearing (in the
sense I describe above rather *than as insult*) - not
male/female or young/old. It is, conversely, rather
the case that the elder generation who, on the whole,
have retained a greater cultural identity, use
swearing in a far greater extent than their younger
counterparts. This is presumably because the influence
of television has brought a greater sense of
"centralised shame" (that is, the modes of thinking of
a central or national cultural model). Female mother
tongue speakers also swear freely, although I concede
that they do not perhaps swear as much as their male
counterparts (although they do swear as much whilst in
predominantly female company).

I must admit I am unwilling to continue this
discussion if I am characterised as someone advocating
misogynistic "sex and toilet" language or "swearing
for rebellion". I have never advocated such appalling
anti-female behaviour and deplore any manifestation of
it. Similarly I was unaware that referring to my
mother tongue made me an immature and naive political
idiot. Perhaps in this instance I should have kept my
mouth shut.

Críostóir.

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