Insults

[montanaisaleg]

I'm fluent in exactly one language: English. As such, I don't know much about insults in other languages.

Comments

[misplaced_keys]

This article gives you a rough idea about the severity of Yugoslav insults. Insulting is almost a sport on its own down here, it sometimes seems.

[madmouth]

even when I was a kid my dad would let slip something like "boli me kurac" or "jebo ti pas mater". Imagine saying "dogs fuck your mother!" around a Canadian kid!

[wiped]

i tried to listen to the video to see if the translator was actually translating all of the insults. from the little iraqi that i know (i'm more familiar with other dialects), it seemed like he was substituting much less offensive language, though perhaps he was using words that i didn't know or that have a different connotation in iraqi arabic. i couldn't make it through the whole video, i had to stop. iraqi policemen have literally the most dangerous job in the entire world, and they are major targets for violence while out on the strets, while guys like this asshole frolic around in the green zone, behind high-tech security fences backed by tanks and radar and all kinds of stuff. his racist, arrogant, colonialist "pep talk" turned my stomach. i hope he gets killed in iraq.

[montanaisaleg]

That's partly what made me wonder about the translation. Regardless of whether there are direct translations for the phrases being used, I was also curious if the translator was watering it down a little. Thanks for the info!

[wiped]

no problem. i think at one point the american said "fucking bullshit" and the translator said "junoon" (madness), if that gives you a sense of some of the 'watering-down' that was going on.

[montanaisaleg]

Indeed it does. If he had actually translated it as "fucking bullshit" (assuming such a direct translation exists), would it have had the same force as it does in English in the dialects you're most familiar with?

[amatullah76]

This gives delightful examples of insults across cultures: http://www.cracked.com/article_16275_9-most-devastating-insults-from-around-world.html

Thai

[telebikun]

Traditional Thai insults are not usually sexual in nature. They're more likely to involve comparing the person you're insulting to something unlucky or ill-omened. Common insulting epithets include "Crazy person!" "Plague!" and, my favorite, "Aquatic monitor lizard!" This last one, เหี้ย, pron. hîia, used to be about the most vulgar thing you could call someone, although its severity has declined in recent years, because the hîia lizard is traditionally considered a harbinger of great misfortune

Re: Thai

[madmouth]

Thai vulgarisms are pretty much never scatological, because the Thai word closest to the English "shit" is a non-obscene, very common morpheme--it also means something analogous to "essence" in many contexts.

WOW. I'd like to live in that world.

I wonder why so many European languages (esp. medieval French) have a shit anxiety/obsession.

[madmouth]

English seems to have gotten a lot less vulgar since the 16th century. When one starts digging into those rollicking older texts, it feels positively sinful.