Re: Vulgarity

Boudewijn Rempt wrote:

> > You mean like "Your mother's so fat" jokes?  But I love those!
>
> Ai! Typo here - I mean humor_less_... But out of curiosity,
> how does the obesity of ones mother mean she's of easy virtue?
It doesn't.  To be accused of being fat, though, is far more
insulting to Americans than to be accused of being "of easy virtue";
it implies an utter lack of self-control.  Fat people are one
of the few minorities who may still be openly spoken of with contempt.

> As an aside - once an American teacher told me he was shocked
> by the vulgarity of the common Dutch swearing vocbulary - which
> is full of shit's and fuck's, even for three-year olds [...].
I once collected a story, which I no longer have, about a Dutch teenager
moving to South Africa some 15-20 years ago and being placed in
an Afrikaans class.  He was asked to write an essay about himself
and his family and then read it aloud.  Unfortunately, it contained
the sentence "My father breeds animals", which (perhaps under English
influence) has quite a different meaning in Afrikaans!

--
John Cowan      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
        You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
        You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
                Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)