Re: OT: Slang, curses and vulgarities

The thing is, offending people with words isn't the same as swearing,
really. I could say "you're a fat pig" and you might be insulted, but
"pig" is not a swearword in English since it has nonoffensive meanings
as well. Every language I know has some words that are always
vulgar/offensive, but I don't think it's impossible for a language not
to have those kinds of words... that wouldn't mean that people who speak
that language don't offend each other with words though. :) It'd just
mean that they have no words exclusively dedicated to offending people,
and simply recruit other words with non-offensive meanings as well (like
pig above) for the purpose.

> And there is really a language where there are no offensive
> words? I can't believe that there are no words that are at
> least slightly offensive. Offending somebody with words is
> maybe even more effective than beating them (word?). I
> don't think that *always* swallowing anger is that good,
> psychologically. One should not explode because of nothing,
> that's clear. But concerning myself, at some point, I
> cannot keep quiet anymore after having been annoyed by the
> same person over and over. I start throwing around insults
> for a short time then. Since I try to avoid offending
> people, I usually apologize later, being sorry for having
> got loud.
>
> Carsten
>
>

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