Re: Insult (jara: Weekly Vocab 8)

Quoting Camilla Drefvenborg <elmindreda@...>:

> Andreas Johansson de ortekera:
>
> > Quoting Camilla Drefvenborg <elmindreda@...>:
> >
> >> Jan van Steenbergen de ortekera:
> >>
> >>>  --- John Cowan skrzypszy:
> >>>
> >>>> My favorite insult:  "Your parents were brothers!"
> >>
> >> let me try that in Nindára.
> >>
> >> nay ni leyomya de tamanera!
> >>
> >> ...to which most Darans would answer "sorry, no", except for the
> few
> >> so adopted. in any case, the idea that it was meant as an insult
> >> would probably never enter sanna i (his/her) mind.
> >
> > I understand what you mean, but surely tone and accompanying facial
> > expression would satisfyingly convey the unfriendly intent in most
> > circumstances?
>
> for certain, but consider this then; if someone were to shout "your
> school had a green bicycle-shed!", with accompanying tone and facial
> expression, how insulted would you feel? really? using a fact (true or
> not) which is not in any way culturally 'loaded' would, from me at
> least, only elicit ridicule.
How insulted I'd feel? About as insulted, I imagine, as I do when subjected to
generalized insults of the kind "you damn idiot!" - that's to say not terribly
much, certainly not comparable to the effect of an "loaded" insult that
somehow hits me personally, but I'd not be happy about it, since I'd assume
that to the speaker's point of view that bicycle-shed somehow makes me a bad
person.

> ( this might just be me, however. I consider explicit insults to be
> unkempt, and below notice. insults, when used at all, should be slowly
> built up, until the receiver's coin finally drops. one needs a certain
> kind of patient madness for it, though... )
I personal fave here is to use words the insultee does not understand. It's
amazing how annoyed people can get at being called "you neo-scholastic
Eleatic!". Somewhy they always assume the worst.

> additionally, as Stone Gordonssen said, if the insulting person comes
> from a misogynist (and therefore very different) culture, sanna i way
> of expressing insult might very well not be understandable by most
> Darans. especially since (partly due to geography) the majority of
> them
> never travel to other lands.
>
> kono té meana de ninaliar? ~ do we share an understanding now? :)
I think so.

                                                      Andreas

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