Saturday, 8 April 2017

Well, d@mmit!

I know quite a lot of sweary words in quite a lot of languages. That's what a good Scottish education does for you. I grew up in a family where people worked in factories and shipyards where cursing was rife and folk sometimes had to be reminded not to swear. We had aunties that acted as censors: 'That'll do, Willie!' is a phrase I remember from family get-togethers in my childhood, when my father's shipyard language would get out of hand after a few beers.

When I studied languages and lived in France and later Russia, it was part of the fun to pick up sweary words - and to use them, sometimes wrongly. That's the trouble with foreign: you need somebody to tell you which sweary words you can drop into everyday conversation and which are best kept for your own circle.

Even if all you speak is Scots English or the Doric - given how few folk have even tried to learn a foreign language in the UK - you can have a great time peppering your language with sweary words.

And I do.

There are Scots words and phrases I learned in Glasgow when I was growing up. Some are incomprehensible to non-Glaswegians. Others I learned in Islay that I can drop into conversation and nobody will have a clue what I'm saying - unless I'm with Ileachs who know them all. Among French speakers, there are times when I've been known to exclaim: bordel! or putain! But I have to be pushed pretty far to come out with these. I have one Russian sweary word and I only use it in extremis and sotto voce. 

What I won't do, because I hate this in people who swear in English, is use a lovely and useful part of a woman's anatomy as a cussword. For me this is the final frontier. I find myself telling people off on Facebook for scattering this word around.

I try not to be sexist about this. I don't think I've ever referred to a man as a pr@ck either.



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