James Macpherson wrote:
That's pretty interesting Ben, do you know of somewhere online I could read more?
I mean, that's a pretty cool observation (however since most of our words are of a Germanic origin I'm not suprised most offensive words are, but what would suprise me is something demonstrating more of the polite French words - I have no profanity filter here so I'm happy to go to a good website reference :-)
Good post!
- James
-----Original Message----- From: Ben Smith [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, 6 October 2004 1:58 PM To: CFAussie Mailing List Subject: [cfaussie] Re: Profanity in Posts
Interestingly, most words considered crude and vulgar in English are of Germanic origin, which is why German often sounds blunt and unrefined to our ears. English is at its most basic origins a Germanic language, and when the Normans invaded in 1066, they established French as the language of the nobility. Most sophisticated or polite terms are French in origin. I'd give a few side-by-side comparisons but I don't want to trip off anyone's profanity filter :)
A less offensive way of illustrating things is to look at the etymology of the different ways of describing food animals. It sounds vulgar and crude to say you ate "cow" for dinner, you'd call it beef. Beef comes from the old French "buef" whereas cow is from the old English "cu". Likewise, "swine" = old English "swin", pork = old French "porc".
On Wed, 6 Oct 2004 13:39:48 +1000, Barry Beattie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
but all this about profane words is a carry on from the elitist attutudes of imperial Europe where words we are "offended" at were commonplace in some social circles and classes and it was social conditioning that placed them in the "bad" category
those who have done any history of language will know what I mean...
to back this up, check out this history of a word we take
for granted:
http://www.softlab.ece.ntua.gr/~sivann/pub/swf/english_f-word.swf
cheers barry.b
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Adam Cameron Sent: Tuesday, 5 October 2004 5:46 PM To: CFAussie Mailing List Subject: [cfaussie] Re: Profanity in Posts
It sounds like this is something you need to clarify with your
superiors.
Let them know what the list is, its normal content, and
that it's for
your legitimate business use. Mention that you have seen
a couple of
mails blocked due to minor profanity, and get the OK to
continue using
it. I can't imagine this approach being seen as anything but reasonable.
Blathering about "it ain't fair!" such like mine are one
thing; but this
is actually a very good suggestion.
Adam
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-- Regards: Ayudh
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