Aargh! Think of those driving around in Ford Figos! bonobashi
>________________________________ > From: Giancarlo Livraghi <[email protected]> >To: [email protected] >Sent: Saturday, 14 April 2012 11:05 PM >Subject: Re: [silk] Sociolinguistic query > >ashok <[email protected]> wrote (about "blasphemy" declining in Italy): > >> Are you sure? A couple of years ago i was fishing >> in the north east .. and everyone of the men >> (without exception) used a variation of 'dio cane' >> or 'dio porco' or 'dio maiale'... the creative ones >> would mix some bizarre toilet or sexual allegory >> with blasphemy e.g. 'la stronza della madonna'. >> I also noticed that these expressions were generally >> the monopoly of men ...and when the women were around >> it would change to a disguised form ... > >I didn't mean to say that traditional "blasphemies" have totally disappeared - >but they are definitely declining. It isn't surprising that "fishermen in the >north east" are continuing with some oldfashioned jargon, especially when they >are disappointed. > >Also... some "disguised forms" have a way of surviving, such as "Maremma >maiala" (instead of "Madonna" being called pig) used mainly by people who live >(or used to live) in Maremma. > >One of the peculiarities of the current trend is that women are frequently >using male-oriented "sexual" expressions. For instance, while "cunt" in >English or "con" in French means stupid, "figa" in Italian means "attractive" >- now used by women as often as men and even turned into "figo" to define a >good-looking male. And there are lots of other such examples. > >Giancarlo > > > >
