In which I celebrate the release of my latest book with a look at writerly choices around swearing, from a linguistics point of view.
#books #Fantasy #lgbtBooks #linguistics #writing #swearing
http://wendypalmer.au/2025/05/04/author-notes-little-wolf-and-the-witch/
So, I watched most of this video that I boosted earlier and it is so informative! Cantonese is already an awesome language, the swearing in Cantonese makes it leaps and bounds more awesome.
If you only learn one phrase from the video, let it be the one at the 8 minute mark: puk gaai.
"So long as Western societies cling to their chaotically unhealthy attitudes toward sex, the swearer will never want for four-letter words."
—Ashley Montagu, The Anatomy of Swearing
Why we swear like a trooper, trucker, sailor, fishwife.
Updated my @stronglang post with notes from Ashley Montagu's 1967 book The Anatomy of Swearing:
https://stronglang.wordpress.com/2022/12/11/trooper-trucker-sailor-fishwife-what-we-swear-like-when-we-swear-like-a-something/
Montagu's book devotes one long chapter to the peculiar history of the word "bloody", which, he writes, "accumulated so much magic that it provided an unfailing source of energy for use in all sorts of refined meanings."
Reading this. It's a lot of fun, if you're into swearing, insults, and literary history
Random post, but I'm curious. What is your favorite swear word in any language besides English? I'm curious. In Spanish, I've heard the word puta so many times, that I might have found creative ways people have used it in sentences. You'd be surprised really, and yet, I find it interesting. Second favorite is pendejo. #Language, #Swearing, #Fun
Banning swearing in Formula One could be bad for drivers – a linguist explains
"There is something intuitively palliative about end-of-life profanity."
John Kelly on sweary first and last words in @MichaelErard's new book, "Bye Bye I Love You"
https://stronglang.wordpress.com/2025/02/21/swearing-first-words-last-words-michael-erard-bye-bye-i-love-you/
