{"id":3429,"date":"2013-04-14T12:00:34","date_gmt":"2013-04-14T16:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=3429"},"modified":"2013-04-14T08:55:25","modified_gmt":"2013-04-14T12:55:25","slug":"swearing-across-cultures-the-beaver-said-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2013\/04\/14\/swearing-across-cultures-the-beaver-said-what\/","title":{"rendered":"Swearing across cultures: The beaver said what?!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

This phrase was once taboo in polite company in England, being a corruption of “God’s body!”<\/p><\/div>\n

Here’s one about potential traps strewn across unfamiliar cultural landscapes.<\/p>\n

As recounted by the National Post<\/a>, a French author and a French publishing house with a popular series of\u00a0\u00a0children’s books set in Quebec<\/a> got it wrong – very wrong – in terms of appropriate language for young readers.<\/p>\n

Heads up! Swearing ahead – as found in chapter 4, page 28 of La rivi\u00e8re sans retour<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cTaberna-a-a-cle!\u201d the beaver hollers, uttering a swear word that in Quebec is roughly as offensive as the f-word in English. The author of the book aimed at 6- and 7-year-olds helpfully includes a footnote explaining that tabernacle is a \u201cQu\u00e9b\u00e9cois word indicating surprise.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ah, yes. As his canoe was swept away in the rapids, the happy young beaver was … surprised!<\/p>\n

Cuss words vary by culture, don’t they? Anyone from this region probably knows this topic (and the important words) well enough. For outsiders like me, the Post article contains a helpful side bar about other religion-based profanity, and the relative level of offense.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, what happens to swear words if\/when the whole reason such use is offensive fades from memory? Even respectable museums have picked up on this topic, as when Le Mus\u00e9e Des Religions Du monde<\/a> presented “Tabernacle: The exposition that curses”.<\/p>\n

An earlier National Post article examined the cultural shift<\/a> that prompted the exhibit:<\/p>\n

At the Mus\u00e9e des religions du monde (Museum of World Religions) in Nicolet, about 110 kilometres northeast of Montreal, Jean-Francois-Royal is regularly struck by the widening gulf between Quebecers and their Catholic heritage. \u201cWe are at the point where we have a generation of students who ask, \u2018Who is the guy on the cross?\u2019 \u201d Mr. Royal, the museum\u2019s director, said.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Writing in The Johnson (a blog featured in The Economist, named for dictionary-maker Samuel Johnson) “M.D.\/Ottawa” asks “If you profane something no one holds sacred, does it make a swear?<\/a>”<\/p>\n

The post begins with nostalgia:<\/p>\n

One of the formative experiences of my youth was being taught how to paddle a four-man racing canoe during summer visits to my French-speaking cousins at their cottage north of Quebec City. To keep in sync, paddlers would sing. And the favourite song of my male cousins, which I would roar with great gusto while not understanding a word, started like this: \u00a0\u201cEn hiver, calvaire! \u00c7a glisse, calisse!\u201d Only much later did I realize these lines, which translate as: \u201cIn winter, Calvary! It’s slippery, Chalice!\u201d were not to be repeated in front of adults, as both\u00a0calvaire\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0calisse\u00a0<\/em>were swear words in Quebec.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I can relate! Anxious to fit in and speak “good” pidgin English in Hawaii, I picked up a few choice Portugese swear words, without knowing how strong they were, or why they could offend. They just sounded, well, pointedly useful! (All that when my own parents never<\/em> went farther than “rats!” or – if really provoked “damn!”)<\/p>\n

Even so, some words probably don’t belong in books for 6 year-olds!<\/p>\n

When you explore new places or learn new languages, how do you handle the identification – and use – of cuss words?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s one about potential traps strewn across unfamiliar cultural landscapes.
\nAs recounted by the National Post, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[880,1055,7020,91,1124,4790,11623],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3434,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429\/revisions\/3434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}