Swear words across different languages may tend to lack certain sounds such as l, r, and w:
Swear words across different languages may tend to lack certain sounds such as l, r, and w, suggests research published in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. This common pattern in profanity indicates that these sounds, called approximants, may appear less offensive to listeners.
Swear words are thought to have sounds that help facilitate the expression of emotion and attitude, but no study to date has investigated if there is a universal pattern in the sound of swearing across different languages.
[...] The authors asked 215 participants (from across six different languages) to rate pairs of pseudo-words (imaginary words created by the authors), one of which included an approximant. For example, in Albanian, the authors took the word "zog", meaning "bird", and changed this to "yog" to include an approximant and "tsog" without an approximant. The authors found that participants were significantly less likely to judge that words with approximants were swear words and selected words without approximants as swear words 63% of the time.
In a following study, the authors also looked at minced oaths – which are variations of swear words deemed less offensive, for example "darn" instead of "damn". The authors found that approximants were significantly more frequent in minced oaths than swear words. The authors propose that this introduction of approximants is part of what makes minced oaths less offensive than swear words.
The authors conclude that their work suggests a potential universal pattern to swear words across different languages, with the lack of approximants a common feature when perceiving swear words.
Journal Reference:
Lev-Ari, S., McKay, R. The sound of swearing: Are there universal patterns in profanity? Psychon Bull Rev (2022). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02202-0
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20, @01:58PM (16 children)
n/t
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20, @02:04PM (8 children)
wanker
(Score: 1, Redundant) by aafcac on Monday March 20, @03:01PM (3 children)
There's no r sound in wanker. At least in the places that use it commonly rhotic r wouldn't be used. It's more like wanka. And I'm any case, the hard I sound is likely sufficient to give it the necessary bite.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20, @04:36PM (2 children)
The word "wanker" is definitely used in Canada, maybe not as much as elsewhere but it is definitely used. "Fucker" is probably used more often in pretty much the same contexts. Both of these words are pronounced with rhotic R in most Canadian dialects (pretty much everywhere in the country with only a few exceptions, mostly in the Atlantic provinces).
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Monday March 20, @07:24PM (1 child)
Is it common there? I've never heard a Canadian say it other than in the somewhat ironic sense that an American might. I live a few hours from the border, so perhaps the Canadians using the word aren't allowed past customs. I also don't recall hearing it in any Canadian programming not set in areas without the rhotic a r.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday March 20, @10:55PM
I've rarely heard it: more like if saying something in a British accent.
I believe they meant Britain, not Canada, but who knows... it's AC.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 20, @03:53PM (1 child)
Is "wanker" a swear word or a derogatory word you call someone?
I am thinking this might mean swear words such as when you hit your thumb with a hammer.
When your only hammer is C++ all problems begin to look like a thumb.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 20, @03:55PM
Another derogatory word that occurred to me is: "wuss". But that is a label assigned to a person by someone more wise.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday March 20, @06:09PM
I'm not sure that's swearing. It's denigration, but that's not really the same thing.
OTOH, there's a question in my mind as to whether "arse" is used as a swear word by the British. I'm rather sure I've heard "Brit" used as a swear word, though not in a context free way as "shit!" might be.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Monday March 20, @06:34PM
The etymology for wanker's only dates back to the early 20th century along with the . So, I think it's safe to guess it was a euphemism before it was a swear word that was derived from "whack" (as in, "whack off") or "whang". [wikipedia.org]
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20, @02:13PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Movh9aWrzAU [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by bart9h on Monday March 20, @02:44PM
caralho!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aafcac on Monday March 20, @02:55PM (3 children)
This isn't surprising, there is a relatively uniform sense across languages of words that are soft versus spiky. This just extends that a bit and it's part of why "flipping" is such a worthless replacement for "fucking" but both "fricking" and "frigging" are likely acceptable as substitutions. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/words-can-sound-round-or-sharp-without-us-realizing-it.html [psychologicalscience.org]
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday March 20, @06:12PM (2 children)
But "r" is one of the sounds they summary says isn't supposed to appear in swear words.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Monday March 20, @06:34PM
That's not the same r. That's r as in Frank, not r as in how British people say beer.
/bɪə/ notice that there is no r in that.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Monday March 20, @07:29PM
I got lost in the thread. Anyways, the presence of lack of an r here isn't the determining factor. I agree that the r isn't helping, but there other options have much harder consonants to work with. Subbing a plosive i make it flixing would be more likely to be accepted as a real effort to avoid cursing than the much softer flipping.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Tuesday March 21, @12:57AM
Jävlars helvetes skit!
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday March 20, @04:30PM (8 children)
In his famous "7 Dirty Words" bit, he talked about how "fuck", "cunt", "cocksucker" and "motherfucker" all had these very aggressive "k" sounds, and that was probably relevant to why they were swear words.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20, @04:39PM
SCHMETTERFLEUG!!!!
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday March 20, @06:09PM (6 children)
¡Mierde! is "Shit!" in Spanish. It has no R? Whore has no W or R?
The article and perhaps the study (reporters are ignorant) is 100% pure unadulterated bovine excrement. It sounds like my fourth grade teacher who claimed that there was no word in the English language with a T next to an X. I raised my hand... my teachers all hated me because they were all eXTra ignorant, neXT to dimwitted.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday March 20, @06:20PM (5 children)
Well, "whore" doesn't have a "w" *sound*, which is what I think they were talking about. (OTOH, the "r" sound is quite evident.)
FWIW, I suspect they're right about "w" sounds, and possibly "l" sounds. Those are smooth and extended in time sounds. ("r" is extended in time, but not smooth. It sounds like a growl.) It's my impression that swear words tend to favor short sounds, and when not that threatening sounds. The second part is why "r" qualifies. (FWIW my wife used to swear thus "sinus-sappala-saap" with lot of hissing on the "s" sounds. It's supposedly Dutch for orange juice, but I've never checked. She said it as three words with lots of hissing.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Monday March 20, @06:39PM
That's exactly it. This is one of the issues with domain specific language being brought to the masses. Linguists generally talk about the spoken version of the word being the word with written being lower priority. The IPA symbols being used won't really stand out for typical readers as being sounds.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday March 21, @03:55PM (1 child)
The hissing in her pronunciation of the Dutch word for orange juice is likely the equivalent of aspiration in other swearwords.
But why wold she choose orange juice to swear with?
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday March 21, @11:24PM
Not to swear at, to swear *with*. As a replacement for other terms than are less socially acceptable.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday March 22, @01:19PM
"sinasappelsap" is indeed the Dutch word for orange juice.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday March 24, @02:12PM
Can you say "twat" on the radio and not be fined by the FCC?
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Monday March 20, @05:24PM
The letters l, r, and w are harder to speak and take longer to pronounce. When a person swears, it's usually fast, sharp, and staccato. These three sounds are none of these. I would think the introduction of these "approximants" is to purposely emphasize that the speaker is not swearing. It has nothing to do with "sounding less offensive".
(Score: 3, Funny) by mcgrew on Monday March 20, @06:00PM (9 children)
Can someone use the letter l in a sentence so I can tell what the God damned thing is??
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Monday March 20, @07:33PM (7 children)
I wish the IPA had been taught rather than the idiotic symbols used in dictionaries when I was a kid. In this case, it's the l in place. Not the l in people.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday March 20, @08:49PM (1 child)
Given fonts often used, I think OP was more wondering if it was like the I in place or the l in Irrigate.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Tuesday March 21, @04:54PM
I can see that, it's probably because of the degrees I've got and the time I've spent reading IPA that made it immediately obvious that it's an I and not an l.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Monday March 20, @10:58PM
I wish the IPA had had more hops in it.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday March 21, @04:28AM (3 children)
I'm genuinely curious what those symbols are that you are referring to. Note that I'm not American. All dictionaries I know do use IPA for giving the pronunciation.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Tuesday March 21, @04:52PM
I can't blame you, and mind you this was roughly 30 years ago, IPA has become far more common in terms of dictionaries now. I'm not really sure when the switch happened. But, when I learned to use a dictionary over 30 years ago, you got diacritical marks for long and short vowels along with the word written out and that was about it. Presumably, that was partially the result of typesetting for IPA being somewhat more complicated than for the normal letters, and we didn't need 45 different characters to indicate various sounds.
The system had pros and cons as you didn't need to learn a new set of symbols and one line could usually cover most of the accents of American English without much trouble. But, we were expected to take the accent information along with the definition of the word and recognize it as something that we've spoken or heard. We were also expected to learn sight words like aisle and island, and most teaching of reading used a phonics based approach so we'd know how the letters generally sound.
It was hardly a perfect system which is largely why even Merriam Webster the most authoritative dictionary of American English switched to IPA years ago.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Tuesday March 21, @04:58PM (1 child)
Or to actually answer the question it was that smile looking bottom half of a circle and a horizontal line. A breve and I can't even remember what the other one was.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday March 22, @04:42AM
I see, you mean those symbols that are usually used to mark the meter of a poem.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 21, @12:34PM
Oh, it's a letter? I thought it was the letter we used in place of the number 1 on the typewriter.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday March 20, @06:06PM (2 children)
The Dutch language does not aspirate its consonants.
Except for swearwords. Those consonants get aspirated.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20, @06:08PM (1 child)
Feels good, don't it :)
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday March 20, @08:49PM
Aspiring, I guess.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday March 20, @08:44PM
They clearly didn't include Bavarian in their study. Himmiherrgotzsakramentzefixallelujaglumpfarregtz!
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday March 20, @11:02PM
Bugger!
Christ on a cracker.
Bullshit!
Holy shit!
and again:
Wanker! (officially a swear word?)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_swear_words [wiktionary.org]
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 21, @03:33AM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday March 21, @06:27AM (1 child)
We don't even care how many clicks we get. You might not have noticed yet, but we do not carry any advertising....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 21, @06:50AM
Talking about the scientists. More legit research with less click baity and controversial "results" wouldn't generate as much noise in the media. Cause I bet the truth for such stuff is going to messier and full of exceptions. Not so sound bitey.