[Magdalen] Yesterday's (today's, tomorrow's) s*lf-*d*t*ng discussion.

[ME Michaud]

Back around the time the movie Cabaret was released,
I happened to fall into a conversation with two linguists
who’d been living & studying language in Iceland.

In the movie, there’s a scene where Sally Bowles, sitting on the edge of
her bed, yells “Shit!”

This turned out to be untranslatable because Icelanders didn’t use
excremental descriptions as swear words, considering bodily functions just
a normal part of life. So her swear was turned into an elaborate curse,
literally a curse, on her enemy’s family, damning him and his parents and
grandparents to permanent torture in hell.

Swearing seems to be entirely cultural!
-M

On Sunday, January 14, 2018, Sally Davies <sally.davies at gmail.com> wrote:

> There was an interesting news piece on translating Trump in the Far East
> where vulgarity apparently is unknown at least in public discourse!
> Examples of oddness from China, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand. Philippines
> just put what he said on the front pages
>