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RE: Swearing in Canada (was: clerks cartoon, poems & beauty, andplanes)
> In "English Canada" the f-word is still the f-word and it is still
> considered profane.
That's kind of impossible, since "profane" means, by definition, something
sacreligious or offensive from a religious point of view ("pro", meaning
"before", plus "fane", meaning "temple"). And there is nothing about the
word "fuck" that is inherently religious one way or the other.
Okay, there *is* another (possibly older) definition of "profane", meaning
simply "secular", but by that definition, nearly every word in every
language is "profane", so it's useless for our purposes. It makes more
sense to say that "fuck" is a "vulgar" word, which merely means that it
is, as the snobbier high-class Southerners like to say, "common".
And what, I ask, would be so bad about being "common".
BTW, is it really fair to lump all Canadians who happen to speak English
together into this category known as "English Canada"? Is there no
variety? Are there no subcultures within the dominant culture?
> Swear words in French (in Quebec anyway) are all associated with
> religion. For example, "tabernac" is not a very "nice" slang word and
> is used when you are quite upset. And also is the french word for, you
> guessed it, tabernacle.
Now *that* would be a profanity.
> By the way, has anyone seen Billy Elliot? I thought it was good. I
> didn't notice it's rating...
Well, that film's R-rating did cause quite a stink when it came out. An
entire page was devoted to the subject in _Entertainment Weekly_. (And if
_The Castle_ -- which only had, like, two or three f-words -- had been
more popular, you can be sure its R-rating would have generated some
controversy, too.) But like I say, it's only PG up here.
--- Peter T. Chattaway ------------------------ petert at interchg_ubc.ca ---
"I detected one misprint, but to torture you I will not tell you where."
Winston Churchill to T.E. Lawrence, re Seven Pillars of Wisdom
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