I’m in Finland and swedish is our second official language. I’ve heard groups of fennoswede teenagers all speak swedish to each other, except they will throw in properly pronounced finnish curse words (like vittu and perkele). I guess they just are more powerful
I worked at a Chinese restaurant for some years, and my boss natively spoke Mandarin but whenever he was muttering to himself about something or another he would always cuss in English. I have no idea why this should be but it was always hilarious.
My GG-Grandpappy from Hungary (was it Austria-Hungary when he left to the US?) did the same thing. I only ever met him once before he passed but I distinctly remember not understanding a word he said unless he was cursing.
Edit: it WAS Austria-Hungary still, he left in like 1916
Similar situation in South Tyrol (an province at the border to Austria): the german-speaking minority (who is the majority in the province) primarily uses italian curse words.
A theory I once read trying to explain this is that you hope that God is less likely to notice you when you curse in a different language.
And somehow they pick a latin-derived language for that? Latin being literally the language of their church if they’re not protestants? Pope throne being in Rome?
I’m in Finland and swedish is our second official language. I’ve heard groups of fennoswede teenagers all speak swedish to each other, except they will throw in properly pronounced finnish curse words (like vittu and perkele). I guess they just are more powerful
I’m German and I also sometimes use perkele, just because it’s such an awesome word. Don’t know about my pronunciation though…
There’s always the old classic video of a finnish man cursing at a bear, which has a good example of how a proper perkele is said
As a regular Swede I will say that Finnish swear words hit differently. More oomph in them xD
I worked at a Chinese restaurant for some years, and my boss natively spoke Mandarin but whenever he was muttering to himself about something or another he would always cuss in English. I have no idea why this should be but it was always hilarious.
My GG-Grandpappy from Hungary (was it Austria-Hungary when he left to the US?) did the same thing. I only ever met him once before he passed but I distinctly remember not understanding a word he said unless he was cursing.
Edit: it WAS Austria-Hungary still, he left in like 1916
Cursing in another language is less stimagtizeda
Similar situation in South Tyrol (an province at the border to Austria): the german-speaking minority (who is the majority in the province) primarily uses italian curse words. A theory I once read trying to explain this is that you hope that God is less likely to notice you when you curse in a different language.
And somehow they pick a latin-derived language for that? Latin being literally the language of their church if they’re not protestants? Pope throne being in Rome?
Swearing and gods predate all that
Tbf I also do that, but my grandma was Finnish.