cursing

[Ra_]

dung
feces
poopoo

Terms that all pretty much describe the same thing.
Most people don't see anything wrong with those words.
People get all bent out of shape over the word **** though?

How do some words acquire so much power over many of us?

All those words describe the same substance.
What is it about the word **** that makes it something
that people can be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars over?

I really am confused.

( edited to say; "haha" I can't even say the word here. I think you know the one I mean? )

[Carleton Hughes]

One time there was two farmers that lived out on the road to Carico. They was always good friends, and Bill's oldest boy had been a-sparking one of Sam's daughters. Everything was going fine till the morning they met down by the creek, and Sam was pretty goddam mad. "Bill," says he, "from now on I don't want that boy of yours to set foot on my place."

"Why, what's he done?" asked the boy's daddy.

"He pissed in the snow, that's what he done, right in front of my house!"

But surely, there ain't no great harm in that," Bill says.

"No harm!" hollered Sam. "Hell's fire, he pissed so it spelled Lucy's name, right there in the snow!"

"The boy shouldn't have done that," says Bill. "But I don't see nothing so terrible bad about it."

"Well, by God, I do!" yelled Sam. "There was two sets of tracks! And besides, don't you think I know my own daughter's handwriting?"

[kerry]

At a minimum, there has to be a hard sound, often at the end of the word. PooPoo wont cut it as a curse word. Some linguist here can tell use the proper name for **ck or ***t or ***tch kinds of sounds.
I used to be closely acquainted with a Pentecostal minister who, by ideology, was forbidden to curse. However, he could speak in tongues. One evening when I was at his house when he was preparing dinner, he burned his fingers on a hot pizza pan. Instead of cursing in English, he let go with a long streak of glossolalia. There was no mistaking the fact that the words were curses even though no one knew what they meant.

Here's an odd fact I just discovered. I can still speak in tongues at will, an unusual leftover benefit from being a Pentecostal that usually comes in use when I'm suffering from insomnia. However, I just decided to see if I can curse in tongues, and I can't. Something about the curse sounds just wont work for me. I guess cursing in tongues is a more subtle ability than just speaking in tongues.

Do curses in all languages have similar vocal patterns?

[Carleton Hughes]

Originally Posted by kerry edwards

At a minimum, there has to be a hard sound, often at the end of the word. PooPoo wont cut it as a curse word. Some linguist here can tell use the proper name for **ck or ***t or ***tch kinds of sounds.
I used to be closely acquainted with a Pentecostal minister who, by ideology, was forbidden to curse. However, he could speak in tongues. One evening when I was at his house when he was preparing dinner, he burned his fingers on a hot pizza pan. Instead of cursing in English, he let go with a long streak of glossolalia. There was no mistaking the fact that the words were curses even though no one knew what they meant.

The inspiration of Saint Tourette.

I know a couple of so-called pentecostalists and I can tell this glossolalia is essentially by rote and done for effect since the sounds,vowels,consonants all follow a pattern,impossible to miss since I have heard the same calf-bellows and stale violet fancies many times in their company.

[kerry]

For some people it may be rote but not for everyone, and definitely not in my case. I can string together strings of syllables in new and different patterns when I speak in tongues. (but obviously (now) not all possible combinations) I have heard people repeat the same phrase over and over in glossolalia but I think they're just inexperienced neophyte pretenders.

How do curse words evolve linguistically? Are they innocuous words, which because of their sound evolve into curse words, or do they spring into existence as curse words right at the start? Have any new curse words appeared recently?

[kerry]

http://www.exisle.net/mb/lofiversion/index.php/t31621.html

[Carleton Hughes]

Originally Posted by kerry edwards

For some people it may be rote but not for everyone, and definitely not in my case. I can string together strings of syllables in new and different patterns when I speak in tongues. (but obviously (now) not all possible combinations) I have heard people repeat the same phrase over and over in glossolalia but I think they're just inexperienced neophyte pretenders.

How do curse words evolve linguistically? Are they innocuous words, which because of their sound evolve into curse words, or do they spring into existence as curse words right at the start? Have any new curse words appeared recently?

I take it that you are of the Pentecostalist persuasion?

The ones I know all claim,as a matter of course that they are NOT spiritual per se,but contain the holy spirit,what sayest thou?

[Larry Delor]

I know that if I curse in German, it sounds worse than it really is.

[kerry]

I grew up Pentecostal and began speaking in tongues around the age of 12. I spent some time as a Pentecostal minister but no longer count myself among the faithful. I would have said at one time that the Holy Spirit was within me, giving me the ability to speak in tongues.

I now think that Pentecostals engage in a unique brain activity little explored because it deviates from the usefulness of language. Normally our brains use language as a means of communication, connecting meaning with sound. So, almost all the words we utter carry meaning to ourselves and others. Pentecostals, probably in the middle or end of the nineteenth century, discovered that the two components of language were separable. Strings of syllables could be uttered without meaning. The side effect of this practice is to put the brain into neutral (so to speak). The brain normally 'thinks' the words it utters or thinks, producing content filled thoughts alongside language. Glossolalia 'confuses' the brain by providing apparent words with no meaning. This causes the brain to deviate from its normal path, allowing it to spin freely in neutral, producing unusual states of consciousness devoid of content.
I have found it most useful in resolving insomnia because when I can't sleep, my mind is usually filled with thoughts. Glossolalia empties those thoughts without the side effects of sleeping pills.
Of course, it could also be argued that as a religious phenomena, glossolalia is important not so much for its brain results as for its social results. It is such an unusual pratice that it allows the defining of a new religion in precise, clear terms, separating the believer from the unbeliever. Most Pentecostals are astounded to learn that me, an unbeliever, can still speak in tongues. It puts them into a theological tailspin. Many of them simply refuse to believe it.

[Ra_]

Now we're getting into religion, which baffles me even more than curse words do.

We can see that every culture has always invented things to explain that which they do not understand.
Somehow these inventions then become sacred and are not to be questioned.

Despite seeing this occur again and again,
cultures still continue to believe in THEIR inventions... and religions still flourish.

It seems so insane to me?

[Uriah]

Originally Posted by Carleton Hughes

I take it that you are of the Pentecostalist persuasion?

The ones I know all claim,as a matter of course that they are NOT spiritual per se,but contain the holy spirit,what sayest thou?

I am, i.e., AG (Assemblies Of God) which is a Pentacostal Fellowship. This is all news to me, as when WE speak in tongues (otherwise known as baptism in the Holy Spirit) SOMEBODY will ALWAYS translate the message, it's kind of a two part thing in a way.

I'm NOT spiritual, I'm a Christian. When most people think of 'spiritual', they think of new agey stuff and that's not me or what my church does in the least. We only have one very narrow path we follow so we're not enlightened, ect...

Keep in mind, some Pentacostals believe if you DON'T speak in tongues you can't really be saved. It's one of the lesser gifts and not everybody will do it, and just as everybody isn't blessed with every gift, neither will everybody have the gift of tongues.

Never heard anybody do it outside a church enviroment, however.

[kerry]

I was a minister for a short period at an Independent Assemblies of God church. I know what you mean on tongues/interpretation. In my experience, that kind of pratice is usually limited to 'prophets' while the average parishoner speaks in tongues altogether with the group or on their own on private prayer. The tongues/interpretation event is saved for the times that God doesn't want to speak directly to the congregation thru a prophet in English.

Can you curse in tongues?

[Uriah]

Originally Posted by kerry edwards

Can you curse in tongues?

No, it's not something I can force, but I don't curse anyway. Well, I've mostly gave it up (cursing)... I had to relearn a lot of my vocabulary as words I once used, I no longer do. I've came a long way on my journey so far.

I'm half French Canadian, so I'm sure I still curse in my sleep or something, lol.

[J. R. B.]

Originally Posted by Larry Delor

I know that if I curse in German, it sounds worse than it really is.

Larry--Try this one if your pissed at someone who knows German. Du kannst mich mal an dem arsch lecken.

[Ra_]

Good link in post #6 Larry.

Maybe we do need to create taboos?

I like the graphic that shows words that used to be considered curses.

'Gosh', in the 18th century, because it meant god...
and 'drat' in the 19th, because it meant 'god rot'.

I think religious types who use 'drat', in an attempt to avoid modern curses,
must be feeling sick!