The worldwide use and meaning of the f-word
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Ruth E. Vatvedt Fjeld
Ruth Eldbjørg Vatvedt Fjeld is Professor of Nordic Linguistics at University of Oslo since 1998, specialized in lexicography and dialectology. She served as language counsellor for Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation for 12 years and has lead several research projects. She has published in a variety of linguistic topics with 245 articles and books, primarily in lexicography and LSP, and edited several dictionaries. She has recently published a dictionary of cursing,
Norsk banneordbok (2018).Elsa Kristiansen is Professor of Management at the University of South-Eastern Norway. She has published over 50 articles and book chapters in the areas of sport psychology (e.g., motivation, coping with stress) and sport management (e.g., volunteerism, stakeholders involved in talent development, event management). Kristiansen has a Cand. Philol in Scandinavian Languages and Literature from the University in Oslo (1995), and an M.Sc (2005) and PhD in Sport Science from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (2011).
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Marianne Rathje
Marianne Rathje is a postdoc at University of Southern Denmark. Her research is focusing on language use in digital media, language norms online, and aggressive language use, including swearing. One of her newest publications is “Swearing in Danish Children’s Television Series” from Kristy Beers-Fägersten and Karyn Stapleton (eds.): Advances in Swearing: New languages, new contexts from 2017.
Veturliði Óskarsson received his PhD-degree from Uppsala University in 2001. He was professor of Icelandic language at the University of Iceland from 2006 to 2010 and since 2012 he has been professor of Nordic Languages at Uppsala University. His main research interests are foreign influence on the Icelandic language through the centuries, late medieval and modern Icelandic language history, and early modern Icelandic philology.
Natalia Konstantinovskaia is originally from Khabarovsk, Russia. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Japanese Language from the Far Eastern State University of Humanities. In 2017, she received a PhD in Japanese Linguistics from University of California, Los Angeles. She is currently teaching Japanese language at Stanford University.
Inayat Gill is originally from Punjab, India. She graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Psychology from Jesus and Mary College, in New Delhi, India. Her interests lie in Management (Event Management, Operations, Client Services and Handling, etc.) and Sports Psychology (Exercise and Athletic Performance, Motivation, Stress and Emotional Coping, etc). She is currently working in the Management field in New Delhi.
Fekede Menuta is associate Professor of Applied linguistics and Communication in Ethiopia at Hawassa University in the Department of Language and Literature. He teaches linguistics and communication courses in the postgraduate program of Linguistics and Communication Studies. He has published several articles, book chapters and a few books. He is interested in both descriptive and applied linguistics researches including phonology, morphology, syntax, socio-linguistics, pragmatics and discourse.
Abstract
This article documents the increasing use of the English curse word fuck worldwide, as well as its degree of adaption into the host language, its syntactic function, and its meaning and its strength as taboo. Comparing the use of fuck with a special focus on the Nordic countries (Norway, Denmark, and Iceland) with its use in Eurasia and Africa (with different alphabets, namely Cyrillic in Russia, Devanāgarī in India and Ge’ez script in Ethiopia), we found some similar developmental patterns, but also differences, for example to what degree the English loan word has replaced local curses and in what ways among social groups within a country. Comparing the terms used for the same concept was challenging because some countries have better text corpora and more research on written languages and especially on taboos, and those without such resources required additional minor investigations for a baseline. Findings revealed that fuck has spread worldwide from English, and it is commonly used in Nordic languages today. In Russian fuck is also adopted into the heritage language to a relatively high degree, and it has further gained importance in the vocabulary of India, where English has become the most used language by the higher and middle classes, but less so by lower classes. In contrast, the study of Amharic language in Ethiopia shows that the f-word is rarely used at all, and only by youngsters. We found a pattern starting from the outer North with Icelandic having adapted and adopted the word fuck the most, a slight decline in use in Norwegian and Danish, with less adaption and use in Russian, even less in Indian-English or Hindi, and being more or less absent in the African language Amharic. Formally though it is used conceptually both in Hindi and Amharic.
About the authors
Ruth Eldbjørg Vatvedt Fjeld is Professor of Nordic Linguistics at University of Oslo since 1998, specialized in lexicography and dialectology. She served as language counsellor for Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation for 12 years and has lead several research projects. She has published in a variety of linguistic topics with 245 articles and books, primarily in lexicography and LSP, and edited several dictionaries. She has recently published a dictionary of cursing, Norsk banneordbok (2018).
Elsa Kristiansen is Professor of Management at the University of South-Eastern Norway. She has published over 50 articles and book chapters in the areas of sport psychology (e.g., motivation, coping with stress) and sport management (e.g., volunteerism, stakeholders involved in talent development, event management). Kristiansen has a Cand. Philol in Scandinavian Languages and Literature from the University in Oslo (1995), and an M.Sc (2005) and PhD in Sport Science from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (2011).
Marianne Rathje is a postdoc at University of Southern Denmark. Her research is focusing on language use in digital media, language norms online, and aggressive language use, including swearing. One of her newest publications is “Swearing in Danish Children’s Television Series” from Kristy Beers-Fägersten and Karyn Stapleton (eds.): Advances in Swearing: New languages, new contexts from 2017.
Veturliði Óskarsson received his PhD-degree from Uppsala University in 2001. He was professor of Icelandic language at the University of Iceland from 2006 to 2010 and since 2012 he has been professor of Nordic Languages at Uppsala University. His main research interests are foreign influence on the Icelandic language through the centuries, late medieval and modern Icelandic language history, and early modern Icelandic philology.
Natalia Konstantinovskaia is originally from Khabarovsk, Russia. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Japanese Language from the Far Eastern State University of Humanities. In 2017, she received a PhD in Japanese Linguistics from University of California, Los Angeles. She is currently teaching Japanese language at Stanford University.
Inayat Gill is originally from Punjab, India. She graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Psychology from Jesus and Mary College, in New Delhi, India. Her interests lie in Management (Event Management, Operations, Client Services and Handling, etc.) and Sports Psychology (Exercise and Athletic Performance, Motivation, Stress and Emotional Coping, etc). She is currently working in the Management field in New Delhi.
Fekede Menuta is associate Professor of Applied linguistics and Communication in Ethiopia at Hawassa University in the Department of Language and Literature. He teaches linguistics and communication courses in the postgraduate program of Linguistics and Communication Studies. He has published several articles, book chapters and a few books. He is interested in both descriptive and applied linguistics researches including phonology, morphology, syntax, socio-linguistics, pragmatics and discourse.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Dr Gerda Wever for her help with the proofreading of this article, and also the valuable input from two anonymous reviewers.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Keeping up appearances: Impression management in native and non-native speakers of four languages
- Investigating pragmatic abilities in young Finnish adults using the Assessment Battery for Communication
- Metapragmatic comments in web-based intercultural peer evaluation
- Forum
- The worldwide use and meaning of the f-word
- Book Reviews
- Marta Dynel Jan Chovanec: Participation in Public and Social Media Interaction
- Book Review
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Keeping up appearances: Impression management in native and non-native speakers of four languages
- Investigating pragmatic abilities in young Finnish adults using the Assessment Battery for Communication
- Metapragmatic comments in web-based intercultural peer evaluation
- Forum
- The worldwide use and meaning of the f-word
- Book Reviews
- Marta Dynel Jan Chovanec: Participation in Public and Social Media Interaction
- Book Review
