Quebec French profanity

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Mailbox sign using French-Canadian profanity. The closest English translation of sentiment and severity is "No fucking advertising". Template:Lang is the strongest form of that Template:Lang, derived from Template:Lang (where the Eucharist is stored, in Roman Catholicism).

Quebec French profanities,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> known as Template:Lang (singular: Template:Lang; from the verb Template:Lang, "to consecrate"), are words and expressions related to Catholicism and its liturgy that are used as strong profanities in Quebec French (the main variety of Canadian French), Acadian French (spoken in Maritime Provinces, east of Quebec, and parts of Aroostook County, Maine, in the United States), and traditionally French-speaking areas across Canada. Template:Lang are considered stronger in Québec than the sexual and scatological profanities common to other varieties of French, (such as Template:Lang, "shit").<ref name="Nosowitz">Template:Cite web</ref>

History

The Template:Lang originated in the early 19th century, when the social control exerted by the Catholic clergy was increasingly a source of frustration.<ref name="Nosowitz"/> One of the oldest Template:Lang is Template:Lang, which can be thought of as the Franco-Canadian equivalent of the English "goddamn it". It is known to have been in use as early as the 1830s.Template:Citation needed The word Template:Lang in its current meaning is believed to come from the expression Template:Lang ("Don't say that, it is sacred/holy"). Eventually, Template:Lang started to refer to the words Quebecers were not supposed to say. This is likely related to the commandment "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" (Exodus 20:7). The influence and social importance of Catholicism at that time allowed Template:Lang to become powerful forms of profanity.

As a result of the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec has declined but the profanity still remains in use today.<ref name="Nosowitz"/>

List of common Template:Lang

These Template:Lang are commonly given in a phonetic spelling to indicate the differences in pronunciation from the original word, several of which (notably, the deletion of final consonants and change of Template:IPA to Template:IPA before Template:IPA) are typical of informal Quebec French. The nouns here can also be modified for use as verbs (see "Non-profane uses", below). Additionally, some forms, notably Template:Lang and Template:Lang, can become semi-adjectival when followed by Template:Lang, as in Template:Lang (Scram, you fucking cat!); Template:Lang is often added at the end for extra emphasis.

Often, several of these words are strung together when used adjectivally, as in Template:Lang (see "Intricate forms", below) and many combinations are possible. Since swear words are voluntarily blasphemous, the spellings are usually different from the words from which they originate. For example, Template:Lang can be written Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, and so on. There is no general agreement on how to write these words, and the Office québécois de la langue française does not regulate them.

Mild forms

Most Template:Lang have modified, milder euphemistic forms (see minced oath). Such forms are not usually considered nearly as rude as the original.<ref name="Nosowitz"/> They are the equivalent of English words such as "gosh", "heck", or "darn". Many of the euphemistic forms are only similar-sounding to religious terms, so are considered not to denigrate the Church directly.<ref>Archived at GhostarchiveTemplate:Cbignore and the Wayback MachineTemplate:Cbignore: Template:Cite videoTemplate:Cbignore </ref>

The following are also considered milder profanity:

Sometimes older people unable to bring themselves to swear with church words or their derivatives would make up ostensibly innocuous phrases, such as Template:Lang (literally, "five or six boxes of green tomatoes", Template:Lang being slang for Template:Lang, "green"). This phrase when pronounced quickly by a native speaker sounds like Template:Lang ("holy ciborium of the tabernacle"). Another example of a benign word that is church sounding is Template:Lang, which was simply an anglicism for "coal-tar", but pronounced just so, sounds like a merged Template:Lang and Template:Lang ("harm").

Intricate forms

Graffiti in Montreal, Quebec (loosely translated as "We don't give a fuck [about] the special law")

In Québec French, swear words can be combined into more powerful combinations to express extreme anger or disgust.<ref name="Nosowitz"/> These intricate uses of French profanities can be difficult to master. The combinations are endless; some people in both Quebec and francophone communities in other provinces consider mixing and matching swear words to be a sort of skilled art.

Use

A very strong way to express anger or frustration is to use the words Template:Lang, Template:Lang, and Template:Lang. Depending on the context and the tone of the phrases, it might make everybody quiet, but some people use these words to add rhythm or emphasis to sentences.

Usually, more than one of these words is used in Franco-Canadian profanity. The words are simply connected with Template:Lang (of), without any restrictions. Long strings of invective can be connected in this way, and the resulting expression does not have to have any concrete meaning—for example, Template:Lang (literally, "My host of (the) holy sacrament of (the) chalice of Christ"). Non-religious terms may also be strung together in this way, as in Template:Lang (literally, "My Christ of (a) car is broken, chalice of (the) tabernacle").<ref name="Nosowitz"/> In areas where English is also commonly spoken, English expletives are often inserted. Template:Lang ("Fuck [the] host") is common in Quebec.

The adjective Template:Lang (with meanings varying from "crazy, disturbed" to "broken down") is much milder than "fucked" is in English. It is routinely used in, for instance, TV sitcom dialogue.<ref name="Nosowitz"/> The same goes for "shit" (which in Quebec French is used only as an interjection expressing dismay, never as the noun for excrement). When used as a verb, Template:Lang (literally, "Go shit"), means not to excrete but rather to "fuck off". When used in the past-tense Template:Lang, it is used exactly as Template:Lang: Template:Lang ("My shoes are fucked", literally: "My shoes are shitted").

Even English-language dialogue containing these words can appear on Quebec French-language television without bleeping. For example, in 2003, when punks rioted in Montreal because a concert by the band The Exploited had been cancelled, TV news reporters solemnly read out a few lyrics and song titles from their album Fuck the System. The same is not true of Quebec's English-language television stations, which follow the same guidelines as other stations in Canada. In November 2017 the CRTC ruled that "fuck" is not a swear word in French.<ref>Template:Cite news </ref>

Non-profane uses

A slang term with the preposition Template:Lang means "a lot of": Template:Lang (or Template:Lang, etc.) means "a lot of food", similar to English constructs such as "fuck-ton" or "shitload".

Template:Lang are often used as verbs too. For example, Template:Lang means "to beat the fuck out of", "to kick one's ass" or, more literally, "to give a beating", where Template:Lang is used as a stronger form of "to give" (Template:Lang in French). There are constructions like Template:Lang or Template:Lang, which means "to leave" or "to destroy", using the Template:Lang prefix, which is about separation. Others include Template:Lang or Template:Lang ("to not give a damn"), Template:Lang or Template:Lang ("to run away"), and Template:Lang. Some are even found as adverbs, such as Template:Lang, meaning "very" or "extremely", as in Template:Lang ("This is really good"). Template:Lang or Template:Lang can mean "extremely angry".

In the movie Bon Cop, Bad Cop, Quebec actor and stand-up comic Patrick Huard's character teaches Colm Feore's how to swear properly.<ref>Archived at GhostarchiveTemplate:Cbignore and the Wayback MachineTemplate:Cbignore: Template:Cite videoTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

These expressions are found less commonly in literature, but rappers and other singers often use Template:Lang and Template:Lang as a rhyme. More traditional singers also use these words, such as Quebec singer Plume Latraverse.

One fine example of the use of Template:Lang as different word classes is a dialogue by Template:Lang called Template:Lang. The phrase Template:Lang ("Jules, who was irritated, violently ejected Jacques, who was angry.") becomes Template:Lang ("That fucker, who was pissed off, kicked out that dickhead, who was fucking furious.") with each content word (noun, verb, adjective or adverb) replaced with a profane synonym. This usage of Template:Lang is similar to the form of Russian swearing known as Template:Transliteration.

Possible Protestant origin

The expression of ideas linked to the Protestant (Huguenot) faith can be considered, looking at both the initial meaning expressed by the swear words and the geographic origin of the settlers of New-France.

Since the roughly twenty initial words have generated close to four-hundred euphemisms<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and thousands of set constructions, all equally present in all regions of Quebec, it would make more sense to have them begin their development at an earlier time than the mid-nineteenth century.

Meaning

The main Quebec swear words refer to aspects of Catholic worship and practice that Calvinists have historically rejected or objected to, including eucharistic adoration, transubstantiation, the Virgin Mary (viarge) and simony (simonaque). They are expressed in French rather than Latin.

«The reformers unanimously rejected transubstantiation, … understand that words alone are not strong enough to illustrate this philosophy.» and «You have to understand the hatred they feel in the face of what they perceive as a fraud.»<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Settler origin

16th-century religious geopolitics on a map of modern France
Origins of immigrants to New France from 1608 - 1700

About a third of the established settlers came from the Pays de Caux in the Northern part of Normandie «The Pays de Caux... formed a kind of triangle bounded by the port cities of Rouen, Dieppe and Le Havre. These three communities stand out as the only real points of concentration (settler provenance in Normandy)»<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> also «The Pays de Caux housed probably the largest concentration of rural Protestants north of the Loire»<ref name=Benedict>Template:Cite journal</ref> and another third from the Poitou area (which includes Angoumois, Aunis, Saintonge), where lived France's greatest concentrations of Huguenots at that time.<ref name=Benedict/>

This fact has already been noted in a different context «The geographical areas where women were recruited coincide with the Protestant areas.»<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

It appears that throughout the New-France period, settlement originated from French Protestant strongholds as the increasing pressure from the Counter-Reformation made it harder and harder for them to live in France. This would suggest that Quebec swear words were originally an expression of their religious principles.

Comparison to other languages

The use of liturgical profanity is not unique to Canadian French or Quebec. In Italian, although to a lesser extent, some analogous words are in use: in particular, Template:Lang (host) and (more so in the past) Template:Lang are relatively common expressions in the northeast, which are lighter (and a little less common) than the typical blasphemies in use in Italy, such as Template:Lang (pig god) and Template:Lang (see Italian profanity). Modifying the terms into euphemistic equivalents is used in Italy; for example, Template:Lang is commonly modified to Template:Lang (a type of restaurant). The word Template:Lang has produced the verb Template:Lang, which colloquially means "to use blasphemy".

Other dialects in the world feature this kind of profanity, such as the expressions Template:Lang and Template:Lang in Austro-Bavarian and Template:Lang in Czech. Template:Lang is an expletive expression in some Spanish dialects. In Catalan, Template:Lang is used and is frequently abbreviated to Template:Lang. Spanish also uses Template:Lang ("I shit on ...") followed by "God", "the blessed chalice", "the Virgin" and other terms, religious or not. It can be shortened to just Template:Lang or Template:Lang ("Blessed chalice!"). In Romanian, the profanity Template:Lang ("Your mother's host!") is sometimes used with "Easter", "Christ", "Cross", "Commemoration" (Template:Lang), "sacred oil lamp" (Template:Lang), "God", "Church", etc.

Sheila Fischman's translation of La Guerre, yes Sir! (published under that title in French and English and meaning roughly "War, you bet!"), by Roch Carrier, leaves many Template:Lang in the original Quebec French, since they have no real equivalent in English. She gives a brief explanation and history of these terms in her introduction, including a few not listed here. At a crucial point in the story, a boy swears in the presence of his father. For the first time, instead of beating or punishing his son, the father swears back. This represents the boy's passage into manhood.

Irish Catholics of old employed a similar practice, whereby "ejaculations" were used to express frustration without cursing or profaning (taking the Lord's name in vain). This typically involved the recitation of a rhyming couplet, where a shocked person might say, "Jesus who, for love of me / Died on the Cross at Calvary" instead of "Jesus!" This is often abbreviated simply to "Jesus-hoo-fer-luv-a-me", an expression still heard among elderly Irish people. "Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" is used in Quebec French: Template:Lang

Hungarians, primarily Catholics, follow the same suit: instead of Template:Lang (God) or as a curse, Template:Lang (the God of it!), they often use another word which also begins with Template:Lang: Template:Lang (the school of it!) or Template:Lang (the stable of it!).

See also

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References

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