Foreign Cuss Word: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

The use of foreign curses that, in their country of origin, would be considered much more offensive to use on television or outright censored. Sometimes the pronunciation is deliberately mangled to obscure it even more. On American television, British and Spanish swears (especially ''cojones'') are popular.

 

Compare [[Pardon My Klingon]], [[Unusual Euphemism]], [[Did Not Do the Bloody Research]], and [[Foreign Language Tirade]]. Sometimes an adjunct of [[Poirot Speak]]. Often a way of [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* Since [[Tiffany Grant|her voice actress]] speaks German with some degree of fluency, Asuka's dialogue in the original TV and movie dubs of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' is periodically peppered with German swearing.

** In the Manga (Japanese and English) that is literally the first word out of her mouth (actually, "Scheiße!", as written). Second if you count a filler exclamation sound as a word.

* ''[[Konjiki no Gash Bell]]'': [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] Victoream regularly uses the phrase "Very shit" on a show generally targeted at a younger age group. Generally translated for American audiences as "Very bad".

** VERY MELON

 

 

* During the early run of ''[[New Mutants]]'', Sunspot got away with swearing by doing it in Portuguese.

** This continued in the original run of ''[[X-Force]]'', both for Sunspot (in Portuguese) and his teammate Rictor (in Spanish).

 

 

 

 

* In the [[Artemis Fowl]] series by Eoin Colfer, Fairies often use the Gnomish curse word "D'arvit". It's noted in the first book that "if translated into English, this book would not be allowed to be published."

* A minor (but suitably irritating) character in Joseph Heller's ''[[Catch-22]]'' is named Scheisskopf (his wife being the lovely Mrs Scheisskopf).

* It used to be common for translators of bawdy works in Latin or other romance languages to leave seamier passages in the original language, so that they could only be read by "gentlemen".

** Stephen Jay Gould reported that the only reason his father mentioned to study Latin was to translate the passages in Kraft-Ebbing's ''Psychopathia Sexualis''. Since the book was published in 1886, this makes this trope [[Older Than Radio]].

** A bit later, the Loeb edition of Suetonius's ''Twelve Caesars'' had a page or two of his biography of Tiberius left untranslated. They were the pages about his rumoured debauchery on the island of Capri. Might have been corrected in later printings since newer translations generally include the passage.

** Liddell and Scott's ''[[Liddell And Scott Greek-English Lexicon A|Greek-English Lexicon]]'' (first published 1819, still the standard dictionary for Classical Greek) frequently gives sexual meanings in Latin. One of the great joys of taking Latin is to read literary masters call their critics or rivals, "donkey brained shitheads".

** The literal translation is ''just'' "Don't joke with me", as it's simply a contraction of the phrase "Fuzakeruna yo!". While this grammar usage is indeed ''really'' rude ("-na" suffix' dictionary definition 'IS'' "suffix for rude verb negation"), it's not strictly swearing. But in Japanese the more you maim the word in pronunciation, the ruder it gets, so the correct translation of the title would be indeed "Don't fuck with me". Yes, it's [[Mind Screw|that kind of language]].

* [[Dave Barry]]'s column "Europe on Five Vowels a Day" gives three "idiomatic expressions" commonly used by foreigners, with translations. "Ach du lieber!" and "Caramba!" are both translated as [[Gosh Dang It to Heck|"Darn it!"]] The French phrase "Zut alors!", however, is translated as, "Look! A lors!"

* [[Dale Brown]] is fond of making characters drop into untranslated, say, [[Gratuitous Russian]] oaths.

* [[Ernest Hemingway]] made extensive use of this in ''For Whom The Bell Tolls.'' The Spanish-speaking characters have their dialogue written in [[Blind Idiot Translation|awkwardly literal]] English, but expletives [[Bowdlerise|appear as]] "muck" and "befoul" and even "obscenity" ("Go and obscenity thyself"). However, when the Spanish is left untranslated, it's "mierda" (shit - noun), "cagar" (shit - verb, as in "take a shit") and "joder" (fuck - both the verb and the interjection) all the way.

* In the last ''[[Animorphs]]'' book, Jake uses [["Three Laws"-Compliant|the Chee's non-violence programming]] to force them to help him end the war, and [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|Erek]] drops into a language he doesn't understand for about thirty seconds.

{{quote|'''Jake:''' ...what was that?

** Also in the pilot where Sophie calls Nate a "wanker" when he's arrested her.

* In the pilot episode of ''[[Lost]]'', Sawyer (a Southern redneck) accuses Sayid (an Iraqi) of having caused the plane to crash. During the ensuing fight and argument, Sayid calls Sawyer "Ibn al-Kalb", which is Arabic for son of a bitch.

** For reference, the actual translation is "My God." Same basic exclamation as in English.

** In ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', Dr. Radek Zelenka is played by David Nykl, who speaks fluent Czech. [[Word of God]] says only about half of Zelenka's Czech lines are scripted, and Czech fans have confirmed that not only is there a lot of uncensored swearing, he sometimes [[Bilingual Bonus|breaks the fourth wall]].

{{quote|Zelenka: I'm trying, do prdele! (The last two words are Czech and aren't very polite.)]] }}

* LeBeau of ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]'' swears in French, or at least seems to.

* In the Japanese series ''[[Cutie Honey]] [[Live Action Adaptation|The Live]]'', the character Duke Watari is noticeably fond of screaming out "SHIT!" whenever he gets upset about something.

** Similarly in ''[[Soul Eater]]'' Free sometimes yells "GODDAMN SHIT" after messing up.

== Music ==

* Richie Kavanagh's song "Aon Focal Eile" - a hybrid English-Irish song about a teacher teaching Irish. ''She said 'Aon focal, dá focal, trúir focal, eile' - and I not knowin' no focal at all''. Translated to English means, ''She said 'One word, two words, three words, another' - and I not knowin no word at all''. The humour is from the fact that "Focal" (an Irish word meaning "word") is pronounced "Fuckal".

 

 

 

 

* In ''[[God Hand]]'', Elvis is inherently fond of swearing in Spanish in a regular basis. Most notable in the battle quotes ("Time to play, pendejo!" "¡No hablo inglés, cabrón!").

* The Spanish-speaking [[Not Using the Z Word|Ganados]] of ''[[Resident Evil]] 4'' use some words that, if translated, would probably crank the game's rating up. And it's already [[Rated "M" for Money]].

 

 

* ''[[Twokinds]]'': What Flora says when she breaks her foot is apparantly "untranslatable".

* ''[[The Dreadful]]'': Erin's final words are [[Defiant to the End|"Leck mich."]]<ref>Short for "Leck mich am Arsch.", literally "Lick me on the ass.", German version of "Kiss my ass."</ref>

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Futurama]]'' has Amy occasionally cursing in Cantonese.

** [[Bilingual Bonus|She was mostly just saying the names of everyday object in a derisive tone of voice.]]

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:These Tropes Should Watch Their Language]]

[[Category:Language Tropes]]