But Jack Grieve, a British forensic linguist at Aston University, has looked into the American geography of profanity. Now here we have some surprises. For instance, the word shit is widespread from East Texas up the Southern and Atlantic coasts until New York City. By way of contrast, it is infrequently used in Maine, the Appalachian region, the mountainous West, and parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin.
(Areas in orange use the word more; areas in blue use it less.)
(Areas in orange use the word more; areas in blue use it less.)
Contrast this with the usage of the F-bomb. There's a fuck belt running from Brownsville to New Orleans. This picks up near Atlanta and runs along the Eastern seaboard up well into Maine. And Californians are well comfortable with this word. Apparently, it is more taboo in the inland states
Or the use of the word asshole. Very clearly New Englanders, New Yorkers, and Pennsylvanians use that word collectively more often while Southerners less so. I think that in the South that word falls into the category of fighting word. I remember some research in which Southerners were more likely to respond autonomically to that stimulus.
The word damn seems to have high potency across the Deep South. Maybe this is from that old time religion, or the penchant of some to refer to damned Yankees. (There was actually a play with that title about the Bronx Bombers, specifically).
And, looking at minced profane word, gosh definitely has a regional usage, more frequently used in Eastern Tennessee and Kentucky, Texas, and Oklahoma. It's almost unheard in New England.
13 comments:
gosh made me smile. :)
You might notice that central Illinois is not colored for any of the profanity words. And it is true, as I still have trouble hearing it. My daddy never said a "cuss word" within my hearing range.
You have the smarts to do some really interesting and important research, Angel! To find hypothesis, operationalize them, and generate usable data is a talent and you got it!
Well damn that's interesting. And I have a chant that I'll put on here later.
I remember participating in a vote that crap was not a dirty word.
We're more moderaTe in profanity than the rest of Alabama,
Very interesting! I'd never thought of this kind of regional variation. I do hear a lot of swearing, but try to personally save it for extreme situations. I don't like to dilute my language.
I hope American taxpayers didn't have to pay for this. He would have had to get a very large sampling from throughout the country to come to any halfway accurate conclusion about this. These university guys have too much time on their hands. I don't care where I've gone in the U.S., I hear way too much profanity used without discretion and it includes all the words.
Arlee Bird
A to Z Challenge Co-host
Tossing It Out
I wonder if the data were collected in an election year?
Arlee Bird, the researcher was in the U.K. at a university there.
Bilbo, elections do bring out profanity in people.
Rammer, I never thought of that!
Thanks for the comments, all! I'm not into profanity myself, except as a language attribute linked with emotion.
Cajun French has a few all-purpose swear words.
Gosh darn, the cats out of the bag on this one! This was really interesting. :D BTW, are you joining this round of BoTB?
Looks like I'm in the blue, blue, blue for everything except "Gosh."
"What the what?" as Liz Lemon would say.
I decided not to put the chant here. If you send me an email I'll send it to you.
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