What's so great about French profanity?

Question

I'm not a French speaker, but I find myself with a question about the French language. I have recently encountered multiple independent sources (movies, books, etc) in which French-speaking characters insist that profanity in French is much more... something that in other languages. Elegant, maybe? Expressive? That it is in some way better than, and more importantly different from, profanity in English.

For example, in The Matrix Reloaded, the Merovingian makes a point of saying that cursing in French is like "wiping your ass with silk," and has a whole mini-monologue about it. Similarly, in the Timeline-191 series of novels, a character in Quebec mentions that he finds English profanity distasteful because it centers around bodily functions, implying that French profanity does not.

I've run into this idea several times in several unrelated places, enough to where it seems to be referencing something real (and not just the personal opinion of a single character). Is this simply an example of French being highly regarded in general, or is profanity in French somehow different from profanity in other languages?

Answer 1

Swearing in Quebec-French is... special.

The words originate from religious artifacts, but nobody in Quebec utters any of these words thinking anything religion-related. Besides nobody says "tabernacle".

What's so great about them is that, a bit like the English F-word, any of the Quebec-French swear words can be (and are!) used as nouns, verbs, adverbs and pronouns - and combined with each other in much colorful ways; usually the longer the sequence, the better the "relief" and the stronger the effect:

Sacrament d'esti d'câlisse de tabarnak de sans-dessein d'morron d'crisse de twitt de marde!

Like Circeus said, one can keep stringing them as long as they have breath available - it's the way the words flow and string together and accumulate and build up into a verbal climax-grade relief (seriously.. I can't imagine saying just "ouch! putain!" if I hit my thumb with a hammer) that makes Quebec-French swearing the way it is.

Now, that's for the outrageous kind.

There's also the mild kind, where the swear words are used pretty much like punctuation; seems to me that's closer to how English swear words are used.

Answer 2

No, there's nothing inherently special about French profanity. It's just a reference to the fact that many people consider French to be one of the most beautiful languages, and therefore even its "ugly words" are beautiful.

a character in Quebec mentions that he finds English profanity distasteful because it centers around bodily functions, implying that French profanity does not.

That's nonsense, there's plenty of French profanity related to bodily functions.

Answer 3

I always thought that what the Mérovingien referred to was the capability of French to string together a whole bunch of swearwords into a single noun phrase(1). THAT is what "rolls off the tongue" rather than anything related to the meaning of the words. You can keep going almost indefinitely. My father can keep stringing them as long as he's got breath available.

I don't get the feeling that you can easily and naturally string more than two or maybe three English swearwords the way French does without requiring some form of enumeration.

(1) Although by the end of the one he utters it's more an insult than a swear: I don't think enculé de ta mère, although extremely vulgar, is normally considered a profanity

Answer 4

In the movie you speak of, the Merovingian (Lambert Wilson) says :

Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d’enculé de ta mère.

IMDB fails at properly quoting this (it is not motherf....., but rather of your mother). It is the preposition de which allows all this striging into a single noun phrase; and this is a common thread with both France and Québec. It's there in English too with s.o.b. and p.o.s. (son/piece of (a) ...).

The lexicon of the sacre québécois is well documented and grounded in its history, just like any usage. The topic, and difference with the France counterpart, is often stereotyped indeed, and as someone else put it, it is certainly not like one deals exclusively with religion and the other with bodily functions. In France they also have this rich tradition for the religious related swear words in literature; nom de dieu is one such expression. In the quote, you can easily recognize the words God - whore - dirt - shit - idiot - f...er/ed - mother ; in English the f-word can replace all intensifiers too etc. so you could (technically) have: You goddamn dirty f...in' s.o.b.. There is no noticeable preposition linking in between components which would separate/showcase them and create the encasing and rhythm you find with the quote in French. Lexicon, however interesting, is overrated, and this is mostly about syntax in my opinion.