Semi serious question, (please do not ask "AI") I can do web searches just fine so please answer from your own experience:
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Some replies seem to answer the question as: What are "four letter words" called in your language?
And that is NOT necessarily what I am asking.
Imagine, that in your language, the informal names for mammals all had 6 letters and always ended in "mu". Dog is a dogymu and cat is katymu. And in your language they colloquially call this "The Mu Group".
Doesn't have to be a letter limit either, could be any arbitrary thing that isn't just "all the verbs", "all the adjectives", etc
@afreytes Would "the wh- words" count as this in English? It doesn't include all the interrogative adverbs, but it includes enough of them to demarcate the group in an informal way
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@afreytes When I visited Sweden, the term fika (coffeebreak) was explained to me as a common linguistic flipperoo (co-fee became fee-ca) kinda like cockney rhyming slang standing in for the real words. But I’m not a Swedish speaker, and I wasn’t given any other examples. Can a Swedish speaker weigh in? Is there a name for this type of wordplay/category of words? Or was I misled and fika is a standalone?
@Sharonybaloney oh I love this!!!
Know I want to know if this is a thing!! I want it to be a thing!
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@afreytes Would "the wh- words" count as this in English? It doesn't include all the interrogative adverbs, but it includes enough of them to demarcate the group in an informal way
@jmopp Yes, yes it would. But I want to know about languages other than English.
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@Sharonybaloney oh I love this!!!
Know I want to know if this is a thing!! I want it to be a thing!
@afreytes @Sharonybaloney there is the same in french, called verlan.
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@Sharonybaloney oh I love this!!!
Know I want to know if this is a thing!! I want it to be a thing!
@afreytes I hope so too, or I’ll feel a bit foolish. But I also liked your question and could think of other arbitrary word groupings in English (eggcorns, nicknames (dick for richard?! Polly for Mary?!?! Definitely a particular Thing)) and wanted to follow to see what comes up. I feel your frustration trying to get past the dirty word association and into the arbitrariness and letter association of the groupings.
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@afreytes @Sharonybaloney there is the same in french, called verlan.
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@afreytes When I visited Sweden, the term fika (coffeebreak) was explained to me as a common linguistic flipperoo (co-fee became fee-ca) kinda like cockney rhyming slang standing in for the real words. But I’m not a Swedish speaker, and I wasn’t given any other examples. Can a Swedish speaker weigh in? Is there a name for this type of wordplay/category of words? Or was I misled and fika is a standalone?
@Sharonybaloney @afreytes Yes it is one of the theories about the origin of the word, it said be started either among "jailbirds" in Stockholm in early 19th centurey (improbable) or more probable as a "leak" from a secret language amongst worker in a certain cultural region (they made many words by switch start and end) and propagated by pedlars around the country and becoming popular.
The start word was kaffi, that was a dialect word for kaffe (coffee). -
@Sharonybaloney @afreytes Yes it is one of the theories about the origin of the word, it said be started either among "jailbirds" in Stockholm in early 19th centurey (improbable) or more probable as a "leak" from a secret language amongst worker in a certain cultural region (they made many words by switch start and end) and propagated by pedlars around the country and becoming popular.
The start word was kaffi, that was a dialect word for kaffe (coffee).@GoblinQuester @Sharonybaloney when you say "jailbirds" in quotes, what do you mean? Not arguing, just curious.
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@GoblinQuester @Sharonybaloney when you say "jailbirds" in quotes, what do you mean? Not arguing, just curious.
@afreytes @Sharonybaloney Criminals that was going in and out of a local jail in Stockholm. Small times career criminals that frequented that institution often.
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Semi serious question, (please do not ask "AI") I can do web searches just fine so please answer from your own experience:
In English, you have "four letter words", these words have four letters but are perhaps not to be used in polite communication.
In OTHER languages: Are there any other "group of words constrained by arbitrary rules"?
Does NOT have to be an offensive group of words, but more like a grouping outside the traditional language syntax.
(no answer? please boost)
@afreytes
in japanese you can use the word crap in a very disrespectful way, but you can also use the same word with your teacher. It's all about context.semi-related, but I've noticed that English swears follow similar sounds. they usually have either deep 'uh' sounds, sharp 'ih' sounds, or some kind of 'aa' sound.
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Semi serious question, (please do not ask "AI") I can do web searches just fine so please answer from your own experience:
In English, you have "four letter words", these words have four letters but are perhaps not to be used in polite communication.
In OTHER languages: Are there any other "group of words constrained by arbitrary rules"?
Does NOT have to be an offensive group of words, but more like a grouping outside the traditional language syntax.
(no answer? please boost)
@afreytes In Spanish, there are many words that are considered rude and should not be used in polite conversation, but people do not refrain about using them when they want to use them like I've noticed Americans do when they say 'f-ing instead of... well, you know. They are not four-letter words either.
In some circles there are specific words that other groups not use, but I am guessing that's universal.
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@afreytes In Spanish, there are many words that are considered rude and should not be used in polite conversation, but people do not refrain about using them when they want to use them like I've noticed Americans do when they say 'f-ing instead of... well, you know. They are not four-letter words either.
In some circles there are specific words that other groups not use, but I am guessing that's universal.
@tedel thanks, but the question is NOT about offensive words.
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@afreytes
in japanese you can use the word crap in a very disrespectful way, but you can also use the same word with your teacher. It's all about context.semi-related, but I've noticed that English swears follow similar sounds. they usually have either deep 'uh' sounds, sharp 'ih' sounds, or some kind of 'aa' sound.
@midnakrystal Thanks, but the question is NOT about offensive words per se, but about groups of words... Groups hopefully being more than two.
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@midnakrystal Thanks, but the question is NOT about offensive words per se, but about groups of words... Groups hopefully being more than two.
@afreytes
my bad lol i am terrible at reading aha -
@afreytes Norwegian: No arbitrary description like "Four Letter Word". There are descriptive words for the group, that would be like "cuss-words" "power-expressions" "unpolished language".
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Semi serious question, (please do not ask "AI") I can do web searches just fine so please answer from your own experience:
In English, you have "four letter words", these words have four letters but are perhaps not to be used in polite communication.
In OTHER languages: Are there any other "group of words constrained by arbitrary rules"?
Does NOT have to be an offensive group of words, but more like a grouping outside the traditional language syntax.
(no answer? please boost)
Someone once pointed out my use of " the isms" as in racism, sexism, theism, etc.
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Don't know of any similar arbitrary grouping in French or Arabic.
Similarly I wonder what other languages do about "teenagers", do they just say "adolescents" or do they also have an arbitrary group of ages based on prefixes or suffixes?
Tugging on the teenager thread, I found out that the Polish equivalent is 11-19 and the Hungarian one is 10-19 because of the way the words for those numbers are formed.
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@afreytes I'm not aware of any in Polish: I think more of groups of objects than words. But we have "cztery litery" ("four letters") as one of the euphemisms for buttocks, referencing two such four letter words.
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@CorvidCrone @afreytes Some call it legalese.
I've also heard of "psychobabble" and lately of therapy speak, especially in the context of weaponising it.
Also technobabble.
But all of them in English.
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Semi serious question, (please do not ask "AI") I can do web searches just fine so please answer from your own experience:
In English, you have "four letter words", these words have four letters but are perhaps not to be used in polite communication.
In OTHER languages: Are there any other "group of words constrained by arbitrary rules"?
Does NOT have to be an offensive group of words, but more like a grouping outside the traditional language syntax.
(no answer? please boost)
@afreytes I'm not sure this fits the bill, but your query made me think of reduplicatives in Tagolog, which indicate emphasis, intensity, speed, etc. For example, mabilis-mabilis (fast becomes very fast), araw-araw (day becomes every day), ganda-ganda (beauty to most beautiful).
