The reason why it's four-letter words in English is that swear words tend to be monosyllabic and most English monosyllabic words have 4 letters. (Note: not all four-letter words in English have 4 letters.)

Anyway for other languages: in Dutch for example monosyllabic words tend to have 3 letters and they indeed sometimes call their "bad" words "three letter words".

New words like ‘courriel’ for ‘email’ become normative for usage in French at all levels and are incorporated into word processors etc. If I used ‘email’ in a French text at work, it would be flagged as an error in my spelling and grammar checker because my language setting is *français (Canadian)*.

@adriano @blogdiva

Beyond that incorporation of anglicisms is not tolerated or endorsed the way it is in France. We use ‘courriel’, not ‘email’; ‘fin de semaine’ not ‘weekend’ as daily examples of anglicisms that are dictionary-words accepted in France but not here.

Inside the OQLF: How inspectors hunt English signs, receipts and service

Long hidden from public view, the inner workings of OQLF inspections and the profiles of its inspectors are revealed in internal documents obtained by The Gazette.

Montreal Gazette (montrealgazette.com)

@adriano @blogdiva

- YouTube

Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.

(www.youtube.com)

I had a colleague from Belarus and her absolutely X rated running commentary had people literally crying with suppressed laughter at what she said

This is funny as this woman is so composed speaking perfect Russian and tells the drivers where to go in the most coarse language

Репортаж про пешеходный переход

Неудачные дубли местнячкового ТВ про изменения в правилах дорожного движения. (Новосибирская область)

YouTube (www.youtube.com)

Philippines has Bakla https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakla#Swardspeak

But can you expand on "Quebecois French authorities are always on the alert for ‘anglicismes’."?

Does this mean entities get fined for using foreign words? I'm picturing a sort referee taking out a red card when someone misuses an English word! 🤭

it’s just a coincidence that there’s quite a few swear words with four letters

Perhaps the closest thing is "Jugendwörter" ("youth words"), loosely referring to teenage slang and a ittle more closely referring especially to words nominated for the "Jugendwort des Jahres" ("youth word of the year") award? That's the only named collection of words I can think of that are connected not by genre (noun/verb/etc).

(All of this is German, btw)

Quebecois French authorities are always on the alert for ‘anglicismes’.

Even so, there are calques, as well as local idiomatic usage and expressions, that exist in both English and French where there is a high level of bilingualism. e.g. people in western Quebec and Eastern Ontario often use the verb ‘to close’ / ‘fermer’ rather than ‘shut down’ / ‘éteindre’ their computer. It’s not considered correct English or French but it’s what’s commonly used.

@blogdiva @afreytes

Thank you! I love that!