Re: Swearing in other cultures (was Langmaker.com and...)

Tristan McLeay wrote:

> On 3 Mar 2005, at 11.48 pm, Henrik Theiling wrote:
>
>> Hi!
>>
>> Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> writes:
>>
>>> ...
>>> Possibly a linguistic urban myth, but I heard that in parts of China,
>>> the
>>> ultimate insult is to tell someone "I'm your father", which of course
>>> implies
>>> "I fucked your mother". I suppose they were much amused by Star Wars.
>>> ...
>>
>>
>> Hmm, I only know 'His/Her mother's!' as a very bad Chinese insult, but
>> I don't know many...  This seemingly strange insult is insulting by
>> cultural agreement, it seems, and the real insult is just not
>> explicitly expressed. :-)
>
>
> I've heard 'your mum' used as an offensive insult on more than one
> occasion, usually from the mouths of (east) Asians, normally Vietnamese
> I think. I originally interpreted it as being abbreviated from the
> non-offensive insults like 'Your mum's so fat, she got a parking ticket
> while waiting to cross the road!', but the degree to which it offends
> suggested it probably came from something from their culture. The
> Chinese did have a strong influence over the Vietnamese in the past, so
> it seems even more likely.

No, it's quite common in Britain too.  Though not as an insult, but as
an ironic non-witty riposte.

ie.
"What's the answer to this?"
"Your[j@] mum"

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