The Tribe That Cursed Too Much - the linguistics behind Oceanic taboos
Вставка
- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- This island can out-swear you by a longshot. And you thought your language had a lot of bad words...
Honor the dead and rethink cursing as we run afoul of some major taboos in Oceania. This is the story of the Kwaio and their unique taboo language.
Dabbling in Malayo-Polynesian, I'm fascinated by this Oceanic contribution to linguistics: the idea that all curse words are part of a wider phenomenon called "taboo", and that a cultural mechanism stands behind taboo terms. I think I've finally found a way to tell their tale.
CREDITS
Art, animation and music by Josh
Images, sfx and Kwaio language credits:
docs.google.co...
It's clearly a drinking game that got out of hand.
Man I've just read ur answer and with that u made my day, good job!
@TheAwesomeAmericanWonder
Listen 'ere dagnabgoneit! Yew can't just insinuate things 'bout mah culture, got it?
This here country is the mighty finest on Earth, goshdarn digglynabbit consarnit!
I'm with Manictiger
It's like someone might have seen this, who was from the Island. Now how do you think they would feel.
... I think this can be said of pretty much everything.
Please do not utter the names of my ancestors: "The", "And", "One", "This", "That", "An", "Coca Cola".
"Coca-cola?" aw, inside of pig.
Orion D. Hunter
That’s my third-second beanie cousin-in-law’s nan
The
You sweared!
Ok i won't its actually quite easy
I'm Aboriginal Australian and it's taboo for people from most of our nations to say the name of a dead person- there is a warning on many TV shows here now if they may contain the voices or images of deceased indigenous persons. I suppose I should've expected we are not unique so it's cool to learn this taboo exists elsewhere, I'm glad ours is not as complicated as this though haha.
That's amusing to me, because it's the opposite for Black Americans. As a form of remembrance.
What does taboo mean?
@@quincy9908 not only black Americans but the rest of the world
@@xhstan
Google exists
@@xhstan taboo means "a ban on something that comes from social norms or aversion"
"An Island where every word can be a curse word" He's talking about Australia, right? XD
I don't get the joke...
trevor bgs
Have you ever been to Australia?
Boglenight, no, like most people I don't have the Money or time to fly around the world.
trevor bgs Well then of course you won't get the joke, ya dimwit, how can you expect to get the joke when you know nothing about Australia and have never been here?
Boglenight, I thought you would tell me.
Didn't something similar happen with the word "bear" in Europe?
People wouldn't say it in fear of accidentally summoning a bear, so we don't know what the original proto-indo-european root was, we just have various euphemisms.
The Germanic terms come from "brown", the slavic ones from "honey-eater", and latin and greek flat out took their words from "destroyer", and eventually in some places those terms themselves would be avoided by superstitious people, for example there was a tedency to say "Meister Petz" rather than "Bär" or "Misha" rather than "Medved", though modernity came along before that could fully replace the older words.
Still, obviously this case is a much more elaborate and dynamic phenomenon - I guess honoring the dead is serious business.
KendrixTermina maybe the proto-Indo-European speakers were fed up with summoning bears all the time
I had no idea about the bear thing. Thank you so much!
I'm not totally sure that it's real but there was a similar story about wolf in Turkish: ancient word for wolf was "börü" but people stopped using it for the same reason, and they switched to the word "kurt" that means a worm, which they thought a harmless animal. Still today, many people wouldn't utter "cin"(djinn, genie) but say "üç harfli"(with three letter) instead, in fear of summoning them.
It's made even more roundabout for languages with roots in animistic cultures like Hungarian. For instance, a whole host of animal names we use today are just roundabout descriptive terms: "farkas", "tailed thing" for wolf, "szarvas", "antlered thing" for stag, etc. Because of the thorough cultural assimilation (and the fact that nomadic tribes weren't the biggest fans of lasting written correspondence) we mostly don't even know what the original versions were well over a thousand years ago.
holy shit we do say honey eater in Slavic "medved". I never thought about it!
>be me
>adventurer
>land on island in oceania
>hungry, looking for food
>found by locals, given food and shelter
>learn a few basic words, like the word for food
>go to next town over to get food
>cuss at locals
>mfw i just pulled a gordon ramsay
Imagine if a kwaio speaker watches this video. My friend, stock up thy pigs.
The Flying Dolphin wtf r u talking about
@@bfhan4959 his uncle is called "speaker" so he felt insulted
..right..where are my pigs??
@@joshkooga7204 Based on your comments on this channel, I take it you're actually Kwaio? That's really cool if so, I find your culture fascinating
@@prim16 thank you..had no idea this kind of stuff would be of interest to anybody..and yes,i am,unfortunately,kwaio😀..
I am from Kwaio. And yes, that's so true, but we also we give nicknames for the adalo (devil or ancestor ) so that normal words are not used. Kwaio itself has many other language. East kwaio, west kwaio, Go'ikagu, Dori'o, 'ogou and many more. Most adalo's nicknamename is not known even in the tribe for only few people/highpriest (fataabu). This is one way we cannot curse.
How did these taboos even come about?
Go home, language, you are drunk.
I don't understand how they don't go mad with their language changing that fast :\
I don't know. I guess they have smaller communities where news about the language changing spreads very fast. Also I guess they got used to it.
In our society teenagers hate all what adults do or say, so they make some words taboo because that's how adults speak and if a teenager says those words then he is not cool, so they invent their own words or give other uses to existing words and they don't go mad, maybe the adults are a little upset because from their point of view the teenagers sound retarded, but among teenagers they are cool. I see that sometimes, at least where I live and I don't live in the South Pacific Ocean.
so you literally never encountered an elderly person raging about "the new interweb-thingy with their incomprehensible acronyms", that's basically the same thing. Being from one of THE oldest (demographic wise) countries in world, Germany, can only say that even juvenile language is enough to drive many of our elders mad. :\
Fast? It's like one new word every couple of years at most.
Pedro Rodriguez ya i dont unddrstand y there language chng so fast an they r not anoied by it
Traveler's Guide To Oceanic Languages
Index:
1. Basic Words
2. What Words You Can't Say
3. Replacements For Those Words
Revision Edition: Don't travel to strange places
"Thanks for watching! You're a real adalo!"
[Gasps in horror at the insult]
I think people are missing the point by equating the taboo words here are similar to swear word. A word is made taboo out of reverence of their ancestors, kinda like 'to speak his name is to disrespect' type of thing rather than the type we usually hear.
John Moone Exactly!
John Moone
So a similar idea to not saying the name of God?
Some English speakers used to make a distinction between swears and curses. A swear, or oath, is when you refer to something holy in a profane context: God Almighty, Jesus Christ, Holy Mother of God, 'Snails (God's nails, on the cross), 'Sblood (God's blood). The last two are only familiar from Shakespeare. A curse would be something diabolical or unclean, and I would include modern bodily functions: the hell with you, a pox on you, curse you, damn you, you bastard; shit, fuck, ass, etc.
There's a scholarly dispute over goddamn/goddam. Either it means "God damn you," in the same sort of subjunctive as "God bless you." Or, it means "The Virgin Mary was a pig." _Dam_ is an old word for "mother" applied only to female animals, like sows and hens. So "Goddam" would mean Mother of God, but where the mother was an animal. Both spellings persist, but spelling didn't matter back when the word was coined.
@@ceruchi2084 Italians use the “virgin Mary is a pig” version of the curse. PORCA MADONNA!
@@ceruchi2084 I doubt the "mother" theory. As for spelling, there is also "dammit", which is not spelt "damn"+"it" either. And the simple explanation, that it comes from damning, echoes with other languages. In German there is the swear word "Gottverdammt", which means "god damned", also usually written as a single word.
"You insulted me! Pay me money!"
Sounds like the researcher got conned.
Interesting, since Chinese had a similar system of taboos called 名讳, but in written form. Essentially, the names of dead ancestors and emperors can’t be used, and since Chinese names be composed of commonly used words and characters. A complicated system evolved to create irregular character by manipulating or omitting strokes. Which make it a help tool in dating text and clans affiliation.
I thought the Chinese was crazy to do this due to complication involved (for example when written letter or contract to someone, you need to observe their taboo if you don’t mean to offend. which mean you need to communicate those taboo in order to avoid the taboo while not breaking the taboos).
I though we’re crazy to do thing, but i guess we are not alone.
Wasn't there that story of that extremely smart and filial daughter-in-law whose father-in-law had jiu (I forgot which character) in his name, so she avoided saying any word that can essentially be romanised to jiu when speaking to him? The father-in-law's friends heard about this and decided to test her, so intentionally sent her to pass him a message that would involve her saying a bunch of things with jiu and then were super impressed when she still managed to circumvent all the jiu.
There is a similar phenomenon in East Greenlandic. If someone suffers a violent or untimely death, words associated with the event become taboo and are replaced with other words.
"Quick! We need a new word for 'wife!'"
"i got a good word man, its calle-"
"nah, i got it nvm"
*5 days later*
"Hi, _woman of a man!_ I'm home!"
Sounds like nowadays languages revolving around sensitive topics, like: Don't say Obese! Or disable! Or in Spanish now there is a problem with "gender neutral words" (that is highly impractical in a daily basis) or people that don't like relationship labels like "wife, fiancee, boyfriend, etc." and they use a very complex and unwanted long version like "we are together on an equal relationship with no labels and not social conformist" (rough translation) instead of saying "concubinato or together".😒
@@meigab in hungary we use "házas társ" for the gender neutral version of wife and husband. It means something like marriage companion. And there's the version of without marriage which is "élettárs". That mean companion in life
@@meigab Now that's a pretty good point.
@@meigab PSA: disabled people are generally fine being called disabled. Source: my best friend and wife are both disabled disability advocates.
@@CTGrell Finnish has _puoliso_ for gender neutral husband/wife. It comes from the word _puoli_ - 'side' (Cognate with Hungarian _fél_ ).
I'm guessing this "taboo" system is a kind of social shibboleth that is common for small, exclusive and isolated communities. Insiders of the community are kept up to date on the changing taboo word list, which is closely related to the changing local social history (which elders have died recently, etc), something one can only follow if one is an active member of said community. People who don't belong are easily singled out, ostracized and fined for the benefit of the in-group. Thus in-group preference and bias is reinforced and the community is kept tightly-knit. People are not only forced to engage in the island's social life and maintain their social relationships, but their mutual, collective feeling of "being in the know" also reinforces their local pride and self-identification with an exclusive group sharing a common destiny.
I'm not sure whether these taboo words should be compared with swear words. I think they correspond more to slang and jargon, except in the opposite sense: instead of knowing and using certain words to be accepted within a community, these people know and *don't* use certain words to be accepted in their community. Another difference is that jargon within a group doesn't often change that much, whereas here the list is constantly updated. The only exception I can think of is internet image boards, where the current "acceptable" memetic expressions are changed like socks within the span of weeks or months.
One question I have is: Do any tabu words ever stop being tabu after a certain time (perhaps after many generations when certain ancestors are forgotten)? The second question I have is: how long has this tabu system existed on these islands, and specifically, how many generations of ancestors do they remember? Do they keep strict records of ancestor death somewhere?
This is just an excuse to rob you of your money and pigs.
It is said that the most complex languages exist within the smallest groups. For this reason, I suppose. In places like the U.S. where there are tons of people over a wide area with a lot of foreigners, they keep us from making the language overly complicated because they can't learn unnecessary intricacies.
The American-English language is overcomplicated mate...
trevor bgs Well, that may be, but supposedly not compared to some languages. Anyway, that was my attempt at relaying a concept taught by a linguist that I have a lecture of.
NickRoman, that linguist is a dumbass then.
"the one where you demanded food, walked to the next town over, and started cussing at the locals...good job" 😂😂😂😂
Taboo words were significant in the evolution of Tahitian. Many, perhaps most, of their vocabulary differences from closely-related languages (like Hawaiian and Cook Islands Māori) came about because the original word sounded too much like the name of an ari'i of centuries past.
+Mark Stoleson The Hawaiian story is that the tapu/kapu system was brought to the islands by Tahitians. Do you know if this ever happened with Hawaiian ali'i?
The linguistic and cultural concept is, so I long assumed that every aspect of the system was just a direct Austronesian inheritance. However, some follow Pukui and trace the specific characteristics of the Hawaiian kapu system as we know it to that Tahitian invasion you mention.
+NativLang - It may be a fairly universal Austronesian concept, but what it means varies greatly from culture to culture. Generally the stratified society of Hawai'i originated with the Tahitian wave of immigration, as did many of the gods, and the system of conduct that governed it all would be kapu. However, the kapu on ali'i names doesn't seem to have had much of an impact on Hawaiian language as compared to Tahitian, and if it did occur I haven't heard of any instances of it. I suspect that the Tahitian kapu on names really picked up after the 12th century or it otherwise wasn't brought with the Tahitian arrivals to Hawai'i.
In fact, Hawaiʻi has the tradition of re-naming the aliʻi when higher standing or great achievements have been made, rather than inventing new words for things that sound like the name of the ali'i.
Ah, the other way around! I hadn't made that connection.
I just want to say...
La calidad de este canal no tiene precedentes. Que magnífico trabajo, deberías ser el número 1 en suscriptores.
Keep up the amazing work!!!!!!
This is sorta like how bon appetit => bone app the teeth => bone apple tea => bomb the japanese => phone stamp the beef => boing application.
no, that was auto correct and a cancerous meme.
Oh like Ham, Lamb, Bee = Huh, Ram, Boo = Harambe?
and somehow we ended up at 'osteoperosis'
sorou because that's bone atrophy
Катя Осипова
Oh I said a bad word? Here let me put some money in the swear jar. How much would you like? One pig's worth? Say that sounds kind of expensive! Are you sure this isn't just a shake down?
And then because it is a shakedown, you get beat up for suggesting it. You know, because you were rude. Humans are a-holes.
+NickRoman Nah, human concept of language is the problem.
JonatasAdoM I was being mildly facetious because people do act similarly to that sometimes.
+NickRoman Well we need a middle ground.
I was thinking the same thing: stranger wants to eat pig, the word pig that they taught him is now offensive, he pays the price of the pig and gets a salad
I appreciate the pronunciation of Samoan 🤙🏽
Btw, if memory serves me correctly, Samoa and Tahiti practiced a form of “name avoidance” as well. When chiefs used a common word as their name that word becomes taboo. However, I believe in Samoa the taboo was lifted when that chief died while in Tahiti that word is never used again.
That's so interesting! In ancient China, it was taboo to say the name of the current emperor. And since many Chinese characters share the same pronunciation, many words would have to be replaces (until that emperor passes away anyways). If you happened to share the same sounds in your name as emperor, you'd have to change your name.
Similarly it is considered rude to use words that sounded the same as the elders of the person you're speaking to. It'd be like if I'm talking to someone whose mother's name is Daisy, then I shouldn't say daisy in a conversation with this person.
I'm four years late, but I just wanted to recommend Melville's short novel "Typee." It's more of a fictionalized ethnography than a novel, and it navigates a lot of the taboo culture of the Marquesas Islands while also showing the incredible personal freedom that the islanders enjoyed before the French conquest.
LOL I can just imagine a tribe guy from the east comes running to a tribe guy from the west with a torch in his hand, east guys stops and asks "what do you guys call this?" (pointing at fire), west guy answers " oh shit not again." xD
west guy answers "how dare you say 'thing'!"
guy next to west guy says "you both owe me a pig!"
east guy "ah naw, we don't call this animal as you just did. Pay up!"
It reminds me my school friend who would laugh when he heard any word that is even indirectly connected with sexual behaviour. He even laughed when somebody said "to give" because in Polish "to give arse" means to be in a passive role in a sexual act.
Similar in russian: the words to give and to want have sexual innuengos, and there is a whole host of dirty jokes vapitaluzing on this, like: Girl, why are so silent? - i am silint because i want to. - you want to, and you are silent???
"The tribe that cursed too much"
*_UA-cam has join the chat_*
This sounds is similar to 'wolf' in North Germanic. It is not realy cursing, but some the words went through a similar process.
We have this old saying, "When you speak of the trolls, they stand in the hallway". Meaning, if you mention somthing by name, you call for it, so you should not call for dangerous things. So, the word for 'wolf' have changed through time, as the "nickname" becomes the real one, creating a need for a new nickname.
During the 1800's, people said "gråben" (grey-legg), to avoid the name "varg", and further back they said "varg" to avoid "ulv" (male wolf) and "ylva" (female wolf). Before that, it is anyones guess.
Interestingly, both "Ulv" and "Ylva" have since long also been used as names (or parts of names) to give the child wolf-like abilities. Just like "Björn" (bear) in my name.
I have a new year resolution,
To learn a new language, Oceanic,
By the time I'll be intermediate,
The language I speak will be archaic.
i just found this channel... the monemes and phonemes of language are the most fascinating aspects of human legacy. you should do a vid on the most common 'word' that exists in all languages: huh?
how the english language is currently evolving
nut
@&#*@(+¥#!"!
"the M word"
yesn't
PEE_IS_STORED_IN_THE_BALLS
Good. You forgot the punctuation.
How the e-word l-word is currently e-wording.
Kwaia : our language contains a lot of slangs.
Punjabi : hold my beer
Those are US dollars not Solomon Island dollars (4:06). Let's hope that don't take it as further insult.
It's pretty nifty artwork, even if they don't value it as currency.
Imagine what you'd think if you could only conceive of something like that being hand drawn. There's a dude who hand draws 'money', and it takes him something like 3 days for 1 bill.
Jason Bright They could trade it in.
Considering how US dollars are worth a lot more in Solomon dollars, I would think not.
Me: says hello
Those islanders: do you kiss your mother with that mouth
Fascinating! I'd love to se a short series on taboo and swearing in other cultures
It's a foolproof way of telling insiders from outsiders. Insiders are up-to-date on the latest changes. Outsiders can be scammed.
The history of Australia, New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia, And Polynesia are so underappreciated
Kwaio time travellers will have a hell of a time talking to their descendants.
This reminds me of small isolated towns here in Canada where you may see only two surnames like Smith and Jones. There is probably more than one person called John Smith so he is given a nickname Big John Smith but if he has a son he if often Big John Smith's son then if Big John's son has a son he's also Big John? I can see how words can become "taboo" sooner or later at least when it comes to often repeated words maybe not the way as the Kwaio but it reminds me of it.
Great video never would have imagined words get renamed like that.gotta love island cultures. There is a swear word in the language afrikaans 'poes'. Originally it means cat in dutch but to me its like saying the C word only 100 times worse.
Strangely in the US it can be used to refer to someones face haha.
Niom
You must be from Amerikiyya.
We do say "poe-faced" sometimes, but we also have a great poet and short story writer named Edgar Allan Poe.
This reminded me of the whole "YHVH" story
Yes.
what is that?
@@jodazague8333 The consonants from God's name.
this kinda reminds me of the Jewish naming customs.
In Ashkenazi jewish communities you do not name kids after living relitives, because its seen as wishing death on the person.
In Shephardic communities you name kids after living relitives.
I remember reading about this phenomena, which just brings "why do we have bad words if empirically they don't do harm?" I mean somehow even Esperanto has bad words and sometimes they're self made not just borrowing from other European languages.
+sion8 It's a good question. I like that you're going the other direction and thinking about taboo in a modern, invented language!
*****
Does it proof that humans will find somethings so offensive that the words are not to be said in public maybe with kin but usually not at all or is just the cultural need of the modern people to continue having words that have stigma but your cool if you say them? (Such as modern so-called "street culture")
Because there's a need to communicate revulsion, disgust, the fact that "if you mouth off one more F--ing time, I'm gonna kick my F---ing foot so far up your F---ing ass, that it comes out your mouth!"...is sometimes necessary communication, to give full measure to my anger and disgust. It's a necessary feature of language--if language didn't have cuss words, we'd have to invent them.
Most of our "bad words" are ones that you would never say with strangers, but they can actually increase your bonding with friends when you use them in private. Just imagine 13-year-olds saying FUCK! at a sleepover and giggling.
Guadalcanal is just two islands to the west of Malaita. You could use the same map for a World War II channel.
Nice research and thanks for sharing! Interesting how money is a universal language that even supersedes taboos :)
The names of Chinese ancestors also become taboo for their descendants, but Chinese characters in names are relatively rare, and it is binding on the descendants not on other people to the descendants. It used to be the case that the names of Emperors past and present were also taboo. The taboo generally expires after a few generations (5 or 9, depending on convention).
4:05 "A little cash could settle this just fine" apparently a little cash is ur whole entire dru- college tuition money.
There is something similar in Turkic languages. Centuries ago people was believing saying the name of something means calling (or summoning) it. Original word for wolf is "Börü" but they were saying "Kurt" to avoid calling wolves. This believe is continuing even today in country side of Turkey, "Cin" means djinn(evil spirit). People says "üç harfli" that means "the three letters" to avoid summoning djinns.
How long, I wonder, does it take before nobody remembers that a word is taboo? Does it just fade out of the language, or does it return to use? If the latter, is it accidental, intentional, or both? Also, who decides on the replacement of a taboo word?
Any word can be a curse word if you say it loud enough.
When you're a filipino, just hearing "fo'ota" is perceived a swear word here.
Roger Keesing, when he died, was transferred to the Solomon Islands and to the Kwaio is now an adalo.
I actually have a Kwaio Grammer, but no Dictionary. A gift from the best man at my wedding. A would have been cultural Anthropologist from UC Santa Cruz.
Hi, I'm money fight-fish. Don't talk about my wofe or I'll slaughter yours sacrid pug.
I can just imagine one of the tribes having a huge family that has ancestors with nearly every word for a name trying to have a group meeting.
3:14 We have a similar issue in English; euphemisms can often become as taboo as the word it was meant to replace
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism#Evolution
About 6 years ago, my cousin moved to Montreal and he said many of the curse words they used were actually Church related. Such Hostie (the only exemple i really remember)
However few years later I realized this phenomenon is happening in Brazil too with the rise of the protestant church. Words like damned (danado) or demon (demônio) are being changed into blessed (abençoado) and angels (anjos)
This is quite curious and somehow related with the taboos you mentioned.
Fans of Kathy Reichs novels and stories know several expletives uttered by Montreal police officers. “Tabarnac” is the one that has stayed with me.
Coming from someone who lives in Aotearoa (NZ) the very word *"taboo"* actually comes down to us as a borrowing from the polynesian word "tapu" meaning sacred or hallowed. Specifically, in english it's first recorded use is from Cook's Voyages to Tonga, no doubt gleaned from the name of one of these Friendly Isles: "Tonga Tapu" or "South Sacred". The word is "tabou" in french, possibly also gleaned through Cook's annexation of it or through their near-contemporary voyages of what is now called French Polynesia. Perhaps someone can answer me this?
Alot of pacific languages use some form of the word,i think..here in my country,it's most commonly 'tambu' or 'ambu'..
@@joshkooga7204 Where are you fron Josh, Fiji?
@@Theodisc the video is about where i'm from,funnily enough..haha..
@@joshkooga7204 💙
Like in Indonesia. Berak means pooping. It's common to say Berak for natural fertilizer. But then it became taboo.
So we said Eek (the sound of pooping person when he/she used power to release the poop). But it became taboo too.
So we said Boker (we change the word Berak a little bit). But it became taboo too.
So we said Bokser. We change it a little bit again. But still it became taboo again.
So I found the patterns to detaboonized an action or thing. If we use 2 word and each of that word have neutral/positive meaning, we can named an action or thing without any taboo.
So nowadays we name pooping Buang Air. Buang means release. Air means water. So Buang Air means release the water. It describe the action after pooping (flushing). And Buang Air is still not a taboo until nowadays.
Could you do a video about the Jurchen Script and the later Manchu script?
Or maybe some thick anthropologist simply got continuously rinsed by some players.
I can understand this it makes sense. People can be offended by words, even the same words in different cultures or situations even in my country. For instance, me talking about natural bodily emissions in a church setting is seen as taboo. But the same people who get offended, will happily carry around a book with the same terms in. When I hear curse, I think of a meaning of what characters in MacBeth do, i.e a witches curse, no matter how many times I see it written that's the meaning I think, that meaning doesn't escape me. Life is interesting, but no-one else is me. Life, words, are subjective. Basically, I live in my head, via my body, in a world I only half feel, no-one lives my life or has my emotions, memories word associations. It's a lonely world, but an interesting one. Thanks for the video.
Abu or sacred translates to Tapu in New Zealand and Fa'a abua, in Māori would be Whakatapua "To make sacred" Point of reference to the person who asked where that was ever used "Kia whakatapua tou ingoa" as in the second line of the Lord's prayer
I really have trouble following your explanations...
You mix up those native and English terms and your narration style would be really good, if you understand everything, but keep in mind you're throwing like 10 new words of a foreign language at us in like a minute :)
I really had to watch the part from 2:18 on 3 times because you said they ban the things which the adalo names are based on but then you say the fo'ota pig name gets changed... So does the pig also get the adalo's name? :/
I AGREEEEE!! I didn't rewatch it but he jumps from one word to another and doesn't explain what pig has to do with the ancestor besides slaughtering it in their name. At the end of the video, it seemed to me like they say the word for "pig slaughtering" to avoid saying the name of their deceased ancestor and refer to them with that name because they slaughter it for them. Gradually, this word itself has to be replaced with another one again and again because of the taboo system. Another point that he didn't explain well is that basic words like "fish" or "fight" become taboo because many people have those words in their names. So when a person with that name dies, it enters the taboo system of the words that must be changed.
Well, this is my reasoning after wondering about what he explains in the video.
So cool how in this system every family kind of has its own unique dialect, I can see if linguists were to do in-depth research of Kwaio today it being considered a completely new dialectical system.
Everyone in the comments are just saying you're disrespecting their culture and don't understand their way of life by saying this is ridiculous... oh come on. How is this not a little bit insane.
I see what your doing :)
Seal Girl 4 months later, everyone in the comments are insulting this culture and relating it to our modern world.
AubrentheJack Four months later
As far as I know, NZ Maori and Tahitian don't have this taboo word practice ... and this as as true in 1850 as 1950. As far as referring to dead ancestors by full name ... they may be more identical.
Cursing is asking God (or the gods) to punish someone.
Swearing is making a promise to God (or the gods).
How did these come to mean saying bad words?
Cursing probably from the fear of Magic and Witches and the putting a curse on you.
Swearing from using God's name in vain.
That is my guess at least.
TheLostWhisperer Yeah, but neither of those cover words like "fuck" or "shit", but most people would call that cursing or swearing.
Well that is why, in my opinion, we use the words cursing and swearing. The actual curse words come from what is "taboo" to talk about in public like bodily excretions or sex. I remember reading that in a book where in the future violence is "taboo" so words like 'war' are used as curse words.
TheLostWhisperer So we should be calling them taboo words, not curse words, since you aren't asking God to do something nasty to the person you're cursing at.
That was a good question and a good point. 'Bad words' is clearly more accurate. But how do you make a verb of that? 'He was bad wording.' ? 'Don't bad word me!'
the sound at 1:07 layers deep within you
SO let me see if i got this. So, Grandfather dies, and he becomes all sacred and shit, so his grandchildren are forced to sacrifice pigs, but not to his name (because he is all sacred and shit) so they use another completely unrelated word to refer to good ol' grandpa, but if they FEEL like it they can also make that completely unrelated word be a bad word, and then they have to pull another word out of their behinds to refer to grandpa, which in turn can ALSO become a bad word to refer to grandpa, and that way till the end of times?
How often do these people themselves make the mistake of using a taboo word on accident?
I'd like to see NativLang do a linguistic appraisal of that seminal cornerstone of English scholarship, Rogers Profanisaurus.
Jesus Christ got about 3 quarters thru that and now I got a fookin headache...
Well, guess I'll just cross this out of my languages-to-learn list.
Im from slavic country, and when i speak my native language, every other mine word is a swear word. But, when i speak english, german or french i barely use bad words 😂
I don't quite understand how neighbouring tribes would even get the memo. I mean, you can't really say "such and such just died" because "such" is already a taboo word by that time.
Given the comments, I think it's time for a video about the "euphemism treadmill."
i like that they have a built in 'swear jar' policy lol
Now do a video on how many times English has decided the going word for poop is taboo, and switched to a new one.
If those people run out of non taboo words, we Southeast Asians will be happy to lend words
Pig guts you fish video potato dumpling cookie North Korea
How dare you!
That'll be 100 inside of pigs sir
Barbra Streisand
South Park?
*****
Yuppp :D
This is how some Chinese characters got invented. When a new king comes to power, it is disrectful to use characters that is present in their name, which forced people to come up with new characters to replace the taboo characters
This also happens in Australia, and once happened in China. Emperors in particular were given "posthumous names", and the names they used when they were alive were forbidden.
i really enjoy your channel thanks!
This seems similar to the process of words losing their political correctness and becoming slurs over time in English or German. "Cripple", for example, used to be a neutral description of a person with a disability, but it is nothing but an insult today.
Well, they could also just gesture those taboo words, and use sign language.
should make name your kid taboo/sacred so when they die (if they were important) people can't ask which words are sacred, what they shouldn't say and yay, free pigs every day. Swap the pigs for beer and this quickly becomes that rule in drinking games where whenever someone says someone elses name they must drink
wow this is one of the most complex languages I think that I've ever seen
ua-cam.com/video/VZGW01y_lXo/v-deo.html
ITT: dozens of people cracking the exact same joke in unison... complaining about groupthink.
I'll just stick to hand gestures and pretend that I'm mute.
Just remember to ask for "McDonalds" and "Coke". Probably they have it even on the other side of the planet. Greet the chief by saying "Hello madafaka" and see if he understands English lol :v
CHI-GA-CO
lmao
Are you a Latin American?
@@2x2leax he most likely is
The words for ‘wolf’ and ‘bear’ in some languages of Europe come from taboo avoidance. Apparently this was based on a religious taboo because these animals had a religious/symbolic function.
Has political correctness gone too far?
Even though that's a joke, I'm so totally OVER people even talking about PC, SJW, feminists, white males, etc. I'm over it. I wish these terms would evaporate from everyone's minds. :P
It has gone far, come back, clubbed us over the head, tied us up and set fire ants upon our toes, then burned them off and left us with a large bowl of water to cool our feet if we desire. That is, sometimes it is ridiculous and oppressive, but at least it's not all that bad in the U.S. at this time. Some other countries are way worse. I would hate life and the people there just because of it.
My Grandad's name was, "Political Correctness", you swine!
This conversation brings up an interesting issue. I never heard people get offended over the word black, for African Americans, I use black all the time, and I've come from a very liberal background and a populated area with a mostly white, but still diverse population. My Dad and his side of the family is so liberal, I was told about MLK before we learned about him in school.
Where do you live that people call you a racist for saying the word Black?
My mother, who is a conservative, complains that Black people call you racist if you call them Black, but she doesn't talk to people outside of home, and is a house wife, she gets this information from conservative news outlets. I just can't back up claims from personal experience, the most I can do is sorta disprove them.
Please tell me, where you live that this actually happens? Does this happen in person or just over the internet? Are you certain you're not being told that what you said is disrespectful for a different reason?
race is a european social construct, created to divide. People are not black or white etc. In everyday life, do you come across people who's skin is literally the colour white? It then stands to reason that not everyone will be happy being referred to by these made up terms. Most people that are called 'black' have brown skin, yet there is a racial term 'brown people' referring to Indian and Pakistani people for example. A lot of Indian people are darker than 'black' people you may find in The Caribbean or Europe and America. Other made up terms for classification (and eugenics) were things like Negroid, Mongoloid and Caucasoid. I'm sure a lot of people would be offended if they were called any of those things.
G’day from Down Under! ☺️
This is SO hard to write, well.. type, but a few mates who know me, & have (through me) discovered you, have said... Omg he’s you linguistic soul mate!!!! 😂🤣😂
So dutifully doing so, I feel the need to let you know (BY NO MEANS ATTEMPT TO ‘CORRECT’ YOU!!) .....
Rather just to let you know, that even if it’s just our accent and from living amongst our ‘bruthaz n sistaz’ across the pond in NZ (the many beautiful mellow Maori tribes) and our equally beautiful islander cousins, from the different sets of ‘Islands’, in this case, the *Solomon Islands, etc.. where we all actually PHONETICALLY say “Ohhshianic”, regarding ‘Oceanic’ as we all swim, surf, live off (fishing etc) and ON our respective islands.. Australia being the largest island, (country AND continent) surrounded by (phonetically)- .... ‘Ohhshenz’ and seas.
So you see, dear sweet *Grand Master of Languages.. 👨🏼🎓 and absolute
* LEGEND OF LINGUISTICS, this is just a little (BTW, FYI) .. if ever down this way, and I reiterate, NOT an attempt to correct you, one iota!!!!
PS: This little red-head, green eyed.. Rh O negative, descendant of the Ancient Irish (from the Basque, Berber, and *Celtic lineages) who discovered you, while hunting for history in the (Irish)-GAELIC language.... has just one teeny weeny yet HUGE request from you, please.
*IF you haven’t already, can you PLEEEEASE pronounce us Ozzies, as we do if you do anything on our amazing Indigenous, traditional land owners and refer to us (Migaloos)-white fellas.. PHONETICALLY as ‘OZZIEZ’ not ‘AUSSSSSIESS’ like most Americans seem to, in Parcel Tongue!!??!! (Harry Potter reference) 😂
So maybe, just maybe us 7% of *Rh O negatives-especially!!.. and ALL ‘Rh negs’-(A, B, AB, & *O).. AREN’T Reptilians, as this here, UA-cam would lead even MORE, to believe!!-??🤦♀️ 😂 or I might just LOVE the “Aussssieess” pronunciation by too many from the USA, if true! 🐍🦎🦖👽.... 😂
Sorry, I fell down a rabbit hole there, but hopping out now.
It’s almost like everyone at international gatherings SEES us all but doesn’t actually HEAR us all chanting....
“Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie - Oi, Oi Oi !!!!” !?!??!!
It’s just a huge pet peeve of mine (and I’m NOT alone!) and therefore would be rejoicing, seriously.. epically joyfully, literally giddy with GLEEFULNESS, to hear *you, of all the Grand Masters*.. not ‘lissssp’ if referring to us Aussies (PHOTETICALLY.. ‘OZZIEZ’)!!!! 🐨
From your biggest, but humble.. mere mortal FAN!!☺️❣️
I SINCERELY AND EVER SO GRATEFULLY THANK YOU, IN ADVANCE for it!! 🤗
- & for EVERYTHING you’ve already done, even if I am yet to watch them ALL..clearly, if you’ve done one already on Indigenous -O.O’s-‘ORIGINAL OZZIEZ’- Aborigines!?! but I’m well on my way!! 🤗✌️
🦇🧝🏻♀️🍄🧚🏻♀️/🧙🏼♀️🔮🦉💜
I don’t know why it crossed out the bit about Original Ozzie’s, near the end there. 🤷♀️
Kia Ora.
This is confusing! How did anyone learn this?' Lol
I EXPECTED A TRIBE OF MEN UTTERING BLASPHEMIES ALL DAY LONG.
And was about to consider the option of relocating there... though the place I live in is pretty awesome about the widespread use of god cursing
I find this taboo words system very offensive. Please reclassify the entire current language as taboo. Thanks in advance.
So many curses were uttered in the making of this video.
Marklar does not understand why Marklar does not just speak Marklar.
Sound familiar for chinese. China had to avoid emperor's personal name letters. Some of those taboos permanently changed words and even name of gods.