Monkeybot

Recon Chimp

The only real foreign profanity I know is what I've picked up from my mexican friends.

"Chinga tu madre!" Fuck your mother.

"Vete al carajo!" Go to hell.

"Puta la madre, puta la hija." It basically means a girl is a whore because her mother was a whore.

"Pajero" somebody who beats off too much. It's funny because the car known as the Montero in the States is sold in some European countries as the Pajero.

"No mames?" No shit? For real? You shittin' me?

godlessmath

man, there's plenty more in mexican-Spanish:

vete a la verga: literally, go to the dick, but means more like go to hell.

no vales verga: not worth dick

pinche cabron: fucken asshole (I write fucken, not fucking).

pendejo: idiot

mamon: cocksucker

tarado: idiot, again

mierda: shit

cagada: shit, again

cagon: one who shits on himself

puto/puta: slut or bitch

hijo de tu chingada madre: son of your fucked mother

hijo de perra: son of a dog

marica: "faggot"

cara de pito: dick-face

ju'iblex

well, Chinese has grown up in a very different way t o most other languages, and so their insults are really strange to western ears when literally translated.

arsehole = pi4 yan3 = butt eye

bastard = wang2ba1 dan4 = turtle egg

bullshit = fei2 hua4 = garbage talk

moron = ben4 dan4 = stupid egg

rubbish = gou3 pi4 = dog fart

screw you = ri4 ni3 = drill you!

obviously some of those are adapted from english, but you get my drift.

Jayjay

This Finnish expression I found from The Alternative Dictionaries Collection, and I find the english translation oddly poetic.

quote removed at request of Jayjay.

Not that I would ever use such harsh language.

Vorkosigan

bullshit = fei2 hua4 = garbage talk

Actually, this is fei4 hua4 and means the same thing we do when we say "No shit, Sherlock."

garbage talk is pi4 hua4! as I recall. Could be wrong. The Chinese don't swear much around us adogahs (Taiwanese derogatory for foreigners). Worse, my wife prefers to swear in English, which she says is much better for swearing.

rubbish = gou3 pi4 = dog fart

This is what they use to signify what we mean by "bullshit"

gan ni mama! = fuck your mother! ("gan4" is used for "fuck")

bastard, son of a bitch = wang2 ba1 dan4 "turtle egg" originally, I believe, but now written as "King of Eight Eggs." Which is even funnier, in my view

"hun4 dan4" is an asshole -- lit. a mixed/half-breed egg. I think the use of "egg" in so many insults is highly amusing. How could "egg" ever have become so insulting? pi4yan3 is only the word for the physical object -- the anal opening. It is not normally used as an insult. People say hun4dan4 instead.

Vorkosigan

ju'iblex

Actually, this is fei4 hua4 and means the same thing we do when we say "No shit, Sherlock."


bugger. serves me right for working off memory

and thankyou for the clarification on those, my foul-mouthed friends may be very good at saying the words, but not terribly good at explaining.

never been there

OK, enlighten me please re. the Mandarin (I assume it's Mandarin):

1) The letters are according to pinyin?

2) I assume the numbers are the tones. I have seen / \ - and I can't find a suitable U-shaped squiggle for the down-and-up tone. Could one of you let me in on the correspondence between digits and tones?

ta very much

lpetrich

Thanx.

Dog farts?

That's extremely funny, but I doubt that it's much more absurd than the excrement of the male bovine.

Also, those egg references may be references to testicles -- that's what would make them dirty words.

ju'iblex

ja, letters are pinyin. And there are 5 numbers:

1 = straight across tone
2 = up tone
3 = down up tone
4 = down tone
5 = no tone

although i generally just dont put a number on for 5.

and yes, 'tis mandarin

BTW lpetrich, i'm not entirely sure, but i'm willing to bet egg isnt testicle related. Considering the very different ways both cultures have grown up, the Western view of testicles as rude may not translate across to Chinese culture.

but, fair speculation.