Ahmed Ali Akbar: Dr. Kenneth Luna is a linguist at California State University Northridge, where he teaches a class on the linguistics of swearing called Forbidden Language. When you look at a language’s swear words, it’s all about what a culture finds taboo. Taboos are the forbidden things in our society. The first category we’re going to talk about are words that we find gross or uncomfortable.
Kenneth Luna: So there’s certain themes that seem to reoccur cross-linguistically and, you know, across culturally. So for example, things that have to do with excrement, orifices in the body, bodily fluids, things related to illnesses and pestilence, things to related to genitals, sexual intercourse.
https://crooked.com/podcast/foul-ing-language/
Crooked Media