Profanity is ... The history of profanity

In everyday life, we all often hear words and expressions, the use of which is absolutely unacceptable from the point of view of public morality and is intended both for insulting the addressee and for expressing negative assessments of people and phenomena. This is the so-called non-normative Russian vocabulary, or, simply put, mat, which is one of the unsightly, but unfortunately difficult-to-learn sides of our "great and mighty" language.

The long tradition of prohibiting obscene language

Familiar to all of us since childhood, the profanity of linguists is called obscene. This term comes from English obscene, which means "shameless", "obscene" or "dirty". The English word itself goes back to the Latin obscenus, which has the same meaning.

As many researchers have shown, a taboo ban on the use in the presence of women of various expressions associated with the sexual sphere, was formed even in the pagan era among the ancient Slavs - the ethnic ancestors of Russians, Byelorussians and Ukrainians. Subsequently, with the advent of Christianity, the ban on the use of profanity was universally supported by the Orthodox Church, which allows us to speak about the long historical tradition of this taboo.

Society's attitude to the use of mat

In this regard, the results of a sociological poll conducted in 2004, whose purpose was to reveal the attitude of Russians towards using obscene expressions by the stars of show business, are of interest. It is very characteristic that the overwhelming majority of the respondents, almost 80%, expressed their negative attitude to this phenomenon, saying that in their speeches the profanity is a manifestation of lack of culture and debauchery.

Despite the fact that in oral speech these expressions are widespread among all sections of the population, there has always been a taboo in Russia for their use in the press. Unfortunately, it was significantly weakened in the post-perestroika period due to the weakening of state control over the printed field, and also due to a number of side effects that resulted from the democratization of society. In addition, the lifting of the ban on the coverage of many topics that had not previously been touched upon by the printing authorities led to the expansion of the lexicon. As a result, mat and jargon became not only fashionable, but also effective means of PR.

Offensive and humiliating abuse

We have to state that among teenagers the ability to swear is considered a sign of growing up, and for them, profanity is a kind of demonstration of belonging to "one's own" and disregard for the generally accepted prohibitions. Of course, replenishing their vocabulary with such expressions, teenagers tend to use them, often using for this purpose fences, toilet walls and school desks, and in recent years, and the Internet.

Considering the problem of using non-normative vocabulary in society, it should be noted that, despite all the freedom of expression established in recent years, responsibility for using obscene expressions from writers or speakers is not removed.

Of course, one can hardly forbid profanity to a person for whom - by virtue of his upbringing and intellect - this is the only form of self-expression available. However, it should be borne in mind that the abuse in a public place offends those for whom taboo on mate - because of their moral or religious considerations - has not lost its force.

The main motives for using non-normative vocabulary

In modern language, mate is most often used as an element of verbal aggression, which aims to scold and offend a particular addressee. In addition, people of low culture use it in the following cases: to make their expressions more emotional, as a way to relieve psychological stress, as interjections and to fill in speech pauses.

History of profanity

Contrary to the popular notion that obscene expressions came to Russian from Tatar during the Tatar-Mongol yoke, serious researchers regard this hypothesis very skeptically. According to most of them, the words of this category have Slavic and Indo-European roots.

In the pagan period of the history of Ancient Rus they were used as one of the elements of sacred conspiracies. For our ancestors, non-normative vocabulary is nothing more than an appeal to a magical power, which, according to their ideas, consisted of genital organs. This is evidenced by some surviving centuries of echoes of ancient pagan spells.

But since the establishment of Christianity, the church authorities have consistently been struggling with this speech phenomenon. Until now, many circulars and decrees of Orthodox hierarchs have been preserved, aimed at eradicating the mat. When, in the XVII century, there was a strict separation of the spoken language and the literary language, the status of the gathering of "obscene language" finally became entrenched behind the obscenities.

Unprintable expressions in historical documents

About how rich was the Russian dictionary of profanity at the turn of the XV-XVI century, suggests the study of the famous linguist VD Nazarov. According to his calculations, even in an incomplete collection of written monuments of that time contains sixty-seven words-derived from the most common roots obscene vocabulary. Even in more ancient sources - birch bark writings of Novgorod and Staraya Russa - there are often expressions of this kind in both ritual and joking form.

Mat in the perception of foreigners

By the way, the first dictionary of non-normative vocabulary was compiled in the beginning of the 17th century by the Englishman Richard James. In it, this curious foreigner explained to his countrymen the specific meaning of some words and expressions that are difficult to translate into English, which we today call obscene.

A very wide use of them is also evidenced in their travel notes by the German academic master of philosophy at Leipzig University Adam Olearius, who visited Russia at the end of the same century. The German translators accompanying him often found themselves in a quandary, trying to find the meaning of using known concepts in the most unusual context for them.

The official ban on obscene language

The ban on the use of profanity in Russia appeared relatively late. For example, it is often found in the documents of the Petrine era. However, by the end of the 17th century, its tabooing took the form of a law. It is characteristic that the poems of the poet Ivan Barkov, who used the obscene vocabulary at that time, were not printed, but were distributed exclusively in the lists. In the next century, immodest expressions were included only in the unofficial part of the work of poets and writers, including them in their epigrams and comic poems.

Attempts to remove the taboo from the mat

The first attempts to legalize obscene language were observed in the twenties of the last century. They were not of a mass nature. Interest in mat was not self-sufficient, just some writers believed that profanity is one of the ways to talk freely about issues of the sexual sphere. As for the Soviet period, throughout its entire length the ban on the use of swearing was strictly observed, although it was widely used in everyday conversational speech.

In the nineties, with the advent of perestroika, censorship restrictions were abolished, which made it possible for profanity to penetrate literature without hindrance. It is used mainly to convey the living language of the characters. Many authors believe that if these expressions are used in everyday life, then there is no reason to neglect them in their work.

Attempts to eradicate evil

Today, the fight against profanity is limited to fines for its use in public places and the explanation of Roskomnadzor about the inadmissibility of using in the media four basic obscene words and all derivatives of their expressions. According to the existing legislation, if a violation of this decision is guilty, a corresponding warning is sent, and in the event of a repeated violation, Roskomnadzor is entitled to revoke their license.

However, many private publishers neglect the prohibitions. In recent years, even repeatedly published and reprinted a dictionary of profanity, which hardly allows you to hope for its possible eradication. The only way to combat foul language can be a general improvement in the culture of Russians.