At the end of June, the State Duma supported a bill providing for increased penalties for using swear words in the family and in public places. There have been attempts to tighten liability for obscene language more than once - both under tsarism and after the revolution. Lidia Malygina, associate professor of the Department of Stylistics of the Russian Language, Faculty of Journalism, Moscow State University, scientific director of the distance learning system, spoke about how unprintable words penetrated public life here and in the West, about the history and meaning of the obscenity “KP”.
– If there were no problem, there would be no law. The question arises: who originally taught Russian people to swear?
– One of the common versions is the Tatar-Mongols. But in fact, this vocabulary has nothing to do with them. Russian mat of Slavic origin. Four roots known to every Russian person can be found in Macedonian, Slovenian, and other Slavic languages.
Most likely, swearing was an element of pagan cults associated with fertility, for example, with the spell of cattle or the call of rain. The literature describes in detail this custom: a Serbian peasant throws an ax into the air and utters obscene words, trying to make it rain.
– Why did such words become taboo?
– When Christianity came to Rus', the church began an active fight against pagan cults, including swear words as one of the manifestations of the cult. Hence the strong taboo nature of these forms. This is what distinguishes Russian obscenities from obscenities in other languages. Of course, since then the Russian language has actively developed and changed, and with it Russian swearing. New swear words have appeared, but they are based on the same four standard roots. Some previously harmless words have become obscene. For example, the word "dick". “Her” is a letter of the pre-revolutionary alphabet, and the verb “poherit” was used to mean “cross out.” Now this word is not yet included in the category of swear words, but it is already actively approaching this.
– There is a myth about the uniqueness of Russian obscene language. Is it so?
– The comparison with the English language is interesting. Obscene words have always puzzled British philologists with their nature. As early as 1938, the linguist Chase emphasized: “If someone mentions sexual intercourse, it does not shock anyone. But if someone says an ancient Anglo-Saxon four-letter word, most people will freeze in horror.”
The premiere of Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion in 1914 was highly anticipated. A rumor was started that, according to the author's plan, the actress playing the main female role should utter an obscene word from the stage. Answering Freddie's question whether she was going to walk home, Eliza Dolittle had to very emotionally say: “Not bloody likely!” The intrigue remained until the last moment. During the premiere, the actress still uttered an obscene word. The effect was indescribable: noise, laughter, whistling, stomping. Bernard Shaw even decided to leave the hall, deciding that the play was doomed. Now the British are complaining that they have actually lost this favorite curse word, which has already lost its former power, because the word has begun to be used too often.
Lidia MALYGINA - Associate Professor of the Department of Stylistics of the Russian Language, Faculty of Journalism, Moscow State University Photo: "KP" Archive
– Probably, after the sexual revolution of the 1960s, the situation changed a lot, and obscene words literally poured onto the pages of the press?
- Certainly. Think about Great Britain at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Back then, even the legs of the piano were covered in covers so that they would not evoke random erotic associations! In the second half of the twentieth century, contraception developed rapidly and the pornography industry grew. Marriage for life and fidelity between spouses began to look like old-fashioned prejudices. And heterosexuality in marriage has ceased to be a prerequisite. It is noteworthy that at this time the attitude towards obscene words also changed. Two linguistic collections dedicated to obscene language appear. The first was published in the USA in 1980. The second was published in the United Kingdom and the USA in 1990. These reference books already contain several articles about vulgarisms. Examples of the use of obscene language were given in plain text.
– And yet they were punished for swearing. There is a well-known case when, at the height of anti-war protests in the United States in 1968, a young man who did not want to serve under conscription was prosecuted for wearing a jacket with the inscription: “F... the draft!”
- Yes. Another well-known case is the 12-minute radio program “Obscene Words.” Satirist George Carlin listed seven words that should not be said on the radio, and then began to discuss the problem. One of the listeners was driving in a car with a child and accidentally heard the program. He immediately called the show's editor and complained.
Another famous scandal was caused by newspapers in the late 1970s. published an obscene statement that a player uttered to a referee during a sporting competition: “f... cheating cunt.” And even in works of art, the rudest words began to appear without any disguise. In the guide to St. Petersburg, Western authors do not hesitate to explain Russian vulgarisms, for example, b... (whore) – which is usually rendered as simply b... (short version of the word - Ed.) – and plays an equivalent role to 'f ...' in English for those who use it as a verbal stutter.
– Russian journalists also like to use obscene words and expressions, slightly disguising them so as not to formally violate the law banning swearing in the media...
– Yes, softer expressions, instead of rude ones, often cover up in the text easily recognizable obscene expressions, swear words and curses: “Dick Advocate: UEFA for himself!”; “Hugh Hefner and Dasha Astafieva: Hugh knows her...”; “And he stole 2 billion worth of deposits... But he himself ended up in complete “khopra””; or “Russia in CHOP” - the title of a special report about private security companies or the title of a film about weight loss “I’m losing weight, dear editors!”
– Are there other languages, besides Russian, in which obscene vocabulary is divided into ordinary swear words and strictly taboo words, the use of which is prohibited in any situation and in any context?
– In this sense, the Russian language is unique. Although, for example, the obscene vocabulary of the Spanish language is also associated with the sexual sphere, unlike German (in German this is the sphere of excrement). But in the Spanish language there is no such taboo, therefore the first academic dictionaries of the Spanish language contained similar vocabulary, but the dictionaries of the Russian language did not. In general, the first dictionary fixation of obscenities dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. We are talking about the third edition of Dahl's dictionary, edited by Baudouin de Courtenay. But such activities of dictionary compilers quickly ended, since the Soviet government banned the use of obscenities, and the third edition of Dahl’s dictionary was sharply criticized.
Some people don't swear at all. Someone inserts abuse through a word. Most people use strong words at least sometimes. What is Russian swearing and where did it come from?
Russian swearing has a rich history
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Attention! The text contains profanity.
The notorious social opinion does not allow you to study the good old mat. This is what most researchers who choose such a difficult path complain about. Therefore, there is very little literature about swearing.
One of the mysteries of Russian profanity is the origin of the word “mat” itself. According to one hypothesis, “mate” originally means “voice.” That is why phrases like “shouting obscenities” have come down to us. However, the generally accepted version reduces the word “mate” to “mother”, therefore - “swear at mother”, “send to hell” and so on.
Another problem with swearing is the impossibility of compiling an accurate list of swear words, because some native speakers highlight certain words as obscene, others do not. This is the case, for example, with the word “gondon”. However, typical swear words come from only four to seven roots.
It is known that different nations have different “reserves” of swearing, which can be elevated to different spheres. Russian swearing, like the swearing of many other cultures, is tied to the sexual sphere. But this is not the case among all nations, since there are a number of cultures where everything related to sex is not taboo in any way. For example, among the indigenous population of New Zealand - the Maori people. One of the tribes - the ancestor of the Maoritans - quite “officially” bore the name “Ure Vera”, which translated means “hot penises”, or “hot penis”. In European culture, the sphere of swearing, by the way, is also not necessarily associated with sexual relations. If you look at the Germanic languages, it becomes clear that many swear words there are associated with bowel movements.
The basis of Russian obscene vocabulary, as in many other languages, is the so-called “obscene triad”: the male genital organ (“x.y”), the female genital organ (p..da), and the verb describing the process of copulation (“e ..t"). It is interesting that the Russian language is characterized by a complete lack of designation for these words by literary native Russian terms. They are replaced either by bare Latin and medical soulless equivalents, or by emotional ones - swear words.
In addition to the obscene triad, the Russian swear word is also characterized by the word “bl.d” - the only one that does not mean genitals and copulation, but comes from the Slavic damn, which translated into Russian means “fornication – error, error, sin.” In Church Slavonic the word “bl..stvovat” means “to lie, deceive, slander.”
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Also popular are “m..de” (male testicles), “man.a” (female genitalia) and “e.da” (male genitalia).
The above seven lexemes, the famous researcher of Russian swearing, Alexey Plutser-Sarno, proposes to take Russian swearing as the basis for the concept, citing, however, another 35 roots that survey participants considered obscene (among them, by the way, such words as “eat” and “vomit” ).
Despite the very limited number of roots, Russian swearing is characterized by a simply gigantic number of derivative words. In addition to existing ones, new ones are constantly emerging. Thus, researcher V. Raskin gives a far from complete list of derivatives from the word “e..t” (verbs only): e..nut, e..nutsya, e..tsya, e.izdit, e.nut, e. to.be, to.be, to..fuck, to.fuck, to.be.to.be, to.fuck, to.be, to.forget, to.forget, to.fuck, to.be, to.fuck, to.fuck , about..fuck, about..fuck, stop.en, from..fuck, from..fuck, over.fuck, over.fuck, f.fuck, f.fuck, under..fuck, under..fuck , kick..knock, raz..knock, raz..bang, s..knock, s..happen, s..knock, fuck..bang, etc.
No one knows for sure where the Russian swear word came from. The once popular hypothesis that we got it “from the Mongol-Tatar yoke” (“Tatar version”) was completely refuted with the discovery of Novgorod birch bark letters of the 12th-13th centuries. It was not possible to blame it on the yoke. This is understandable, because obscene language is, in one way or another, characteristic, apparently, of all languages of the world.
But there are other versions. Two of them are basic. The first is that Russian swearing is associated with erotic pagan rituals, which played an important role in agricultural magic. The second is that swear words in Rus' once had different meanings, for example, double meanings. But over time, one of the meanings was supplanted, or they were merged together, turning the meaning of the word into a negative one.
Everyone knows what Russian swearing is. Someone will be able to reproduce the Cossack swear word by heart, while others will have to turn to the famous “Dictionary of Russian Swearing” by Alexei Plutser-Sarno to clarify the meaning. However, for many, the history of the emergence of Russian swearing remains a mystery behind seven seals. How swearing is connected to Indo-European mythology, who is meant by “mother” in the swear language and why only men used to communicate in it - in the T&P material.
“The mythological aspect of Russian expressive phraseology”
B.A. Uspensky
Works by B.A. Uspensky, shedding light on the origin of Russian swearing, have become classic. Exploring this topic, Uspensky mentions its extreme taboo nature, in connection with which in the literary tradition only “Church Slavonicisms such as copulate, penis, reproductive organ, aphedron, seat” can be considered permissible. Unlike many Western European languages, other “folk” obscene vocabulary in the Russian language is actually taboo. That is why swear words were removed from Dahl’s dictionary, the Russian edition of Vasmer’s “Etymological Dictionary”, and Afanasyev’s fairy tales; even in academic collections of Pushkin’s works, obscene expressions in works of art and letters are replaced with ellipses; “Barkov’s Shadow”, known for its abundance of swear words (for example: Already the night with the *** [lustful] moon / Already the *** [fallen woman] was in the downy bed / Falling asleep with the monk) was not published at all in many collections essays. Such a taboo of swearing, affecting even professional philologists, is connected, according to Uspensky, with “the chastity of censors or editors,” and Dostoevsky even speaks of the chastity of the entire Russian people, justifying the abundance of swear words in the Russian language by the fact that, in essence, they are not always mean something bad.
Images of peasants from the 12th–14th centuries: a peasant at work; resting peasant; games
Indeed, swearing can serve as a friendly greeting, approval, and expression of love. If it is so polysemantic, then the question arises: where did swearing come from, what are its historical roots? Uspensky's theory suggests that swearing once had cult functions. To prove this, we can cite examples of swear words and expressions from Russian pagan wedding or agricultural rituals, in which swearing could be associated with fertility cults. It is interesting that the Russian philologist Boris Bogaevsky compares Russian swearing with the Greek foul language of farmers. The Christian tradition prohibits swearing in rituals and everyday life, citing the fact that “shameful barking” defiles the soul, and that “Hellenic...words” [verbib] is a demonic game. The ban on Russian “shamoslovya,” that is, obscene language, was directly related to the struggle of Orthodoxy against the pagan cults in which it was used. The meaning of the ban becomes especially clear in view of the fact that swearing “in some cases turns out to be functionally equivalent to prayer.” In pagan thinking, it was possible to find a treasure, get rid of illness or the machinations of the brownie and goblin with the help of swearing. Therefore, in Slavic dual faith one could often find two parallel options: either read a prayer in front of the attacking devil, or swear at him. Finding the roots of Russian swearing in pagan ritual spells and curses, Uspensky connects the so-called main formula of Russian swearing (“*** your mother”) with the archaic cult of the earth.
Only one person will be elected once a day in obscenity, -
The mother of cheese the earth will shake,
The Most Holy Theotokos will be removed from the throne
In connection with the dual-faith Slavic ideas about the “three mothers” - the earth mother, the Mother of God and the native - swearing, aimed at insulting the addressee’s mother, simultaneously conjures sacred mothers, desecrating the maternal principle itself. In this one can find echoes of pagan metaphors about the pregnancy of the earth and copulation with it; at the same time, this can explain the belief that the earth opens up under a swearing word or that swearing can disturb the ancestors (lying in the ground).
Having clarified the object of the obscene formula, Uspensky moves on to the subject: analyzing the forms of the expression “*** your mother,” he comes to the conclusion that previously the phrase was not impersonal. The desecration was carried out by a dog, as evidenced by older and more complete references to the swear formula: for example, “So that the dog takes your mother.” The dog has been the subject of action in this formula since at least the 15th century in many Slavic languages; Thus, “dog barking,” as swearing was called from ancient times, is associated with the mythology of the dog, “given by the dog.” The uncleanness of a dog is an ancient category that predates Slavic mythology, but is also reflected in later Christian ideas (for example, in the stories about the Pseglavians or the transfiguration of the Cynocephalus Christopher). The dog was compared to a Gentile, since both have no soul, both behave inappropriately; It was for the same reason that confessors were not allowed to keep dogs. From an etymological point of view, the dog is also unclean - Uspensky connects the lexeme “dog” with other words of Indo-European languages, including the Russian word “***” [female genital organ].
Thus, Uspensky suggests that the images of the desecrating dog and the earth mother in the phrase “f***ing dog” go back to the mythological marriage of the thunderer and the earth mother. The sacred marriage, during which the earth is fertilized, is desecrated in this formula by the travesty replacement of the Thunderer with a dog, his mythological rival. Therefore, an obscene phrase becomes a blasphemous spell, desecrating the divine cosmogony. In a later folk tradition, this myth is reduced, and the earth mother becomes the mother of the interlocutor, and the mythological dog becomes an ordinary dog, and then the phrase is completely depersonalized (the verb “***” [to engage in sexual relations] can correspond to any singular person) .
At a deep (initial) level, the obscene expression is apparently correlated with the myth of the sacred marriage of heaven and earth - a marriage that results in the fertilization of the earth. At this level, the god of the sky, or the thunderer, should be understood as the subject of action in obscene terms, and mother earth as the object. This explains the connection between swearing and the idea of fertilization, which manifests itself in particular in ritual wedding and agrarian foul language.
“About swearing, emotions and facts”
A.A. Belyakov
A.A. Belyakov, referring to the legends of Russian folklore, traces the origin of swearing to the myth of the “Slavic Oedipus”: once a man killed his father and desecrated his mother. Then he gave the “obscene formula” to his descendants - in order to use it to bring curses of the ancestors on opponents or to call on the ancestors for help. Belyakov agrees that the deeper roots of this legend are in early pagan cults associated with the veneration of “the mother of damp earth and the idea of fertilization.”
“Obscene joke as a modeling system”
I.G. Yakovenko
I.G. Yakovenko, in his article on swearing, notes that traditional culture, patriarchal in nature, tends to profane the role of women. It is this motive that we see in obscene formulas - almost always they are associated with crude images of violence against women. Yakovenko contrasts the “sign of the highest danger” (“…” [female genital organ], the feminine principle) with the male phallus, the “protector sign,” citing as an example many obscene expressions. As it turns out, there are much fewer women’s obscene formulas than men’s; Moreover, the female paradigm is tinged with something wretched, false, related to misfortune, theft, lies (“..." [end], "..." [steal], "..." [liar]), while the male The swearing paradigm refers to taboo or danger. The harmful nature of a woman, perceived through the female symbol, the vagina, is emphasized in numerous proverbs and sayings, fairy tales and legends: we can recall those cited by V.Ya. Proppom's idea of a "toothy vulva" with which the male hero had to fight.
Russian swearing is a form of existence of pagan consciousness in a monotheistic culture
Subsequently, the tradition of speaking obscene language passed from pagan cults into Russian buffoonery, which the state actively fought against starting from the 17th century. From the almost extinct buffoons, however, the tradition passed on to lubok, tavern songs, parsley theater, to fair barkers and so on. The taboo vocabulary of the patriarchal and pagan period of Russian culture continued to live in slightly different forms.
“Russian swearing as a male obscene code: the problem of origin and evolution of status”
V.Yu. Mikhailin
In the work of V.Yu. Mikhailina’s tradition of linking the genesis of Russian swearing to fertility cults is disputed; Despite the fact that Mikhailin largely agrees with Uspensky, he offers a significant refinement of his theory and examines the history of swearing from pagan cults to modern hazing. The connection between the theory of the “main myth” of Toporov and Ivanov with the mythological enemy of the Thunderer, the dog, does not suit him: “I will allow myself one single question. For what reason is the eternal opponent of the Thunderer, whose traditional iconography presupposes, first of all, not canine, but serpentine hypostases, in this context, takes the form of a dog, and takes it invariably and formulaically?”
Fertile land, according to the author, could not be associated with the masculine principle in the archaic: it is a purely female territory. On the contrary, the purely male territory was considered to be that which had to do with hunting and war, a marginal space in which a good husband and family man is ready to shed blood and rob, and a decent young man, who does not dare to look up at the neighbor’s girl, rapes the enemy’s daughters.
Mikhailin suggests that in such territories, swearing was once associated with the magical practices of male military alliances identifying themselves with “dogs.” That is why swearing was also called “dog barking”: symbolically, warriors were the embodiment of wolves or dogs. This can also explain the fact that until recently, swearing was predominantly a male language code.
In Indo-European culture, every man underwent initiation, one way or another accompanied by a period that can be designated as the “dog” stage. The “dog” warrior, living outside the home zone, in marginal territory, exists outside the culture of the hearth and agriculture. He is not full-fledged, not mature, has “combat rage”, part of which can be called the use of unacceptable swear words at home. “Wolves” and “dogs” have no place on human territory, for which their mere presence can be fraught with desecration: the corresponding norms and forms of behavior are strictly taboo, and their carriers, without undergoing purification rites and thereby turning from “wolves” back into people do not have basic civil rights. They, by definition, are carriers of the chthonic principle, they are magically dead and as such simply “do not exist.”
Thus, the formula “*** your mother” in male “dog” unions was a spell that magically destroyed the opponent. Such a spell symbolically compared the opponent to the son of a chthonic being, identified his mother with a bitch, and brought him into extremely marginal, non-human territory where such coitus could occur. Consequently, all swear words imply dog genitals and animal coitus, which has nothing in common with human coitus, occurring in the home space and framed by ritual tradition and other signs of culture.
Subsequently, the purely male nature of swearing in Russia is transferred to a more general context. Since the revolutionary events of 1917, the language paradigm has undergone great changes. Swearing, along with Newspeak, becomes one of the means of communication of the patriarchal (albeit outwardly anti-sexist) elite. The Soviet camps also played a role, as did the increased interest in the exploitation of women’s labor, including in army structures, where swearing directly inherited the communication function of archaic men’s unions. Therefore, soon the taboo of swearing in a female or mixed environment ceased to be strong, and then became a thing of the past. The male obscene code has become universal.
RUSSIAN MAT
Every person in Russia, from early childhood, begins to hear words that they call obscene, obscene, obscene. Even if a child grows up in a family where swear words are not used, he still hears it on the street, becomes interested in the meaning of these words, and pretty soon his peers explain the swear words and expressions to him. In Russia, attempts have been made repeatedly to combat the use of obscene words and fines have been introduced for swearing in public places, but to no avail. There is an opinion that swearing in Russia flourishes due to the low cultural level of the population, but I can name many names of highly cultured people of the past and present, who belonged and belong to the most highly intelligent and cultural elite and at the same time - great swearers in everyday life and not They avoid swearing in their works. I do not justify them and do not encourage everyone to use swear words. God forbid! I am categorically against swearing in public places, against the use of obscene words in works of art, and especially on television. However, swearing exists, lives and is not going to die, no matter how much we protest against its use. And there is no need to be hypocrites and close your eyes, we need to study this phenomenon both from the psychological side and from the point of view of linguistics.
I started collecting, studying and interpreting swear words as a student in the sixties. The defense of my Ph.D. thesis took place in such secrecy, as if it were about the latest nuclear research, and immediately after the defense, the dissertation was sent to special library depositories. Later, in the seventies, when I was preparing my doctoral dissertation, I needed to clarify some words, and I was unable to obtain my own dissertation from the Lenin Library without special permission from the authorities. This was the case quite recently, when, as in the famous joke, everyone pretended to know diamat, although no one knew it, but everyone knew mate, but pretended not to know it.
Currently, every second writer uses obscene words in his works, we hear swear words from the television screen, but still for several years not a single publishing house to which I offered to publish a scientific explanatory dictionary of swear words decided to publish it. And only abridged and adapted for a wide range of readers, the dictionary saw the light of day.
To illustrate the words in this dictionary, I widely used folklore: obscene jokes, ditties that have long lived among the people, were often used, but were published in recent years, as well as quotes from the works of classics of Russian literature from Alexander Pushkin to Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Many quotes are taken from the poems of Sergei Yesenin, Alexander Galich, Alexander Tvardovsky, Vladimir Vysotsky and other poets. Of course, I could not do without the works of Ivan Barkov, without “Russian Treasured Tales” by A. I. Afanasyev, without folk obscene songs, poems and poems, without modern writers such as Yuz Aleshkovsky and Eduard Limonov. A treasure trove for researchers of Russian swearing is the cycle of hooligan novels by Pyotr Aleshkin, which are almost entirely written in obscene words. I could illustrate this dictionary only with quotations from his works.
The dictionary is intended for a wide range of readers: for those interested in swear words, for literary editors, for translators from Russian, etc.
In this dictionary, I did not indicate in what environment the word functions: whether it refers to criminal slang, youth slang or the slang of sexual minorities, because the boundaries between them are quite fluid. There are no words that are used in one environment. I also indicated only the obscene meaning of the word, leaving other, ordinary meanings outside of it.
And one last thing. You are holding in your hands the explanatory dictionary “Russian swearing”! Remember that it contains only swearing, obscene, obscene words. You won't meet anyone else!
Professor Tatyana Akhmetova.
From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (RU) by the author TSB From the book Winged Words author Maksimov Sergey Vasilievich From the book A Million Dishes for Family Dinners. Best Recipes author Agapova O. Yu. From the book Russian Literature Today. New guide author Chuprinin Sergey Ivanovich From the book Russian Mat [Explanatory Dictionary] author Russian folklore From the book Rock Encyclopedia. Popular music in Leningrad-Petersburg, 1965–2005. Volume 3 author Burlaka Andrey Petrovich From the book Encyclopedia of Dr. Myasnikov about the most important things author Myasnikov Alexander Leonidovich From the author's book From the author's book From the author's book From the author's book From the author's book From the author's bookRUSSIAN HOUSE “A magazine for those who still love Russia.” Published monthly since 1997. Founder - Russian Culture Foundation with the support of the Moscow Patriarchate. Volume - 64 pages with illustrations. Circulation in 1998 - 30,000 copies. Takes a moderate nationalist position;
From the author's bookRUSSIAN MAT Every person in Russia from early childhood begins to hear words that they call obscene, obscene, obscene. Even if a child grows up in a family where they do not use swear words, he still hears it on the street, becomes interested in the meaning of these words and
From the author's book From the author's book7.8. Russian character Once a writer from Russia came to New York and participated in one of the many programs on local television. Of course, the presenter asked him about the mysterious Russian soul and Russian character. The writer illustrated this as follows:
Swearing has accompanied Rus' since its inception. Authorities, social formations, culture and the Russian language itself change, but swearing remains unchanged.
Native speech
Almost the entire 20th century was dominated by the version that the words that we call swear words came into the Russian language from the Mongol-Tatars. However, this is a misconception. Swearing is already found in Novgorod birch bark documents dating back to the 11th century: that is, long before the birth of Genghis Khan.
Revolt against matriarchy
The concept of “checkmate” is quite late. From time immemorial in Rus' it was called “barking obscene”. It must be said that initially swear language included exclusively the use of the word “mother” in a vulgar, sexual context. The words denoting the genital organs, which we today refer to swearing, did not refer to “swearing.”
There are a dozen versions of the checkmate function. Some scientists suggest that swearing appeared at the turn of society’s transition from matriarchy to patriarchy and initially meant the authoritative assertion of a man who, having undergone the ritual of copulation with the “mother” of the clan, publicly announced this to his fellow tribesmen.
Dog tongue
True, the previous version does not explain the use of the word “laya”. There is another hypothesis on this score, according to which “swearing” had a magical, protective function and was called “dog tongue.” In the Slavic (and Indo-European in general) tradition, dogs were considered animals of the “afterlife” and served the goddess of death Morena. A dog who served an evil witch could turn into a person (even an acquaintance) and come with evil thoughts (to cast the evil eye, damage, or even kill). So, having sensed something was wrong, Morena’s potential victim should have uttered a protective “mantra”, that is, sent him to “mother”. This was the time when the evil demon, the “son of Morena”, was exposed, after which he had to leave the man alone.
It is curious that even in the 20th century, people retained the belief that “swearing” scares away devils and that swearing makes sense even “for the sake of prevention,” without seeing a direct threat.
Calling the good
As already mentioned, ancient Russian words denoting the reproductive organs began to be classified as “foul language” much later. In the pagan era, these lexemes were commonly used and did not have an abusive connotation. Everything changed with the arrival of Christianity in Rus' and the beginning of the displacement of old “filthy” cults. Sexually charged words were replaced with “Church Slavinisms: copulate, childbearing, penis, etc. In fact, there was a serious rational grain in this taboo. The fact is that the use of the previous “terms” was ritualized and associated with pagan fertility cults, special conspiracies, and calls for good. By the way, the word “good” itself (in the old Slavic - “bolgo”) meant “many” and was used at the beginning precisely in the “agricultural” context.
It took the Church many centuries to reduce agrarian rituals to a minimum, but the “fertile” words remained in the form of “relics”: however, already in the status of curses.
Empress censorship
There is one more word that is unfairly classified today as swearing. For the purposes of self-censorship, let’s call it the “B” word. This lexeme quietly existed in the elements of the Russian language (it can even be found in church texts and official state documents), having the meanings “fornication”, “deception”, “delusion”, “heresy”, “error”. People often used this word to refer to dissolute women. Perhaps during the time of Anna Ioannovna this word began to be used with greater frequency and, probably, in the latter context, because it was this empress who banned it.
"Thief" censorship
As you know, in the criminal, or “thieves”, environment, swearing is strictly taboo. For a carelessly dropped obscene expression, a prisoner may face much more serious punishment than an administrative fine for public obscene language on the outside. Why do the “urkagans” dislike Russian swearing so much? First of all, swearing can pose a threat to “feni” or “thieves’ music.” The keepers of thieves' traditions understand well that if swearing replaces argot, they will subsequently lose their authority, their “uniqueness” and “exclusivity,” and most importantly, the power in prison, the elite of the criminal world - in other words, “lawlessness” will begin. It is curious that criminals (unlike statesmen) understand well what any language reform and borrowing of other people's words can lead to.
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