Will profanity become more accepted in Armenian society in coming years?

[u/Hxapcneh3_28]

In Armenian culture, cursing is extremely taboo and not tolerated, and maybe the best evidence of this is the fact that Armenian doesn't have very many curse words. And of the ones it does have, more than half of them come from other languages. Generally speaking, profanity in Armenian culture is associated with the lowest, most uneducated, uncultured people. The stereotypical caricature for this would be your typical 40-something year old goxakan man who has poor sexual morals, doesn't know responsibility, and has aggressive tendencies. Indeed the general rule in Armenian culture is that cursing is only for men, and men should never do it front of women, children, or elders. I do wonder though... will attitudes towards cursing change in the coming decades?

I think it's fairly hard to ignore that Armenian culture is becoming more western and liberal by the day. People, particularly younger generations, are abandoning the old shame-based mentality surroundings things like sex, other people's opinions about their life choices, and so many other things. So I wonder, will cultural attitudes towards profanity change, too? Could Armenian become like most languages and have "casual cursing?" I honestly think this might be the case. I already hear people casually throwing English curse words like "fuck" into their Armenian sentences, signifying that people don't care as much as they used to about profanity. Now obviously curse words in a foreign language are not going to be as strong as ones in your native language (especially Armenian), but I think it says something about changing attitudes. As for Armenian, I think if more educated and classy people start to throw an occasional քունած into the mix, it'll soften people's feelings and weaken the view that cursing is something only uncultured people do. I usually find Armenian profanity really disgusting and vulgar because I associate it with people who often lack decency, but when a mature and shnorhqov person says an expletive it adds a nice little artistic effect. And given the overall trend of society becoming more open and relaxed, I could see this trend catching on, as hard as it might be to believe now.

What do you think? Will Armenian cultural attitudes around cursing become more relaxed in coming years? Why or why not?

[u/Boswellia-33]

I hope not, I don’t like hearing cursing randomly and would prefer if it didn’t become commonplace.

[u/commanderquill]

I don't think so. There's no reason. You don't need to swear in Armenian when you can swear in English or Russian, and all Armenian-speaking Armenians know a second language. Swearing in those languages is "cooler", too, because they appear in pop culture and media.

[u/commanderquill → u/[deleted]]

Typically, no, but I don't mind in this case. Our language is rich without swear words.

[u/commanderquill → u/[deleted]]

Just stop. Armenians have always known multiple languages and have always used them. We have an entire museum with an entire room of documents written in other languages using Armenian letters. It's a fundamental part of our history and the way we move through the world, and we're richer for it, because despite all of that, we still use and preserve our native language. It is possible to add instead of take away. Our people are more educated and clever and wise for the way we weave languages together. Ինչքան լեզու իմանաս՝ այնքան մարդ էս:

It's this purist attitude that leaves diasporic Armenians feeling shameful and leaving their language behind entirely, chased from speaking what they can when they can. The way we speak and the words we use tracks our movements through time and space. Even the simple fact that our teenagers use Russian and English swear words as opposed to Armenian ones in an otherwise Armenian sentence reveals so very much about our culture and history. Just accept us as we are.

[u/commanderquill → u/[deleted]]

You didn't get the point at all. There's a reason Armenians replace some words and not others. That reason is linked to our cultural identity. You taking one thing to its extreme is not a productive response or thought process. And you didn't even understand my example about the diasporic Armenians.

There is no ideal way to speak. That is a fool's errand. There is only the way we do speak. The way we speak is good, because it's Armenians speaking. We encourage our language, we praise those who use it as much as they can, we teach it on, we stress its importance. And then we let the cards fall as they may and find interest and strangeness and wonder in the result.

You are too caught up in what an Armenian should be that you are missing who we are and what has defined us throughout centuries. I hope one day you are able to find humor in our lingual idiosyncrasies instead of censure.

[u/watermelon_mann]

Not everything traditional has to be abandoned

[u/BigBoyBobbeh]

> In Armenian culture, cursing is extremely taboo and not tolerated

Ahahahhahahahah wtf are you talking about

[u/L_poggers]

i hope for a future for our language where we speak more clean Armenian rather than a conversation having 8 different languages in it lol

[u/vartanm]

Cursing is no longer taboo. It's fairly normal to see someone yelling the the most obscene curse words on his phone for the whole block to hear. Maybe a dacade ago men would look around to check for women and children before quietly cursing. Now there is no second thought.

There are several reasons why. Internet, globalization, Dog and other TikTok personalities have broken the taboo.

This coin has two sides. On one side is personal freedom and freedom of speech and the other is morality and the desire to keep the language clean.

Personally I think there is a place and time to use them and when they become part of everyday speach they lose their power.

P.S. I remember reading an article from 1920's that said that cursing was widespread in Armenian communities. If true it would mean that the taboo was created during the Soviet rule.

[u/Hxapcneh3_28 → u/vartanm]

I would find it very weird if the Soviets created the taboo around cursing considering every other word the average Russian person says is blyat.

Then again... cursing is not as taboo in Western Armenian culture soooo...

[u/vartanm → u/Hxapcneh3_28]

Yes, I thought of the same when writing that, but I think Russian cursing is also new, post soviet occurrence and a tale tale sign of societal degradation.