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Mind your Ps and Qs
Swearing and its role in shaping Australia ’ s cultural identity .
Amanda Laugesen interviewed by Wade Zaglas
Australians are known for their colourful language ; indeed , it ’ s been called part of our national identity . But why , generally , are we considered a nation that loves swear words and where does this come from ?
To discuss these issues , Campus Review spoke to the Australian National Dictionary ’ s chief editor , Dr Amanda Laugesen . Her new book , Rooted , an Australian History of Bad Language is out now and charts the history of swearing in Australia .
Laugesen contends colonial Australia provided fertile ground for a whole host of swear words to be created to describe the harsh environments in which convicts found themselves , even though they were generally frowned upon by middleclass society .
By the end of the 19th century , however , a shift in the attitudes and the types of swear words used reflected not only Australia ’ s involvement in war , but the country ’ s love of the bush ranger and the bullock driver . It was at that time “ that bad language became more justifiable ”.
During the second-wave feminist movement swear words were seen by women as ways of “ defying authority ” and reclaiming such words for their own needs . Finally , while people swear for a variety of reasons – emotion , anger , emphasis and abuse – they can be equally used to foster friendships and become part of a group . For instance , the generally frowned-upon ‘ c-word ’ now features in compounds such as ‘ Mad-c ’ as more of term of affection than abuse among friends . This is what Laugesen calls “ a process of amelioration ”, subverting the power of the word by combining it with other words or modifiers .
CR : Australians are arguably a nation of creative expletive users who take pride in bad language as part of their national identity . Why do you think that ’ s the case ? AL : I think there ’ s a couple of things that we can point to . I guess Australia has had a long history of having a reputation for using bad language . If you think back to the earliest period of European settlement , the convicts had a reputation for using obscene language . There ’ s a lot of commentary around that in a lot of those early documents and descriptions of the colonies . By the end of the 19th century , that reputation , which for a long time is quite negative , starts to become more positive . So , there are more positive cultural connotations given to swearing .
Some of the iconic Australian characters , like the bullock driver , the bushman , and then the First World War digger start to have this positive association with bad language . So bad language is partly justified by their circumstances , by the fact that they are working hard . The bullock driver is dealing with the intransigent bullocks . The diggers are obviously experiencing the horrors of war .
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