Thread: Ненормативная лексика и мы

A fairly comprehensive tour through Russian can be found at Russian Cursing for Beginners: Learn to Curse in Russian .
(The content on the page isn't all of it, you can buy the e-book there for $7.)

Of course, I'd advise to my fellow English speakers to avoid using these words (look but don't touch). Thus, I can recommend it because it is helpful for comprehension, as the longer you interact with Russians, the higher the chances of you hearing such words is.

Originally Posted by zxc

A fairly comprehensive tour through Russian can be found at Russian Cursing for Beginners: Learn to Curse in Russian .

They have a point in the following:

Strictly speaking, mat is a language built upon five (5) extremely vulgar roots. Using the rules of Russian grammar and word formation, verbs, adjectives, and nouns of every kind can be formed—entire sentences (and diatribes) composed exclusively of mat vocabulary.

Though there are more than five roots even as a first approach. Ten looks more adequate. And there are not only "entire sentences (and diatribes)" - one can spend entire life using exclusively obscene roots and be able to express very complicated ideas and be understood (within context).

Originally Posted by it-ogo

Though there are more than five [мат] roots even as a first approach.

Out of curiosity, are you including scatological terms such as г*вно, ср*ть, and сс*ть on that list of "more than five roots"? And what about ж*па? (I've been told by some Russians that the words for the brown and yellow substances are not considered мат, even though "sh*t" very definitely qualifies as "английский мат", and some people would place "crap" on that list also.)

The American comedian George Carlin famously claimed (in 1972) that there are "Seven Dirty Words" that aren't allowed on US television. But even his famous list omitted some examples that would've been "too мат-ish for TV" in 1972, such as "asshole" and "fart".

Of course, other words were left off the list because they have non-obscene meanings:

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Out of curiosity, are you including scatological terms such as г*вно, ср*ть, and сс*ть on that list of "more than five roots"? And what about ж*па?

Exactly. Those roots are used extensively in obscene word formation in the speech of the same style.