First, languages tend to draw from similar domains for their profanity. The Holy, Fucking, Shit, Nigger Principle isn’t just about English. It’s about language. And that suggests that the forces that make words become profane in English may be present across human experience, regardless of native language. And second, despite similarities across languages, cultural idiosyncrasies play a role in shaping how profanity in a language will work and how it will be distributed.
