russian mat

ever wonder what iqaluit writers talk about?

yesterday's writing group discussion motivated me to look up origins of russian mat. i still didn't find anything definitive but the above wiki article is very informative. i have to admit that my understanding of mat's nuances is rather rudimentary; i've never uttered a mat word out loud, though boiling oil splashing on my hand will elicit a mighty array of fucks and shits. english profanity feels very tame to me.

this article was also very interesting, as well as the discussion after it. and this one.

points of interest, at least to me:

- the term mat comes from a word meaning "loud yell"

- The mat belongs to the ancient layers of the Russian language (the first written mat words date to Middle Ages)

- "All the basic elements of mat relate to sexual activity, which, in Russia, is considered far dirtier than defecation...." (from Erofeyev's article)

- The German and Finnish interjection for surprise or admiration—Hui!—sounds identical to the Russian and Polish swear word literally meaning "penis" (Polish chuj, Russian and Bulgarian xyй)--there's an entire article on Wiki devoted to profanities in general.

- The appeal of mat has to do with the synthetic character of Russian: using only five roots, one can form a multitude of terms to use in any real-life situation

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i still haven't googled the OTHER topic we discussed. more to come. maybe.