Feature
Not Quite 20 Questions with Stephen Dodson
Hiram and Melissa from The Harvey Girls decided to ask the brilliant Stephen Dodson from Language Hat about brawling, music, scatology, and his hilarious book on worldwide curses, 'Uglier Than a Monkey's Armpit: Untranslatable Insults, Put-Downs, and Curses from Around the World.
H&M: When and how did language become such an obsession for
you?
SD: I've been fascinated by language as far back as I can remember.
The usual theory is that it was kicked off by my being born an
American in Japan and thus being fluent in both languages when I
was four, at which point we went back to the U.S. for a few years (my
dad was with the State Department); of course I forgot my Japanese
very quickly, but presumably the foreign-language mechanism was
switched on, and I've never had any trouble learning languages.
However, I've rarely been practical in my choice of languages to
learn. When we were in Japan again some years later (fifth through
ninth grades for me), I learned French and Latin and just picked up
a few phrases in Japanese; when we were in Argentina I learned
Spanish but also started Russian; when I was living in Taiwan I
dutifully learned basic Mandarin but decided to also study
Cantonese (useless in Taiwan); and since then I've studied languages
like Persian and Georgian with no evident application. Call me
perverse.
H&M: Descriptive or prescriptive grammar? Has this argument led
to any bar fights?
SD: It's too bad the whole descriptive/prescriptive thing has become
such a battleground. If language were taught in school the way
physics and chemistry are, which is to say scientifically, everyone
would realize that each language has its own grammar, determined
by analyzing how people speak and write; that language is constantly
and inevitably changing; and that the results of that change are
neither good nor bad but just a new stage of the language, and the
issue wouldn't arise. The few people who insisted on clinging to
their shibboleths about ending sentences with prepositions and
using "beg the question" in an obscure philosophical sense could
hang out with flat-earthers and believers in alien-built pyramids,
and the rest of us could go about our business. But because
language is still presented as a monolithic ideal that is constantly
under attack by ignorant youth and lax media and (worst of all)
those anything-goes "descriptivist" linguists, who presumably just
make things up to infuriate right-thinking traditionalists, a
battleground it is.
I always correct people who describe me as a linguist; I studied
linguistics for a few years, over three decades ago now, and in a
better world I'd just be an interested layman, as I am in the other
sciences. But since even a passing acquaintance with the findings of
linguistics puts one in the position of the Connecticut Yankee in
King Arthur's court, I keep putting the concepts out there, and
occasionally I learn that I've actually changed someone's mind,
which is encouraging.
H&M: How did your involvement with 'Uglier Than a Monkey's
Armpit...' come about?
SD: I got involved as a copyeditor, but when the book packager
mentioned that they were looking for a coauthor, I heard the clarion
call of Destiny and put up my hand. They asked me to send a few
sample entries, I did, they liked my style, and the rest is history.
H&M: What was your favorite section to work on in 'Uglier Than a
Monkey's Armpit...'?
SD: That would be a tossup between American and Yiddish, both
great languages for curses and insults. I just wish some of the stuff I
dug up could have been used. Maybe I'll do a sequel!
H&M: We think of humor as universal -- everyone thinks poop and
sex are funny, right? Or are there different levels of fascination with
taboo subjects by culture of which we're not aware?
SD: There are apparent universals (poop and sex are certainly likely
candidates), but there are surprising differences between
maledictory regions (to coin a phrase): the Dutch hang on to their
illness-related curses (we ditched "a pox on you!" a long time ago),
the Quebecois stick to religion (a couple of common curse words
mean "chalice" and "baptism"), and so on.
H&M: If we wanted to curse someone out with a truly nuclear-grade
insult, what are our best options?
SD: There are obvious fight-starting words and phrases in every
language, often involving mothers, but for creativity and surprise I
think you can't beat Yiddish. I mean, how do you come back when
somebody tells you "Zol dir lign in keyver der eyver, in di kishkes a
lokh mit a sheyver" [Your penis should lie in a grave, and your guts
should have a hole and a hernia]? You don't, you just curl up in a
ball.
H&M: Besides languagehat.com, are there any blogs/online media
that language geeks should follow?
SD: The two I'd especially recommend are Language Log -- run, unlike mine, by actual linguists-- and Wordorigins.org, run by David Wilton, who knows a lot about language and provides scrupulously researched information (his Big List should be the first stop for anyone
wondering about the origins of a phrase). The discussion
forums are a good place to ask about anything not on the list.
Beyond that, there are the fine sites listed in my blogroll under Linguablogs.
H&M: Are there any recent words added to the dictionary that you
absolutely love?
SD: It's not that new any more, I guess, but "blowback" is an
excellent addition to the English wordhoard, a short and memorable
description of an all too common phenomenon.
H&M: You have a hellacious vinyl collection. What are some of your
favorite records in it? Anything that should be insured or better yet,
donated to us?
SD: Where were you a few years ago when I was trying to give my
vinyl away? I didn't want to put the money and effort into
transporting it, but the gal from the radio station who said she was
dying to have it flaked out, and I wound up packing and moving it
after all... and then it got ruined in a flood. So much for my four
recordings of Fidelio, my mono Beatles, my prized X-Ray Spex
album.... Give me a moment to compose myself.
Fortunately, by the time I started getting seriously into jazz I'd
gotten a CD player, so my jazz collection (pretty impressive if I do
say so myself, with lots of Miles, Monk, Braxton, Sun Ra...) is intact
and frequently heard in our house. The cats seem to like it.
H&M: We screw around in a lot of music genres and we see strong
connections between the rhythm of a culture's language and music.
Are we full of it?
SD: No, that makes a lot of sense to me, and I'd love to read
something good on the subject.
H&M: We love you so much. That's not a question!
SD: Right back atcha!
You can listen to Dodson talking about the 'Uglier Than a Monkey's Armpit...' at WICN's website.
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