Le parolacce — Swearwords

Swearing in Italian, and swearing in translation

Italian swearing draws heavily on religion: the bestemmia, an oath combining a sacred name with an insult, has a long history in the language, particularly in some regions of the north and center, and it is still heard in everyday speech even though it is socially frowned upon. Public blasphemy remains an administrative offense in Italy, punishable by a fine. English swearing, by contrast, now relies far more on sexual and bodily words, while religious oaths ('damn', 'God') have lost most of their force. That mismatch makes swearing one of the classic problems of translation. A literal rendering of an Italian oath may sound quaint or ridiculous in English; a substitution with the strongest English words can add a violence the original didn't have. Translators generally aim, as Francesca says, for equivalent frequency and social weight — the same force in the same place — rather than equivalent meaning. Context matters as much as vocabulary. A milder word can be shocking from a character who never swears, and a constant stream of oaths can become background noise. Mild interjections like accidenti, mannaggia and porca miseria are part of ordinary Italian and can be used in front of almost anyone.