I often muse aloud in class about the oddities of language, especially when it comes to invective and abuse. When a Bengali is irritated with someone's obduracy, he says "kochupora khao", though there is nothing harmful or disgusting about that particular humble vegetable, especially if it is cooked well (by the way, google could not translate 'kochu' for me: will somebody help?) And shuorer bachchha (offspring of a pig) is supposed to be even harsher than son of a bitch, although most of us love piglets and dogs, or at least see nothing very hateful about them. Nobody considers son of a lion an insult, though (and the expression is little used anyway), and nobody calls another son of a squirrel or something like that. Does anybody have a theory about this?
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2 comments:
This one is priceless. I read it in the wee hours and laughed, and wondered, and fell asleep. You sound very mild and serious while ruminating.
Now, I've never heard the khao being added to the kochupora. But I have heard the 'humble vegetable', being thrown at obdurate individuals, like yours truly. I can't even see the vegetable very clearly and don't think I've ever eaten it actually...but would be like some sort of a 'squash'? If it is then there would be something amusing about the usage in Bangla. The one which has me musing a lot is ghoraar dim, and this I use the most and it's my personal favourite, and probably for idiosyncratic reasons. But why the horse? And why a horse's egg? It could well have been the egg of a cow or a goat or a sheep...
Course I have a theory for the other part...piglets and puppies and dogs are fine animals really but it's all about how they are seen. Pigs are supposed to be dirty (and they're not. They're awfully clean when humans leave them alone and don't pen them into tiny spaces. They normally roll around in the mud to cool themselves, and then jump and clean themselves in the water). I could go on about how much the pig has been maligned...but those are the things that stick and hence the abuse. That's my part theory on pigs. The word 'bitch' of course can and must never ever be used anymore. Dog somehow doesn't arouse the identical emotion any longer...I'm not so sure why the word 'bitch' is considered to be far worse than 'dog'. The 'son of a squirrel' makes me go into silent chortles, and 'son of a lion' can't possibly be used as a term of abuse! It's all about how humans see the animals (culturally and cross-culturally speaking). Who would ever think of the lion without thinking of what a mighty creature it is (although I hear they smell not so hot what with their eating habits and so on). And why is the poor donkey seen as being a stupid creature? This too makes me wonder. I'm reminded of all the animals from the Pooh Bear books suddenly.
Oh, this post of yours is a mighty good un but I'll wrap up my comment for now, and go muse on my walk. Thanks, more than a tonne for this one.
Infact son of a bitch reminds me, "bagher bachcha" or son of a tiger, in fact means someone who is really courageous.
Liked the post.
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