R. V. Branham - Curse and Berate in 69+ Languages

curse + berate in 6 9+ languages Copyright 2008 by R. V. Branham/GobQ LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data [CIP DATA] Cover design by Renee Zmuda Interior design by T. Warburton y Bajo & R. V.

Branham Printed in the United States of America Soft Skull Press An Imprint of Counterpoint LLC 2117 Fourth St Berkeley CA 94710 www.softskull.com www.counterpointpress.com Distributed by Publishers Group West 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 69+Fin103107 11/25/07, 9:26 PM + + other bigot coeur dictions b curse + ries cunt-offs + compa eing a concise berate laams + + merde-de-jour obscenities, delicate in 6 dutch courage risons + 9+ languages + salutations + fucka-youze-allzes + insults cunting r. v. branham + + editorial wrangler-in-chief esprit de lescalier + + tijuana bibles + greetings take a dialectic or uncivil wa sa compendium channing dodson indelicate rcasms asst. editor + gaelicist + kanji wrangler + + + sarah barrett sit-next-to-mezes in approx. + schadenfreude snits + pouts + italian consultant + cyrillicist + + blasphemies verbal pictiona liz swados cartoons german sense of humor sinister wisdoms graham willoughby illustrations renee zmuda cover design samuel ward tech support + + r ... c. bobalova +melissa bobotek +lindsey boldt +alex cacciari + unkind words 90 + rums sabrina canfield +b.c. + johanna drou + bay + emma dupine +marisa feinstein + aneurysms-for-brunch languages give or invective kevin friedman +ann haroun +rachel hart + +kea krausse +david lansdowne + jean thought-c nette lehn + jeremy loomis-norris + jaden lowrey + julia mccallum +kerry meade + + + + richard melo + toshi misu +mark nowak + c anti-bene kris penthel +mike rinaldo + kumar sichel invidious + ris-de +nora simmons +kerry skemp + paul smith rimes of sa + cecily swanson +steve tune + brian zierdt additional illustrations credited 69+Fin103107 11/25/07, 9:26 PM curse + berate in 6 9+ languages Humani nihil alienum. + johanna drou + bay + emma dupine +marisa feinstein + aneurysms-for-brunch languages give or invective kevin friedman +ann haroun +rachel hart + +kea krausse +david lansdowne + jean thought-c nette lehn + jeremy loomis-norris + jaden lowrey + julia mccallum +kerry meade + + + + richard melo + toshi misu +mark nowak + c anti-bene kris penthel +mike rinaldo + kumar sichel invidious + ris-de +nora simmons +kerry skemp + paul smith rimes of sa + cecily swanson +steve tune + brian zierdt additional illustrations credited 69+Fin103107 11/25/07, 9:26 PM curse + berate in 6 9+ languages Humani nihil alienum.

Nothing human is alien to me. Terrence (185 BC 159 BC) boom, Ka-, atrributed to John Lydon & Afrika Bambaataa Soft Skull Press Brooklyn, NY 2008 69+Fin103107 11/25/07, 9:26 PM this ones for Andrea & Albert & Margaret & Jacqueline & Bob & Estelle 69+Fin103107 11/25/07, 9:26 PM iNTRODUCTION INTRODUKSIE LAQDM PATCKERANALAURKEZPEN YAHPMN INTRODUCCIUPOZNAVANJE PEDSTAVEN INDFRELSE INLEIDING SISSE-JUHATUS MOARREFI ESITTELY INTRODUCTION RAMHRROIMH-RDH EINLEITUNGGABATARWA HAKDAMBHS KATH INNGANGUR INTRODUZIONENOAUMSKOAUL SO-GAE PRFATIO IESNIEGANA PRATARMPENDAHULUAN INTODUZZJONISCTLAAQUILITZL TLHAGIO INFRING PREFCIO RIQSICHIYPREFAHORDHACINTRODUCCININTRODUKTIONPAUNAUPAK KIRAMANBOHTNAHMAVATRIKANSZBHS KATHTIN-DNRHAGYMADRODDFIHNISANDULELISO *r. v. branham a guaranteed winner for bar bets is to ask someone if they know the opening line to Last Tango in Paris & then ask them if they know what Nimrods last words most probably were; then tell them that the opening line & last words are one & the same. the movies opening line and the probable last words of Nimrod are also a useful nuclear option to invoke when asked to give a Thanksgiving Prayer. 2 (In this volume you will find Nimrod, architect of the Tower of Babel, under WANKER.) three more bar bet questions: What insult has the most time zones, & what is the language of this insult? 3 (As a bonus, from what language did this loan-word originate?) And what is the most common insult south of the Kush, in south Asia? 4 What was Vladimir Illyich Lenins favorite word? 5 a well-known travel writer wrote not long ago that the Finns have no swear words.

Entries in this volume attest to the various ways that the Finns would beg to differ. Indeed, in the years since 1984, when a friend, Terry Boren, first planted the seed for this project, I have had enlightening conversations with the occasional French Canadian, ex-Peace Corps volunteer, or Iranian expat wherein I was told that there were no swear words in French, Swahili, or in Farsi. Merde, I replied, & then said something else ending in con. And when an Iranian bookseller told me no Persian or Iranian ever swore I marveled how amazing it must be to stand in a meadow with your head so far up in the clouds, communing with the cosmos & advising God, that you could just ignore all the cow shit oozing between your toes. now the dials on the way-back machine spin further back, to an aggie town on the border between California & Baja California, where the sun spent 69+Fin103107 11/25/07, 9:26 PM the winter, & spring, summer, fall & winter. on the plus side everyone had air conditioning, & you could cross the border for cheap Chinese food or pick any number of air conditioned movie palaces, where the movies, whether American, French, or Italian, were (mostly) dubbed into Spanish there was only one movie palace on the California side, & ithad bilingual bingo every Friday night, no doubt in accordance with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. (Still, it was unfair that the Mexican movies werent dubbed into English, or Yiddish.) And this being California, the town was filled with children of the European and Asian W.W.-II diasporas. on the plus side everyone had air conditioning, & you could cross the border for cheap Chinese food or pick any number of air conditioned movie palaces, where the movies, whether American, French, or Italian, were (mostly) dubbed into Spanish there was only one movie palace on the California side, & ithad bilingual bingo every Friday night, no doubt in accordance with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. (Still, it was unfair that the Mexican movies werent dubbed into English, or Yiddish.) And this being California, the town was filled with children of the European and Asian W.W.-II diasporas.

Spanish, or its proto-Spanglish dialects, tended to be the lingua franca. The various expat languages were ancil-liary, English among them. there were smatterings of Hungarian, Dutch, Yiddish, Hindi, German, Italian, French, Russian, Catalan, and Cantonese. Everybody knew a few profanities from their mother country. (Stronzo, merde, schtupp, yoni, lingam, kunti.) then there were summers with Aunt Barbara, who decided to teach me Russian and Greek. But who insisted that we begin with writing and reading lessons, not with anything conversational.