South Asian Linguistic

Abuses in Indian Languages : A Linguistic Study with
Special Focus on Bangla

 Pabitra Sarkar

[First Draft: Not to be quoted from]

1

      Verbal abuses do not fall within the normal uses of language. They, however, legitimately belong to hundreds of uses to which we put a language, and have to be understood as a part of our understanding of language itself. They have been traditionally a part of what is known as slang, as Levin and Levin (1995:v) tell us that the word "slang" once meant "to be abusive". This meaning has no longer been slang's major feature, since the authors also mention in the same breath that "Slang is a way of belonging, of "speaking the same language". This phatic function of slang is not certainly shared by verbal abuses, since they are not uttered in a spirit of bonhomie in most cases, and if they are, they are not held to be abuses.

      Abuses are, again, not to be confused with 'expletives' or swear-words, that are hardly directed at anybody, but are sudden expressions of pain, anger, annoyance etc., automatic mouthing of what is known as a 'profanity', without, arguably, meaning any harm to anyone. Firth (1964:111) has an elaborate description of what these expletives are- "They spell failure to cope with situations. Or rather, that your way of 'coping' is first to make a mess and then make a lot of noise. You hit your thumb instead of the nail and say 'Blast!' Many people spend quite a lot of their energy in verbal outbursts resulting from irritation, failure, loss of temper, and in such cases that is all these words mean." Abuses are directed at an animate being, most often humans, in order to insult him or her deliberately. An event of abuse-hurling usually requires close proximity of the two parties, and reciprocity of exchanges, but there are exceptions. Proximity can of course be electronically arranged. But there have been instances where the target of abuses is not present on the scene, and the utterance of abuses takes the form of an animated soliloquy 1 . Abuses are expected to give the speaker of them a power, a feeling of superiority or one-upmanship, in respect to the target. These are verbal weapons to win a battle of two confronting egos, which may be singular or collective. Abuses, unlike expletives, are meant to hurt, even if mentally.

      Abuses, to be regarded as abuses proper, are dependent on contexts, both cultural as well as interpersonal. For example, as Mencken (1937) tells us, 'Bloody!' uttered by Mrs. Patrick Campbell in Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion on a London stage in 1914 had caused so much curiosity and excitement to the British audience, that many of them waited till the word to be uttered and then leave the auditorium. But the staging of the same play in New York soon later, and the same word uttered by Eliza Doolittle caused no ripples at all. To the American audience, as Mencken holds, the word was "entirely without improper significance."

      It can be seen that dialects can also be responsible for this change in cultural response. In the current Standard Colloquial Bangla, magi is held to be a pejorative term for a woman, for it now means 'a prostitute'. However, the nineteenth century Bengali author Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar (1820-91), used the term freely in writing about an eight year old girl, Prabhabati, who was dearly loved by him and who died in that young age. She loved to hear Vidyasagar addressing him as magi. In rural Bangla dialects, it is a neutral term still, simply meaning 'a woman', while in the Standard it has a pejorative sense. Abuses being culture-bound, their force hardly remains the same when they are translated, and although some abusive phrases like 'son-of- a- bitch' have corresponding formations in Indian languages, for example kutte ke bachche in Hindi, literal translations of most abusive words fail to evoke the desired reaction in most cases.

      In a bilingual context, where a dominant-dominated relationship holds between two languages, an abuse in the dominant language may carry more power than a similar abuse in the dominated. Bengali playwright Michael Madhusudan Dutta (1824-73) puts this anecdote in one of his farces, where a friend under intoxication takes serious exceptions to his friend's calling him a 'liar' in English. When other friends, under similar spell of drinks, try to calm him down, he vehemently protests that the friend could call him mithyavadi in Bengali, which meant the same thing. But 'liar' in English! That was too much for him to digest. In another instance, jocular episode in Bengali has an Englishman damning his desi manservant, who says in reply, "Sir, if 'damn' is a word of praise, then I'm damn, my father is damn, and my fourteen forefathers are damn. But, on the other hand, if it is something bad, then you're damn, your father's damn and your fourteen forefathers are damn!' All of you have witnessed quarrels of passengers in buses and other public vehicles in which things come to a head when someone says, 'Shut up!' The fat is on the fire then. Rarely does Khamosh! or chup raho! hurt as much as 'Shut up' does and the power relationship between two languages that have their codes mixed in such contexts.

      The interpersonal contexts do also play role in deciding what is an abuse and what is not. An American senator can call his colleague 'son-of-a-bitch' as a phrase of high praise, and 'bloody bastard' is reportedly used as a term of endearment among the sailors of Australia. Mothers often call or refer to their boys as shaitan or 'devil'. English speaking mothers have endearment terms like 'little rascal'; 'little devil, as French mothers have similar terms petit coquin or petit polisson. The shape of the mere word or phrase, therefore, does not always indicate that it functions as an abuse. Words and phrases can be regarded as abuses when they have a target, meant to insult and hurt, and, in addition, potentially reciprocal. Abuses invite counter-abuses from the target it is meant to hurt.

      Abuses are also weapons in ego clashes and other contexts of personal rivalry, in which real or imagined feeling of superiority of one party is threatened. There are occasions where abuses are uttered just to establish superiority over the rival. In one of the short stories of Bengali fiction writer Saradindu Banerjee (1899-1971), 'Itar-Bhadra' (The uncultured and the polite), a highly polished and gentle young man began uttering unimaginable profanities when he found her beloved was threatened by the villain and gave the latter a sound beating. Nobody, let alone his beloved, could dream that he was capable of either. It however seemed that his beloved was more impressed by his verbal prowess, than the physical.

      Abuses are also class-bound, and some abuses are so freely uttered by a certain class that they almost lose their abusive force. At one level of Indian society, words like be, bahenchod, chutiya etc. have almost become expletives and peers at whom they are thrown take them as good fun most of the time. But these uttered in a middle class environment would redden the faces of those who hear them. They are often used for shock effect by children or young people, but they are not, in that context, proper abuses that are, in fact, acts of verbal violence. Abuses are, once again, verbal expressions of a conflict situation, sometime accompanied by appropriate physical signs and actions. Instances are there, particularly in literature, where only physical actions were returned for loud verbal abuses. Saratchandra Chatterji, the Bengali author, tells of a daughter-in-law, who, in return of vigorous abuses from her mother-in-law, did not utter a word, but showed her a raised knife, or a burning log of wood pulled out from her oven, actions that were not noticed by others. Abusive prowess and lexicon differ from person to person, and that is why they become tools of power in interpersonal relationship.

2

      Abuses, as we said above, are not normal linguistic exchanges. They violate all principles that Grice (1975) speaks of, but they are still part of language use in general, and has to be accounted for in an ideal description of linguistic functions. Austin (1965: 16,18), who was concerned with 'how to do things with words', uses the term to mean something else than verbal abuse. That verbal conflict is one among hundreds of linguistic functions is not to be denied, and every linguistic function has a claim for a description by the linguist/sociolinguist and/or the anthropologist.

      Abuses consist of creative uses of available linguistic material, which themselves may not be abusive in their import. In Bangla and some north Indian languages, abuses can be divided into two broad categories: 1. Those created by phonological change of the word shape, and 2. Those consisting of words or their combinations. In Bangla for example the first category arises when a name is distorted to make it sound contemptuous and insulting. Bamun 'a Brahmin' becomes bamna in this process. Individual names also undergo such phonological distortions: rOton> rOtna, gOneS>gOnSa, pOMkoj> pOMka, kriSno> keSTa belong to one category of changes. In another category, there are instances like hori>hore, SotiS> Sote, phoTik> phoTke. Still another category is formed by pairs like paNchu> peNco, kalicOron> kelo, ram> remo. Another group is formed by Sib>Sibe, jitendra>jite, bimOl>bimle. The ordered phonological processes that change these names are those of vowel and sometimes consonant deletion, and truncation of the latter part of the word in order to keep only the initial syllable, and then adding a vowel, either /a/ or /o/ or /e/ in well defined contexts. In Hindi, the suffix -ua often makes ramua out of rama , but the result, I believe, is not always pejorative. Some familiar names of girls are similarly changed, for example, bimli from bimOla, sari from Saroda, or Sabi from Sabittri. Here the processes are somewhat similar, although not exactly the same. It is to be noted that female names are gender marked with an // -i// at the end of the word, while the male names have more than one vowel options.

      Many new and somewhat 'modern' names, do not, however, lend themselves to such phonological distortions. Names like prodip, Somir, Santonu, Subir, Olokanonda, condrima etc. do not undergo the rules that other male and female names are susceptible to. They are either mimicked in a nasty paralinguistic manner, in which the way it is pronounced cause irritation to the owner of the name, or the abusive lexicon of the language is exploited for terms that can be prefixed to the name, for similar effect.

We therefore arrive at the general division of Indian abusive terms:

1 My personal memory retains the experience of seeing an old village woman returning from the weekly market or 'Hat' with a basket on her head and loudly quarrelling with somebody that is nowhere present on the scene. Roychowdhury (1995:44-45) also includes a hilarious anecdote about one of his aunts, who had been waiting for a jack-fruit on her tree to ripen, when it was found that somebody had stolen it. So she called her old manservant and ordered her to hurl abuses to the absent thief of the fruit. The servant, in the course of his virtuoso performance, questioned the legitimacy of birth of the thief in various ways, insinuating that his mother had consorted with non-human animals to beget such a son and this way it went on for a length of time. This hopefully brought some consolation to the aunt.

      We have already covered the phonology-based abuses, a fuller treatment of which may wait for another occasion.

      The abuses that are made of single words or word groups are in general descriptive, used, that is, used as epithets of the targeted person. These again can be divided into two groups. The first contains some truth, however exaggerated or vicious, about the target. And the other is totally imposed or ascribed, with no truth base at all. It has to be added that truth-based abuses can be imposed in certain contexts, just for spiting a person. For example, haMla/heMli 'greedy', buddhu 'fool', moTka/muTki or dhumSo/dhumSi 'fatso', ShuNTko/SuNTki 'skinny', mager aMchol-dhOra 'towing the hemline of the wife, i.e., henpecked', kana 'one-eyed', lAMRa/leMRi 'lame', bOdmaS 'rascal', gadha 'ass' (a metaphor for a foolish person, see later for the role of metaphors in verbal abuses), aMTkuRe/aMTkuRi 'unable to beget a child' etc. (As you can easily see, translations do not convey the force or spite of the original). These abuses attempt to describe some physical or mental features of the target, which are deemed negative or 'abnormal'. The description is not neutral, but malicious, and, as we have seen, meant to hurt or insult.

      In the imposed or ascribed category of abuses, there is no basis of truth in what is being said about the target. The person that is being called khankir chele (B) or rendi-ka-bacca (H) 'son of a whore' is not truly so, and this kind of ascription has pure spite as its source. This is at the same time somewhat 'wish-fulfilling' for the speaker-who would have possibly been happy if the target fitted the ascription. We can think of the following sub-categories of the 'ascribed' abuses:

      In abuses of illegitimate associations, we have a class that insinuates the illegitimacy or abnormality of the target's birth: as in 'bastard', 'son-of-a-bitch', khankir chele, baper bancot chele 'son of a sister-fucker father', baper Thik nei 'doesn't have an identifiable father', baper 'condom' phaTa chele 'son born out of a torn condom', Sonagachir 'bathroome jOnmo 'born in the bathroom of Sonagachhi (a red-light area of Kolkata) etc.

      In the next class the target is a participant in an unnatural or abnormal sexual relationship. Bancot ( bahenchod in Hindi) or 'sister -fucker' is the most common of such abuses, apart from ma-ke cod (H) and ma-ke coda chele (B) 'mother-fucker'. Malinowski (1955: 99) has noticed the superior skill of Russians to other European nations in such abuses. They have hundreds of variations of yob twayn mat. He also mentions of the habit of the inhabitants of Trobriand Islands , whose sharpest reaction involves three abuses--- kowy inam, kowy lamuta and kowy um'kwava which identifies the listener's mother, sister and wife respectively as the sexual partner of the speaker. For them, Malilnowsky says, the first is rather tolerable, since it is most commonly used, even sometimes for fun. The second strains the listener's tolerance and angers him. But the third is the ultimate of insult and no self-respecting husband is going to take that lying down. Malinowsky explains this by stating that the first is least possible, so one does not mind it that much. The second is more possible and therefore invites sharper reaction. But the third, besides being possible to a high degree, also encroaches into the very personal domain of the listener's male sense of ownership. So the third is the hardest for the listener to bear. Using that, Malinowski states, is a 'mortal offence' to the Trobrianders.

      The aspersions of illegitimate sex can also be types: sexual act indulged by self, and that indulged by others, that is, an ego and non-ego distinction. The other person may be the listener, or any other person who may not be present at the time of the abuse event. It is worth remembering that abuses in these categories are fully imputed.

4

      Many of the word-based abuses take the form of metaphors, as has been noticed long ago by G. K. Chesterton, who (in 1901) said "All slang is metaphor and all metaphor is poetry" (quoted in James, 1998:vii). In these category, the targeted person has some physical or psychological characteristics, for which (s)he is invites comparison with something else, usually a hated animal or entity. The 'vehicle's that are used in metaphoric abuses can again be divided into several categories:

      In Bangla, these belong to the group abuses with metaphorical featue: kAoT/kAoRa ' a so-called low Hindu caste' , muci 'cobbler' , camar 'traders in animal hyde', kOSai 'butcher', bhikhiri 'beggar', dhangoR 'scavenger', Dom 'cremators of dead bodies', choTolok 'plebians', caSa 'farmer', mAthor 'scavenger', muddophOraS 'disposers of carcasses', cakorbakor 'menials', cor 'thief', Dakat 'decoit' etc. There is a satirical variety of such metaphors, when someone is called 'a zaminder' or 'his lordship' or 'her excellency'.

      Kinship terms used as metaphorical abuses: mama 'maternal uncle, usually said of the police', caca 'paternal uncle', Sala 'brother-in-law', Sombondhi, Sumundi 'brother-in-law'. In satirical contexts: jAThamoSai 'father's elder brother', dadamoSai 'grandfather', Thandi 'grandmother', piSima 'paternal aunt' etc.

     Names of Animals: ullu/ulluk 'owl', paNTha 'he-goat', baNdor 'monkey' Suyor 'pig', chagol 'goat', bhARa 'sheep', giddhaR 'vulture', goru 'cow' etc.

     Fictitious creatures: Saitan 'devil', bhut 'ghost', jibrail 'Zebrail', petni 'female ghost', Sakcunni 'another kind of female ghost', cuRail (H. a kind of female ghost), rakkhoS 'a rakshasa' etc.

      Hidden body-parts: baNRa 'penis', lAoRa (H. 'penis'), dhon (euphemism, meaning 'wealth' for 'penis').

     Objects: gheNcu 'a detestable vegetable', kocu 'aram roots, another vegetable not universally liked', kaNckOla 'green banana', and 'shit', 'bullshit' 'bird's crap' in English.

      The above fall within the 'ascribed' category of abuses, which also contain some compounds. These imply a kind of wishes of the speaker, as in Sotek khoMyari 'one (female) who has eaten =seen to die her hundred children' or imputations of habits on the target, as gukheko 'crap-eater', mORa 'carcass'.

      The 'mixed' kind of abuses are compounds of manifestly innocent words with a slang. Boka in Bangla is a mild description of a fool, often said endearingly. But compounded with coda 'fucker', it becomes an abuse.

5

      Compounds are complemented by collocations, which take us to the syntax of such abuses. Suyor 'pig' can be Suyorer bacca 'offspring of a pit', kutta similarly can by kuttar bacca or kutte-ke-bacce (H). A Bengali middle-class habit is to transform them into 'chaste' tatsama forms and use them satirically as bOrahoSOntan or SaromeyoSOntan. Bacca can be suffixed to many of the detested animals, as bacce in Hindi. Similar suffixes in Bangla are po or put, both meaning 'son'. Its feminine counterpart is beTi.

       Abuses are placed in sentences, and these sentences present themselves in several categories. One concerns the wishes of the speaker: ami tor Takay pecchab kori 'I urinate on your money!', ami tor boner Songe Sui 'I bed with your sister!', ami tor pachar camRa tule nebo 'I'will skin your buttock!' etc. Another expresses orders , such as, jao, Akhon baNRa coSo ge 'Go, suck your cock!' Some are descriptive, but the component of wish is there: ami tor mukhe hagi 'I defecate on your face', tor Takay ami lathi mari 'I kick on your money!' And wish again is predominant in these third person imperative sentences: tor Sorbange kuSTho hok, 'Let there be leprosy all over your body!', je ekOtha bOle tar jibhe pokkhaghat hok 'Let his/her tongue be paralyzed the one who says this'. These abut on curses, and typical female quarrels witness a liberal dose of such curses in rural contexts in particular: he bhOgoban, aj jAno beTir rat na kaTe! 'God do this so that the night doesn't end to day (for the target) = let she be dead tonight.' , mOr, mOr, nirbOMSo hO! 'Die!, Die!, let all of your children die.'

Bibliography

Austin, J. L., 1965, How to Do Things with Words, New York , Oxford University Press.

Banerjee, Saradindu, 1976, 'Itar-Bhadra', see Gupta (ed.), 1976, pp. 312-24.

Cole, P. and J. L. Morgan (eds.), 1975, Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 3, New York , Academic Press.

Grice, H. P., 1975, 'Logic and Conversation', see Cole and Morgan (eds.), 1975, pp. 41-58.

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