Swearing nations table
Some researchers in Brisbane, Australia, have analysed the use of written vulgarities in 20 English-speaking nations and came out with a table where Nigeria placed among the top 10 swearers.
The 20 countries were Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Britain, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and the US with the United States and Great Britain placing first and second respectively.
These nations, according to the researchers use swear words and vulgar slangs in their everyday conversations.
Overall, they found the 0.036 per cent of the United States written output was made up of vulgar elements – more than any other nation.
This was followed by 0.025 for Britain, 0.022 per cent for Australia, 0.021 for Singapore and 0.02 per cent for New Zealand.
Also in the top 10 were Malaysia and Ireland (both at 0.019 per cent), Jamaica and Canada (both 0.017 per cent). Nigeria (0.016 per cent) make up the crowd of nations at Number 10.
The use of profane words is common among English-speaking nations but America takes the crown, according to data released by the researchers.
A linguist, Dr. Nick Moweta, said he was not surprised at the rating of Nigeria because “even in some of our indigenous languages, you still notice strong elements of the use of swear words in daily conversations.
“The reality is that we don’t even take notice of these abusive slants which we have transferred to our conversations in English,” he told Political Economist NG.
He said he was not surprised at US and Britain because having lived in these countries, you’ll just know that it’s almost cultural to them to use swear words.
