Quebec French profanity

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Humorous cartoon from the French newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné, featuring Jacques Chirac and his wife discussing Quebec French profanity. The title reads: On vacation in Quebec. Chirac's wife Bernadette says: Jacques, why do you always say "chalice" and "tabernacle"?
Humorous cartoon from the French newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné, featuring Jacques Chirac and his wife discussing Quebec French profanity. The title reads: On vacation in Quebec. Chirac's wife Bernadette says: Jacques, why do you always say "chalice" and "tabernacle"?

The literal translation of the French verb sacrer is "to consecrate". However, in Quebec it is the proper word for the form of profanity used in Quebec French. The noun form is sacre.

Quebec French, a variety of Canadian French, uses a number of the same types of foul language as in standard French, dealing with sex and excrement (such as merde, "shit", which is almost always pronounced marde in Quebec French). These are usually rather mild, and stronger profanity is expressed using words and expressions related to Catholicism and its liturgy. This usage of religious words to express profanity is also present but to a lesser extent in Acadian French, mostly spoken in the Maritime provinces east of Quebec.

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[edit] History

The sacres originated in the early 19th century in a time when the social control exerted by the Catholic clergy was increasingly a source of frustration. One of the oldest sacres is sacrament, which can be thought of in Quebec French as equivalent to "goddamn it" in English. It was in use as far back as the 1830s as far as is known. The word "sacrer" in its current meaning is believed to come from the expression Ne dites pas ça, c'est sacré. ("Don't say that, it is sacred/holy"). Eventually, sacrer started to refer to the words francophone Québécois were not supposed to say. This is more than probably related to the commandment: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" (Exodus 20:7). The influence and social importance of the Catholic religion at that time allowed sacres to become powerful forms of profanity.

As a result of the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec has declined. This has had no effect, however, on the use of sacres, which is as widespread as ever.

[edit] List of common sacres

These sacres are commonly given in a phonetic spelling to indicate the differences in pronunciation from the original word, several of which, notably the deletion of final consonants and change of [ɛ] to [a] before /r/ are typical of highly informal Quebec French.

[edit] Mild forms

Most sacres have modified, milder euphemistic forms (see minced oath). Such forms are not usually considered nearly as rude as the original. (An English language example of this would be to say mad as heck instead of mad as hell.) Many of the euphemistic forms are similar-sounding religious terms, but ones that have no significance to Catholics. Some of them are references to Protestantism (e.g. calvinisse), Judaism (e.g. mozusse, sacrifice), or more rarely Islam (e.g. calif). Other terms derived from the name of John Calvin are also occasionally used as expletives; this probably originated due to tension between the Catholic majority and the Huguenot minority in Quebec.

  • baptême: batinse, batêche
  • câlice: câline, câlif, câlique, câline de bine, décolisser , colisse
  • calvaire: calvâsse, calvinsse, calvinouche, caltore, calvinisse,calverasse
  • ciboire: cibolle, cibollaque
  • crisse: cristie, crime, criff, crimpuff (from the English "cream puff")
  • maudit: maudine, mautadine, mautadit, mautadite
  • ostie: titi, esti, estifie, ostique, sti
  • sacrament: sacrifice, sacramouille
  • tabarnac: tabarnouche, tabarslaque, simonac, tabarouette (litterally, your wheelbarrow), tabarnache, barnak, tabarnane, tabeurn, batarnak, détabarnaker

Tabarnac and ciboire are sometimes melded into taboire, ironically regarded as only a mild curse. It can also be noted that some people make up phrases that sound innocuous like cinq six boîtes de tomates vartes (literally, "five six boxes of green tomatoes", varte being slang for verte, "green"). This phrase when pronounced quickly by a native speaker sounds like saint-ciboire de tabarnac ("holy ciborium of the tabernacle"). Another word often used is "bâtard", and sometimes in small regions "château de marde" can be heard.

[edit] Use

A very strong way to express anger or frustration is to use the words tabarnac, sacrament, and câlice (in any order). Depending on the context and the tone of the phrases, it might make everybody quiet, but some people use those words to add rhythm or emphasis to sentences.

Usually, more than one of these words is used in an expression. The words are simply connected with de (of), without any restrictions. Long strings of invective can be connected in this way, and the resulting expression doesn't have to have any concrete meaning; for example, Mon ostie de saint-sacrament de câlice de crisse! Non-religious terms may also be strung together in this way, as in mon crisse de char est brisé, tabarnac de câlisse. In areas where English is also commonly spoken, English expletives are often inserted. "fuck ostie" is common around the Outaouais and Ottawa-Gatineau area.

Interestingly, the word fucké (with meanings varying from "crazy, disturbed" to "broken down"; cf. English screwed up) is much milder than "fuck" is in English, and is routinely used in, for instance, TV sitcom dialogue. The same goes for chit (shit) (which in Quebec French is used only as an interjection expressing dismay, never as the noun for excrement). Even English-language dialogue containing these words can appear on Quebec French-language television without bleeping: for example, when, in 2003, punks rioted in Montreal because a concert by the band The Exploited had been cancelled, TV news reporters solemnly read out a few lyrics and song titles from their album Fuck the System. However, the same is not true of Quebec's English-language television stations, which follow the same guidelines as other stations in Canada.

[edit] Non-swearing uses

A slang term with the preposition en means "a lot of": d'la bouffe en tabarnac (or en crisse, etc.) means "a lot of food".

Sacres are often used as verbs too. For example, câlisser une volée means to beat up. There are constructions like décrisser which means to leave or to destroy, using the dé prefix, which is about separation. Others include, s'en câlicer or s'en crisser ("not give a damn"), sacrer son camp ("leave", "run away", literally "consecrate the camp while leaving it"), décâlisser. Some are even found as adverbs: crissement meaning very or extremely as in this is so darned sweet.

These expressions are found less commonly in literature, but rappers and other singers often use crisse and câlice as a rhyme. More traditional singers also use these words, for example, Plume Latraverse.

One fine example of the use of sacres as different word classes is a dialogue by Les Cyniques called Le cours de sacres. The phrase Jules, étant irrité, a expulsé violemment Jacques qui était en colère ("Jules, who was irritated, violently ejected Jacques who was angry") becomes Le sacrament qui était en calvaire a calissé dehors l'ostie en tabarnac.

[edit] Sacres outside Quebec French

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The use of liturgical profanity is not unique to Quebec French. In Italian, although to a lesser extent, some analogue words are in use: in particular "ostia" (host) and (more so in the past) "sacramento" are relatively common expressions in the North/East, which are lighter (and a little less common) than the typical blasphemies in use in Italy like "porco Dio" and "porca Madonna" (see: Italian profanity). Also the process of modifying the terms in euphemistic equivalents is in use in Italy: for example "ostia" is commonly modified in "osteria". The word "sacramento" has also produced the verb "sacramentare", which colloquially means to use blasphemy.

A few other dialects in the world also feature this kind of profanity, for instance the expression Kruzifix noch einmal in Austro-Bavarian. La hostia is an expletive expression in some Spanish dialects. In Catalan, hòstia is used and is frequently abbreviated to osti. Spanish also uses cago en ... ("I shit on...") followed by "God", "the blessed chalice", "the Virgin" and other terms, religious or not. It can be shortened to just "¡La virgen!" or "¡Copón bendito!" ("Blessed chalice!"). In Romanian, the profanity anafora mă-tii! ("Your mother's host!") is sometimes used.

Sheila Fischman's translation of La Guerre, Yes Sir! (published under that title in both French and English, but meaning roughly "War, you bet!") by Roch Carrier leaves many sacres in the original Quebec French, since they have no real equivalent in English. She gives a brief explanation and history of these terms in her introduction, including a few not listed here.

Irish Catholics of old employed a similar practice, whereby 'ejaculations' were used to express frustration without cursing or profaning (taking the Lord's name in vain). This typically involved the recitation of a rhyming couplet, where a shocked person might say 'Jesus who, for love of me/Died on the Cross at Calvary' instead of 'Jesus!' This is often abbreviated simply to 'Jesus-hoo-fer-luv-a-me', an expression still heard among elderly Irish people.

When French speakers from Quebec travel to southern Spanish-speaking American destinations, they are occasionally called Tabarnacos, a variation on the derogatory word Naco.

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