Poswob culture and sociolinguistics

Obscene and profane language

Poswa's approach to obscene and profane language is unique and stands out even from its close relatives and neighbors. It could be said that Poswa has a strict dividing line between obscenity and profanity, or that obscenity simply doesn't exist and profanity is the only offensive language available to the Poswobs.

Obscene language

Poswa lacks offensive terms for body parts and bodily functions that most other languages have. Adults and toddlers use the same vocabulary for every conceivable construction in which one might expect an offensive mental image to arise. Obscene words are called waptipopo, derived from the verb wapti "to face away; turn one's back to someone" and popo "words, speech, language". This can be used as a verb, to make sentences such as

Mampum waptipoparebe?

Why did you swear at me?

And like other verbs it can take the agentive suffix -ta, to form waptipopota "potty mouth".

Euphemisms for obscenities are called putapopo "panty words", because panties cover up that which is obscene to make it more presentable in mixed company. (Poswobs do not commonly wear pants unless the weather is very cold.)

Instead of relying on the words themselves, Poswobs who want to offend people often go for intense graphical imagery, far beyond what speakers of most other languages are willing to do. For example, one can say

Prabbo popabem!

My diarrhea in your mouth!

Speakers of other languages generally translate Poswa terms for obscene concepts using the least offensive possible word, partly because of the childish sound of the Poswa language in general and partly because among Poswobs, even the youngest children freely use such expressions whereas in almost every other culture there are dividing lines between terms acceptable for children and terms acceptable for adults, often with more than one gradation between the two extremes.

However, it would be wrong to equate the speech of Poswobs with that of toddlers in general. Angry toddlers and angry grownups in Pusapom use the same terms for the same things, but when they want to offend someone, adults pull on a diverse catalog of mental imagery, whereas toddlers rely heavily on the single word pobbop "poop" and its derivatives. More than a hundred derivations of pobbop are in common use; some are regular, others are irregular.

Water and wheel are not euphemisms.

Twub

Twub "urine" appears in few constructions because most of its noun forms are homophonous with those for water, and even though the true meaning of the word is usually clear, twub lacks even the mild mental association of many of Poswa's other words for obscene concepts. Many speakers use the word twop "pain; louse" as an intensifier for painful or unpleasant sensations, and this word also happens to be the accusative of twub. Thus one can say

Plefi! Pattšapio twop pobiba.

Whoa! My coffee is painfully hot.

While this may make some elementary learners giggle, few listeners would interpret a sentence such as this as something such as

*My coffee is piss hot.

Or anything similar.

References to sex and violence

As above, Poswa stands out even from its close relative, Pabappa, in lacking an established variety of obscene terms for bodily functions and activities. Poswa has quite a lot of words for "vagina", for example, including iši, lara, pal, pip, rubae, pumpi, valem, and wavie. However, none of these words stands out as particularly obscene, and an angry Poswa speaker using one in a sentence such as

Pumpiže!

You're a vagina!

Would trigger a puzzled reaction from the listener similar to what one would expect from its literal English translation. Thus, it could be said that Poswa simply has no way to translate English slang terms such as "pussy" and its wide variety of meanings. A speaker seeking to trigger an angry reaction would be much more likely to use an expression such as

Pumpem!

Up your vagina!

Which can be directed at a listener of either sex. However, even this is context-dependent.

Terms for female anatomy

The vagina

As above, there are many words for vagina, but they have little difference in meaning and, for the most part, any of the words can be used in any context, from the doctor's office to the bedroom. The commonest terms are valem and wavie. Both contain the letter v, which is found in many words denoting sharp objects and dangerous things. In this case, the success of the /v/ words is due largely to Poswob males' perceptions of the vagina as a very powerful thing, even though it is not physically sharp or dangerous to the touch.

Valem is a very strong word, and is sometimes replaced by the euphemism walem "middle, center" in polite speech. Note, however, that Poswobs measure their politeness depending on context and culture, and that even valem is not always considered rude.

Wavie is an irregular noun which mutates to an alternate stem wavv- when combined with possession markers. There is no standard euphemism for this word, but any word with a similar sound used in the proper context, such as wawia "playground", will be easily recognized by adult listeners as a synonym for wavie.

Lesser-used words for the vagina include pumpi, pabaffo, bvo, romne, and pfo.

Although Poswobs do not consider talking about female genitalia to be obscene or offensive, one sometimes hears romba "womb" used instead of one of the words for vagina.

Many of the other words were originally slang terms whose original literal meaning faded after thousands of years of sound changes.

The clitoris

Most of Poswa's words for clitoris are derived by adding the morpheme -va to the end of any word for vagina. Thousands of years ago, this word could stand alone, but it now occurs only in compounds. The morpheme obeys the sound changes expected for a suffix, so that for example, the compound of valem and va is valemba. There is also another word, wavva, derived from an obsolete term for the vagina, but this word merges with another word for the vagina itself in many of its inflected forms, and so is not often used. Others, mostly obscure, are piva, palva, pabva, rombva, šuva, buva, puva, and luva. Additionally, the synonym pižbis exists, and is not derived from a word for the vagina.

Menstruation

Menstruation is considered an impolite topic to address in mixed company. A man might say

Fwulpiae?

Are you on your period?

To his wife or girlfriend, but in a wider public situation the same question would invite a violent answer. Indeed, in some social circles, males are not allowed to use the word fwulpwa "to menstruate" at all, nor any of its derivatives. Instead, they use euphemisms. Some people extend this taboo to encompass any word beginning with the rounded bilabial fricative /fʷ/, since it is one of the rarest consonants to find at the beginning of a Poswa word, and any word beginning with /fʷ/ will remind the listener of fwulpwa. The commonest word affected by this taboo is fwava "cosmetics, balm".

However, this word taboo is found primarily in southern areas where Poswobs live with speakers of Pabappa, which has similar taboos. In the wider Poswob homeland, words for menstruation are used freely by males and females alike, whether socially appropriate or not.

The breasts

The commonest word for adult female breasts is papopop; the -pop suffix marks the dual number, and a single breast is papo. One can also say matwappop, "that which casts shadows", for breasts that are particularly large and noticeable. A commonly heard word is požepop, which refers to the nipples, but is often used as a measurement of breast size; specifically to denote how far the nipples are from the base of the chest. The primary word for nipple is mum, which is an irregular noun which behaves as if it were simply m in some forms. Because this word is so short, it is often padded with one of the words for breast before it, or (when appropriate), adding the dual suffix -pop, which turns it into a regular noun. The area between the breasts is called the bumpul.

Breast milk is bub, which is distantly related to the word for milk in general (blub). This word is also often padded by prefixing it with mum "nipple"; an alternative is to use a becausative derivation of the word for nipple itself, producing mie. Thus one can say

Plefi! Bambas nobellia miul?

Whoa! The baby's icecream is made from your breast milk?

Some Poswob men practice self-stimulation in order to give themselves the ability to lactate; male breast milk is called pisi. This is an irregular noun, however; a Poswob worker coming across an overcrowded break room fridge would therefore have to say

Pios pižža šuppsapepiem pwofa?

Whose breast milk is sitting in the fridge?

Gender-specific taboo vocabulary

NOTE, THIS SECTION DOESNT SEEM TO MESH WELL WITH THE REST OF POSWOB CULTURE. I MAY REMOVE IT. IT GOES BACK TO A VERY OLD IDEA I HAD IN WHICH PUSAPOM WAS A STRONGLY FEMALE-DOMINATED SOCIETY LIKE MOONSHINE RATHER THAN BEING DIVERSE.

Nevertheless, despite Poswa's immodest habits of using the most straightforward terms for obscene body parts and activities, taboos do in fact exist. Searching deeply, one finds a rich assortment of words for the uterus and other related concepts. Here the Poswob cultural trait of superstition comes into play, and this has created an intricate array of synonyms and taboos.

Traditionally, in Poswob schools, young children learn that there is a list of words in Poswa dictionaries which females are allowed to say, but males are not. Since the words are largely terms for adult concepts, young boys and girls usually do not know the meanings of the many words or why girls are allowed to say them whereas boys are not; they learn the list and move on to learning how to count on their hands. (Most teachers of small children are females.)

This taboo is very rarely broken, and a man or boy uttering one of the words on the list will be assumed to be quoting someone else. These words are not taboo because they are considered obscene or disgusting, but because they are considered powerful.

For example, men cannot use the terms tweb or warma, both of which mean "abortion". Male Poswa speakers are allowed to use mappapa for "abortion" and wabviwabi for "miscarriage", but many prefer to avoid the subject entirely and merely say that a woman is no longer pregnant.

There is another word for menstruation, waviop, on the list of words that males are not allowed to say. However, this word has nearly disappeared from Poswa speech in general, including the speech of females. The word waptem "woman" is also on the list, meaning that only a woman (or girl) can refer to another woman as a waptem. This has made the term take on insulting connotations, although the term has never had a more precise definition than simply "woman".

Neighboring cultures think it is strange that Poswob men are allowed to use words like wavie "vagina" in public without the fear of punishment, yet none will dare to so much as utter the related term waviop, which means menstruation, or any of its derivatives. These words are forbidden because of cultural superstitions largely related to childbirth, and not because they are considered obscene. The two phenomena feed each other; in the closely related Pabap culture, the taboos on words such as waviop disappeared but were soon replaced by more traditional taboos for obscene concepts.

Terms for male anatomy

Terms for male anatomy are generally more descriptive than those for the female anatomy. Poswa has eight words for vagina with little difference in meaning. By contrast, although the commonest word for the penis is noppupu, there are other words available to describe the penis with finer precision.

For example, a healthy adult penis can be called popwap, "that which causes children". An infertile one can be called pwabwap "that which causes urine", which is also the word for urethra. (Note that the word used for urine here is not twub, the modern term, but rather an earlier one that died out.) Both terms are often used sarcastically or otherwise figuratively.

Wider varieties of obscenities

Poswa more rarely uses terms and interjections involving whole sentences:

Bwaptwipši!

Get raped!

Which is the closest literal equivalent to the English "Fuck you!" and its equivalents in many other European languages.

Despite the presence of vocabulary such as the above, Poswobs are just as likely to use more childish-sounding substitutions for this interjection such as

Pobbwutši!

Get pooped on!

Twatwutši!

Get peed on a lot!

And for those who are really worried about offending someone

Myptalwutši!

Get slimed on!

Thus, the offensiveness of an expression is determined by the literal meaning of the words being chosen rather than by a word's belonging to a particular category of "adult" vocabulary despite sharing a literal meaning with some much less offensive word. Put another way, there is no way to make a sentence like "get pooped on" any more offensive in Poswa without changing its meaning.

Profane language

By contrast, blasphemy is strictly taboo, and this taboo has extended to other religions adopted by the Poswobs throughout time.

Use of obscene words as slang vocabulary

Poswa also does not have a large corpus of slang terms that are confined to informal usage. An old word for the buttocks, puspe, contributed the modern Poswa word lyppysypa "silly, crazy" by compounding it with a morpheme meaning "consisting mostly of". That is to say, a silly person is one whose butt is bigger than the rest of their body put together.

Use of euphemisms

Euphemisms are rare. One example is babžambwabbum "to break free from life" replacing bem "to die".

Poswobs as minorities

Outside

Poswobs have a few cities outside their empire. One is on the far east coast, the only east-coast city populated by Poswobs. It is difficult to reach, since one must cross 6000 foot glaciers to get there from the rest of the empire, but the east coast people around them are glad to have an outlet to the rest of the world through those glaciers. It is a rare example where Poswobs are the upper class, because all the other people are dependent on trade with the Poswob Empire and most are not willing to deal with -55F temperatures to get it.

Another is Baeba, on the far west coast. It is the only west coast city with a significant Poswob minority, although some cities in Goga are roughly 20% Poswob/Moonshine, where Poswobs and Moonshines have blended into one identity, with both speaking Moonshine. Poswobs in Baeba have no rights and are generally considered the lowest class. They mostly come from Lypelpyp, which is so poor that even being a slave in Baeba is better.

Both of thses cities can participate in the Poswob government and are considered part of the empire. Howeerver the Poswobs do not claim the territory in btewteen ars part of the empoire. And Baeba isnt claimed entirely, just the Poswobs that live in Baeba.

Inside

There are a few places in the Poswob Empire where Poswobs have become a minority themselves.

Miršif

This is the old Pabap hiomeland, where most people who live there that callthemselves Posowbs are actually older tribes who assimilated because they were non-Pabap. the Poswob elite was doing this to try to win them over as allies, saying that they were aboriginals who were being oppressed by the Pabaps. The new "Poswobs" were thus free to move anywhere else, and some did move, but most stayed./ They have little cultural connection to the rest of the Poswobs/

Wawiabi

Wawiabi is a state that secdede from the Moonshine Empire into the Poswob one. It is majortu Moonshine today, and is divided into two major districts. The Moonshine district is officially 100% Moon, although some Poswobs do live there even though MS doesnt officially allow any foreigners at all to visit. The other district is diverse, because Poswobs allow immigration. There are many Moonshines here, too, however, because it was historuically a Moonshine terrirotiry. Most Poswobs in West Wawiabi are descendents of people who were there before it secdeded, even though, as above, it was illegal even then for them to be there.

Nama

The south coast of Nama has been invaded by p[eople from the tropics and thus Pusapom has no free access to the south coast. Some Poswobs stayed here after the conqyuest, but they are the underclass.

The Moonshine Crown

THe Moon shine Crown is the name given to an alliance of fours states which do not allow Posowbs to visit, because they are 100% Moonshine. Even so, the Poswobs supply them with food and labor, and they do not have to pay taxes to Pusapom. Thus they are among the richest states of all,.

Tarwas

Note that Tarwas is not considered a minority-Poswob state. This is because, despite the fact that the inhabitants of Tarwas are predominantly tall and dark-skinned, and stand apart sharply from the many smaller, lighter, often blonde and blue eyed people around them, they have adopted Poswob culture and therefore do not consider themselves minorities. Thus, Poswobs moving into Tarwas are considered legally interchangeable with the natives of Tarwas, and therefore the typical light-skinned Poswobs do not consider themselves minorities when they move to Tarwas either.

Animals

Poswobs are the most interspecies people in the world, in the sense that they have the most different species of sentient animals living with them. The way they handle things is a bit different than Moonshines though.

Penguins

Penguins live in a fairly restricted area of the land. However, this happens to be exactly the same areas that humans live in, so the species are in common contact. Penguins and humans communicate primarily through hand signals, with one sign for each letter. Penguins also have their own series of languages, which is even more diverse than the human series, and appears nothing like any of them. Few humans have learned these languages, but in grammar they are surprisingly similar to those of humans, so "immersion" is possible. Of course since humans have lips and penguins have beaks the himans' attempt to speak is very different in sound, but again, still possible, because the penguins' phonologies tend to have only a few consonants. Common consonant invernoties are /p ḅ m s l/ or /p b m s w/. Consonants are mosdtly bilabials because that is what humans are most comfortable with and it makes it easier for te penguins to see. Nontheless, even though pegnuins have good hearing, sometimes it is better to have just 1 consojnant at each POa, hence the subtle differences in POA in setups like /p ḅ m s l/ (even here, /p/ and /m/ share a spot, thoiugh).

Penguins range in size from 0.2 humans to 13 humans. They have a much more meat-heavy diet than humans, but both eat primarily fish. This puts the two species in competition, but violent incidents are rare because both species are sparse enough that there is generally enough food for everybody. Humans have even introduced the penguins to cooked meat, and penguins often prefer this to fresh kills. And opewgnuins are good at sharing dfood that they have caught, thus penguin + humans is the most lovable combination of species.

Dolhpins

Dolphins range in size from 6 to 84 humans, and are present on every coastline. They have independent nations of their own, with distinct boundaries, and so they dont just simply roam throughout the entire ocean. The fact that a few dolpinh nations have žž in their name led them to be called "the ŽŽ zone". For the most part, the Dolphins standy by an agreement made with the Moonshines about 1350 years ago promising that each would defend the other. But since doilphins have nations of their own, they have wars of their own too, and humans cannot just tell the difference between a pro-Moonshine dolphin and a pro-Vatala intruder trying to destroy all the other nations. Dolphins communiate primarily through interpreters, but can learn human languages, so the interpreter just needs to repeat the sounds, not actually translate the language.

The world population od dolphins is about 3.6 million, just slightly lower than the human population.

Firebirds

The only spcies that is predominantly hostile, firebirds see humans as prey and only occasionally will cooperate with umans when their interestes coincide. On the island of Lan, for example, humasn are still 100% captive and have not yet been rescued from the firebirds' rock nests by other humans. But Lan is outside the territory of Moonshine. Within Moonshine, the two species mostly manage to coexist despite being at war, since neither exposes itself to harm often enough to make the kill worth the risk. i.e. a firebird could capture a human and then swoop away to safety, but this would rsult in a reventge attack of some sort, whereas they could choose instead to eat a fish, which has a lot more meat and muscle, and there will be no revenge attack from a colony of fish.

Like penguins and humans, firebirds are mostly found right near the water, but they prefer a warmer climate than the other two species because they have very little body fat. This is part of the reason why the temperate climates to the west of Nokʷ are almost entirely free of humans: this is the firebirds' main habitat. Firebirds range in size from 2 to 8 humans. THye usually die around 70F so Poswobs have to dwealth with them less than Moonshines do. Note that there are tropical firebirds which are smaller but just as deadly.

Rabbits

A very violent species that is responsible for hundreds of thousands of human deaths. Rabbits do not eat humans, but humans sometimes wish they did. This is because rabbits, by being vegetarian, compete with humans for food sources and therefore start organized wars against humans rather than picking them off one by one as a typical predator might.