Italian profanity bestemmia , pl. The Italian language is a language with a large set of inflammatory terms and phrases, almost all of which originate from the several dialects and languages of Italy, such as the Tuscan dialect , which had a very strong influence in modern standard Italian and is widely known to be based on Florentine language. Profanities differ from region to region, but a number of them are diffused enough to be more closely associated to the Italian language and featured in all the more popular Italian dictionaries.
Italian writers have often used profanity for the spice it adds to their pages. This is an example from a seventeenth century collection of tales, the Pentamerone , [48] by the Neapolitan Giambattista Basile:. This tirade could be translated like this:. Francis Ford Coppola had some characters in The Godfather use untranslated profanity.
For instance, when Sonny Corleone found out that Paulie Gatto had sold out his father to the Barzinis , he called Gatto "that stronz'". Profanities in the original meaning of blasphemous profanity are part of the ancient tradition of the comic cults , which laughed and scoffed at the deity.
Common blasphemous profanity in Italian are: In the Italian language profanities belonging to this category are called bestemmie singular: This category is so strong it is usually frowned upon even by people who would make casual or even regular use of the profanities above. Bestemmiare "swearing" is a misdemeanor in Italian law, but the law is seldom enforced. However, it is still considered a strong social taboo at least on television.
For example, anyone caught uttering bestemmie in the Italian Big Brother Grande Fratello "must be immediately expelled" because they offend "millions of believers". Until , uttering blasphemies in public was considered a criminal misdemeanor in Italy although enforcement was all but non-existent , while nowadays it has been downgraded to an administrative misdemeanor. Some local administrations still ban the practice. For example, after the curate complained about the frequency of blasphemous profanity in the parish recreation centre, the comune of Brignano Gera d'Adda banned the practice in the civic centre and in all places of retail business, be it public or private.
