I blame Quentin Tarantino and Roddy Doyle. The more effing and blinding there is about, the more likely it is that some prat in beige corduroys will appear on Channel 4 to explain it all to us. By the time you reach page 22 of Your Motlier's Tongue, you will be seized by a strong suspicion that this, is the man. But no: Stephen Burgen is possessed of a keen sense of humour. "In grammatical terms," he declares, by way of explaining the difference between cursing and swearing, "this represents a shift from the subjunctive `May you be fucked (cursing) to the imperative `Fuck you (swearing)." I suppose it all depends on whether you're likely to be reduced to tears of hilarity on being informed that Italians spray their sentences with cazzos while the Germans refer to sexual ecstasy as "maximum bubbling" or that buggers originated in Bulgaria (oh yes, 11th century Gnostic sect); personally, I thought it a load of old cojones.
