Could this be the final humiliation for this once-proud country?
In the latest blow to Britain’s waning national pride, we can no longer claim to be the world leader in a craft at which we have traditionally excelled – swearing.
Even more galling is the fact we have lost the title to the Americans, a nationality often associated with religious prudery.
However, we do out-swear the Australians despite their reputation for crudeness and vulgarity.
What might be called the World Profanity Table was compiled by linguists down under, studying almost 2 billion words from 1.8 million web pages and blogs.
Overall, they found 597 forms of vulgarity across the 20 English-speaking countries studied.
While America beat Britain into second place, we were found to have the widest repertoire of milder swear worlds.
Aussies were third, followed by Singapore, New Zealand, Malaysia and Ireland, who may be disappointed to come in so low.
In the latest blow to Britain’s waning national pride, we can no longer claim to be the world leader in a craft at which we have traditionally excelled – swearing
Even more galling is the fact that Brits have lost the profanity champion title to the Americans, a nationality often associated with religious prudery
And the least profane countries were Bangladesh, Ghana and Tanzania.
Presenting their results in the scientific journal Lingua, the researchers say: ‘The United States, often associated with protestant puritanism, Christian fervour and prudishness, show the highest rates of vulgarity in online discourse, followed by Great Britain.’
And they concede: ‘Australians might well be disheartened when they discover that they are not the top users of profanity.
‘Australia’s love of vulgarity, and swear words in particular, is very evident in public life. The public airing of swear words is something that is often remarked upon by overseas visitors to Australia.’
About 13 per cent of US blogs contain at least one profanity compared to 10 per cent in Britain.
The linguists from Monash and Queensland Universities in Melbourne and Brisbane also pointed out the creativity of swearing, saying: ‘For children and adults alike, vulgarity is a tool for creative expression and playful experimentation with words and phrases, often involving literary devices traditionally associated with great literary works.’
That includes modern constructions such as ‘f***trumpet’ as well as historic words still in use, such as ‘blockhead’, which dates from the 1500s.
Americans also showed a special preference for ‘ass’ while Brits were most free with the use of both ‘bloody’ and the C-word.
The F-word was widely used throughout the English-speaking world, though in Ireland the more popular form was ‘feck’.
Australia’s failure to top the profanity league surprised the researchers, led by Dr Martin Schweinberger.
They point out that even official Australian agencies use course language, such as the tourist board’s slogan asking potential tourists, ‘So where the bloody hell are you?’ or the drink-drive slogan: ‘If you drink then drive, you’re a bloody idiot!’
