(11-20-2015, 11:00 PM)Nero Wrote:(11-20-2015, 09:06 PM)Oli! Wrote:(11-20-2015, 08:55 PM)Nero Wrote: Using modern swears in what is ostensibly a high fantasy setting is, to me, as wildly out of place as speaking early modern English in Star Wars. It's not that I mind profanity--anyone who's spoken to me on voice is probably aware that I swear more than most--but it's anachronistic and immersion breaking to me.
I'm certain that there are at least a few reasons with which to justify the usage, but it feels wrong and jarring to me.
I think we've already established that age is not the issue, considering that "modern" swear words have been around just as long as most of the rest of the language.
Personal Flavoring may be an issue, but age is not.
That is incredibly debatable as there is a marked difference between when a word was first used and when it can be said to have entered common parlance with a relatively consistent definition. It is one thing to say that "fuck" was first used in the 14th century, and another thing entirely to say that its usage could be considered as a common swear in the same time period.
"Fuck", to use it as an example, was commonly used to inappropriately refer to fornication from its inception. Its status as a "swear"--as an insulting word or adjective meant to offend or as an extreme expression--wasn't common until the mid-nineteenth century, so it can certainly be called anachronistic from certain points of view.
But I digress. To briefly reiterate on the topic, whether or not people use such swears is up to them, but I personally will never see appropriate reason or circumstance for myself to use language that feels markedly out of place.
The sources that I have presented seem to suggest a different viewpoint from the idea that you have presented. If you have opposing citations, I think it would be in the interest of everyone here to take a look, since it's relevant to the topic.
Yes, the word "Fuck" was normally used to refer to various aspects of sex, which is identical to its usage today, save for its use as an interjection, exclamation, and intensifier. As a result, I have presented evidence that points to its use in such contexts from very early on; even its other usage, that of an Intensifier, was used as it is today in the 1500s as I presented somewhere else in this thread. Additionally, its use in the phrase "I don't give a fuck" took place in the 18th century, as did the its use to mean "damaged beyond repair." Considering its demeaning use in 1310, its various derivatives within Slang and Its Analogues, and its use as an intensifier, it seems safe to say that this was indeed a swear-word, or at least not high-brow language.
From what we have gathered, therefore, it seems quite clear that the word was used in many of its modern contexts early on in history; regardless of whether or not you consider it to be a Swear, within the context of History, it is indeed appropriate for use. Whether or not it qualifies as a swearword is an entirely different and perhaps more complex argument, but is nonetheless irrelevant regarding its various historical usages, and their correlation to the rough time-period in which we would consider Final Fantasy to be set.
In short, regardless of whether or not you consider the word Fuck to be a swear word in the offered historical contexts, the age of those quotes still give the word viable historical pretext to be used in Roleplay, given the age of the word and most of its usages. We may therefore conclude that the use of the word in these contexts has historical backing, which renders an objection on the grounds of the word and its meanings being "Modern" improper.
