mehreenkasana:

Urdu fact: There are no proper cuss words in Urdu.

That’s the thing about Urdu: You can be indignant, exasperated, insulted, enraged, generally sickened by everything and express yourself in it but you can’t be crass and vulgar. Urdu isn’t constructed like that. Which is why many Pakistanis resort to English, Punjabi, Pashto, Hindko, etc for swearing. Urdu was and still is considered an aristocratic, ‘regal’ language in Asia. Later on, after blending with informal forms of rural speak, it became easier to swear in Urdu.

Take the example of “penis.” It’s just penis in English, right? In Urdu, it’s azzu-e-tunaasal. Even now for people who speak proper, shushta Urdu, expressing rage takes an effort because one has to form a sentence that isn’t crass with the cuss words but deeply insulting with the rage in it. “I pity the fool” would be “Sadd afsos us bay-aqal pe.”

Urdu be posh and restrained.