Abstract

This paper looks at impoliteness and related phenomena in artificial auxiliary languages, i.e. languages created to facilitate international communication, such as Esperanto. One might expect such languages to have less impoliteness in theory and/or in practice, and some artificial language designers try to discourage or prevent it. However, at least some artificial languages have the means to be impolite, e.g. curses and homophobic terms, of which examples will be given.