Now, maybe this has been covered, and I've just overlooked it, but, why is it that there seems to be no such thing as swearing in Dovahzul?  There's words for everything else, it seems, but no real way to exclaim "Oh Sh*t!" or angrily grumble "F*ck you!" or perform other such verbal ejections, in the tongue of dragons...

There is, but it makes use of different vocabulary. Words such as ruth "rage", faaz "pain", and nah "fury" are used to express anger and frustration in the manner that you're describing. 

paarthurnax

There is, but it makes use of different vocabulary. Words such as ruth "rage", faaz "pain", and nah "fury" are used to express anger and frustration in the manner that you're describing. 

Aw...  and here I was kinda hoping to learn some draconic obscenities.  They're the most fun part of learning a new language! You can call someone you loathe a "pig-spawned son of a drunken whore" or "dog-molesting sh*t-for-brains" or something similar, in a language they don't know, and when they ask what you said, you can totally bullsh*t them into thinking it was some great compliment.

VolburGrohiik

Aw...  and here I was kinda hoping to learn some draconic obscenities.  They're the most fun part of learning a new language! You can call someone you loathe a "pig-spawned son of a drunken whore" or "dog-molesting sh*t-for-brains" or something similar, in a language they don't know, and when they ask what you said, you can totally bullsh*t them into thinking it was some great compliment.

I'm afraid you'll have to look at it from a different viewpoint. Why use a word that means "stool" to express frustration when your very voice can become rage itself? Why use a word that means "to mate" to cause pain when your breath can inflict it in its most primal form? A dragon would find your profanity to be a pathetic waste of breath.

There are still some good insults you can throw around; would you dare call Alduin a tahrodiis lir "treacherous worm", or Ulfric a nivahriin joor "cowardly mortal"? This is the dragon language, a tongue that can define truth. Call people what they are. Roundabout phrases like "son of a drunken whore" and "shit-for-brains" just aren't up to snuff.

Masterful.

I want to add that there is the race specific problem. Why do we humans swear like we swear?

Fuck as example is derived from our primal social habit of rape that most mammals share - when you dislike someone, fuck him / her and its fine because you either cause positive feelings in the 2 of you or you rub your dominance in their faces by fucking them against their will. So for humans and some other mammals, to fuck someone is an expression of dominance over someone else because the one who is fucked is basicly the looser, the weak one.

Similiar shit is a swearword because we humans do not have any use for our feces - you cant even use it to fertilise soil, its just useless - and that what it stands for. Some insects however would use the term shit as very positive as they can eat it, lay eggs in it, make homes out of it and for those creatures the word shit would have a very positive meaning, like wealth or safety.

The problem i want to adress is that dragons are not humans. As far as i know dragons dont mate at all, they just do not fuck. Correct me if i am wrong but there are no female dragons, dragons dont reproduce sexually and are rather created into existance from nothing. Thus the word fuck would not mean anything to them cause they simply dont do it, dont want to, cant and simply dont care. Its similiar if someone told you to wig your tail - and i mean the actual tail that we as humans simply dont have. it would have no meaning at all, it would definitely not bother or insult you as you would not care. Thats why dragons would never use the word fuck for an insult or anything else than describing this weird human habit of sticking something into someone else. They wouldnt understand the meaning why we do it or what should be fun about it. Imagine sticking your finger into a slimy wet mossy hole - thats likely what a dragon imagines sex to be like. Gross, something far below them.

There would be another way to insult someone I think. Let me explain:

I found in the speech the Grey-Beard (yes I wanted to translate by myself their speech) the word Thu'umu, wich mean someone who is incapable of using the Thu'um, something pretty negative considering it's in dovahzul, and that shouting is praticely the base of the language.

Here's a link to that moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBHbrsUImdQ

I know it doesn't stand on much, but how a dragon might insult someone is by reminding him/her that he is more powerful than him/her.

Like when we first witness Alduin ressurecting Sahloknir, at one moment he turn to the dovahkiin and told him/her something like:

- You do not even know our tongue, do you? Such arrogance, to dare take for yourself the name of dovah.

Here's link to a video to this moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMQBQ9VAwGE

He basicelly insult us, because he doesn't take us seriously. Dragons tend to be pretty pretentious, because more powerfull than us, and mostly praticelly invicible. Everyone is agreeing on this point: the only way to kill definitely a dragon is to absord is soul, otherwise it can be resurrected.
Until the very end Alduin is sure to win. Even in his own defeat he refuse to aknowledge that he lost.

My theory is that insulting someone is to remind him that we are better than him/her. Yes it's being pretentious. But friendly remimber that dragons are pretentious as hell.

So there stand my theory. Sorry if I didn't have much time to think about it. And also sorry for any mispelling, I still need pratice for my english.

@DarkCath09, yup, asserting dominance is definitely part of dragon behavior. Just a quick note that thu'umu in the Greybeards' speech means "our voice". The word thu'umnu is what you're thinking of, which would mean "Voiceless".

paarthurnax

@DarkCath09, yup, asserting dominance is definitely part of dragon behavior. Just a quick note that thu'umu in the Greybeards' speech means "our voice". The word thu'umnu is what you're thinking of, which would mean "Voiceless".

Ah sorry about that, I had  to quieckly take note while they were talking, but thanks for the correction. Also thank you for not laughting at me, I know it's pretty stupid...

I was going to make a topic similar to this actually but more in line with insults. It's not a fanfic but I'm playing a D&D game where I've used the translator from here to throw together names for people and stations.

I wanted to RP my character better to show his knowledge of Draconic by getting upset and throwing out curses or insults in a lapse of his typical behavior.

X
@Crimson13, This in the lessons mentions curse- or threat-like shouts such as "Faaz nah!", "Ruth!" and "Kren sosaal!".

Oh, I forgot all about the lessons. Thank you for putting that down.

If it means anything, I've actually been using some words in slang terms... A friend of mine started talking to me in Elvish so I decided to try and call him a nerd in Dovahzul. But the closest thing I could find was Hahdrim (mind.) So that's what I called him.

Why not follow the example of the Japanese, and have words with whole sentences of meaning behind them? For example, they have a word that roughly translates into "I will find where you live, go there, and force you to watch me [REDACTED] as you lay helpless on the floor like a coward". All in one word! We should make those!