Amsterhammer said:Lots of interesting stuff here! Thanks to El P for some details of Belgian history that I wasn't aware of. It's easy to see why linguistic issues in Belgium become politicized so quickly.
I have a question for the many linguists here who use or know languages that I don't - I am fluent in English, Dutch and German; my French gets me through emergencies and I understand some Spanish and Italian without speaking either language. What I'd like to know is this: - does any other language have a tradition of swearing using diseases or sicknesses that are wished upon another?
Now, this may sound like a strange question to non-Dutchies, but the sad fact is that the Dutch language is the only one that I am familiar with where people wish things like cancer/typhus/consumption or the plague on one another in common expressions of swearing. The habitual use of the word 'cancer' as an epithet is something that has bothered me from the day I first came here, and I have refused as a matter of principle to ever swear with Dutch diseases-related expressions. The standard English terms work well enough for me.
Flemish people will look weird at you if you swear with diseases though
So, it's more of a cultural thing instead of language specific thing I think.