Cantonese profanity

The five most common Cantonese profanities, vulgar words in the Cantonese language are diu (/𨳒), gau (/𨳊/), lan (𡳞/𨶙/), tsat (/𨳍/) and hai (//), where the first ("diu") literally means fuck, "hai" is a word for female genitalia and "gau" refers to male genitalia.[1] They are sometimes collectively known as the "outstanding five in Cantonese" (廣東話一門五傑).[2] These five words are generally offensive and give rise to a variety of euphemisms and minced oaths. Similar to the seven dirty words in the United States, these five words are forbidden to say and are bleep-censored on Hong Kong broadcast television. Other curse phrases, such as puk gai (仆街/踣街) and ham gaa caan (冚家鏟/咸家鏟), are also common.

  1. ^ Pang 2007, p. 3.
  2. ^ Pang 2007, p. preface.