Perkele - a literary companion: A glimpse at the function and frequency of the Finnish swearword in translated and non-translated contemporary fiction

The article explores the contemporary literary usage of the Finnish swearword perkele (lit. "devil") from two points of view: a quantitative macro-level analysis of regularities in the use of perkele in translated and non-translated Finnish-language fiction and a qualitative analysis of certain realisations of the lexeme's meaning potential on the micro level. The material analysed is Finnish general fiction from the 2000s and Finnish translations of American English fiction from the late 1990's to the early 2010s. It is observed, for example, that the word's various positive and negative connotations make it a potent tool for the Finnish literary writer, but its strong cultural connotations, force and lack of straightforward counterparts make it a less viable option for translators. In non-translated Finnish literary writing, perkele is most often used in interjections, for example in exclamations of surprise. In the translations examined, examples of the lexeme are very few but when they appear, it is mostly in negative contexts, for example as a pejorative name or an intensifier.