But researchers who study such things say that is a load of … misconceptions.

Psychologists Kristin Jay and Timothy Jay conducted tests with students, asking participants to say as many different swear words as they could in 60 seconds.

They also asked participants to say as many different animal names as they could, then compared the results.

The results showed that subjects came up with as many non-swearing words as curses. That indicated to the researchers that fluency in curse words is an indicator in overall fluency, not an indication of limited language ability.

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Rose Scott signals as "Closer Look" goes on the air in the WABE studio. An Atlanta resident left WABE a $3 million donation, a boost after WABE lost $1.9 million in annual funding from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting. (Ben Gray for the AJC 2023)

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