Nouns in English mostly don't have cases: a book is a book is a book whether it's the subject of a sentence, or the direct or indirect object, or the object of any preposition, or whatever other grammatical role it might play that I can't even name because English is so goddamn simple you don't really need to know any grammar to speak it. The exception in English is pronouns: I/me, he/him, etc. I.e., the very few English nouns that do have cases have two cases.
Basque nouns have twelve cases. That means that every noun has twelve different forms, and you need to know all of them to speak properly. I think Basque is fairly regular so it's more like you just need to learn twelve rules, but twelve is a lot and you also have to know all the grammar to know when to use which form. (Plus there are seven different dialects of Basque, along with a generalized common form.) Joder.
And yet they have no swear words.
I'm still having a really hard time with this. Joder is basically the perfect swear word, and I support its use in pretty much any context. But how can the same people who don't want to listen to Spanish music be OK with taking their swear words from Spanish (or French)? I'm not going to claim that I'm not judging, but mostly I'm just baffled. Basque is an old language. Why haven't swear words developed naturally as the language has evolved? Why did I not study linguistics?
I'll keep asking anyone who will talk to me and let you know if it starts to make any more sense.
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