South African Lingo! Eish Lol!

[Snip 13]

Just because we speak English doesn't mean you'll understand us. Since so many of you don't always know what I'm on about. Here's a link to read a bit about SA English. Funny and true!
Enjoy!
South African English is lekker! - SouthAfrica.info

 

[babetoo]

very interesting. isn't language a marvel?

 

[purple.alien.giraffe]

Cool! Thanks for the link. For the record, there are places in the U.S. where even though they're speaking english you're not necessarily going to know what they're saying. It's funny how the same language can branch of and incorporate language from various regions and local areas to become something different. And from what I understand, it's not just english that does this. When I was taking spanish at university the instructor pointed out that words for some things changed depending on the country, or sometimes even the region of the country. She said there were also terms/slang that were particular to various regions. And in the business communications class that I took the instructor, who had a lot of experience in global business and global business communications, warned us to be careful when using slang/colloquialisms regardless of what language we were using because they vary so much from one region to another.

I find language in general absolutely fascinating. It's construction can actually be explained through mathematical concepts but it's so influenced by culture, environment, art and even technological and scientific expansion. It's a complete marvel to me.

 

[Claire]

I haven't looked this up yet, but definitely will. I have a blind friend who, like me, loves etymology. There's a great book called The Story of English that is wonderful on this subject! My husband said that when he had a platoon in Vietnam, some of his soldiers insisted it was pop, others insisted it was soda. I just laughed and said he had no New Englanders, because they used to call it tonic. He said he had to do something, they were literally coming to blows about it. So he declared that it was soda-pop, period. Both words, every time.

One time we were having drinks with friends, and someone said, "oh, don't pay it is XXX's shout." Huh? Since then I've known many Aussies and Brits, but at the time I didn't have a clue.

I read a lot of British, Scottish novels so can keep up to a degree. Are there any great, no make that fun, South African novelists? I'll move over to the book lline and re-post that question.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Love Windgat.....In my South known as a "Smoke Blower"

 

[Claire]

Oh, how fun. I just looked it up and will print it to read to my friend. She'll get a laugh from all the English words she doesn't know. One time I was in Hong Kong and got a weird call. It was a mistaken wake up call, and the caller was speaking English .... or at least he thought he was. I'm generally good at accents, being raised in the military, but I swear, not one word he said made sense to me. When I finally realized that he'd gotten the wrong hotel room for a wake-up call, the poor man who needed it probably missed flight. English has many forms and you need to realize that when you travel.

 

[Snip 13]

It's good hey? Or shall I say bakgat! lol!

 

[Snip 13]

I haven't looked this up yet, but definitely will. I have a blind friend who, like me, loves etymology. There's a great book called The Story of English that is wonderful on this subject! My husband said that when he had a platoon in Vietnam, some of his soldiers insisted it was pop, others insisted it was soda. I just laughed and said he had no New Englanders, because they used to call it tonic. He said he had to do something, they were literally coming to blows about it. So he declared that it was soda-pop, period. Both words, every time.

One time we were having drinks with friends, and someone said, "oh, don't pay it is XXX's shout." Huh? Since then I've known many Aussies and Brits, but at the time I didn't have a clue.

I read a lot of British, Scottish novels so can keep up to a degree. Are there any great, no make that fun, South African novelists? I'll move over to the book lline and re-post that question.

I would either read the Joke Book "Lekker Thick by Leon Schuster" or watch some of his movies. The best way to understand more about South African ways!
He's really funny!