If you have been following Howzit-hongKong.com you will have noticed our category called Colloquialism.

Here we talk about all the unique South African-isms that form part of our country’s diverse culture.  We even maintain a list of all the words (called Lekke SA words) that have been developed over many years.

Today we leaned that some of the more recent South African-isms even made it into the Oxford Dictionary.

TimesLive reports:

YOH! I love your makarapa and vuvuzela – eish, it’s sharp sharp!

Though many South Africans will understand this sentence, for those who do not, help is at hand.

The new Oxford South African Concise Dictionary defines these words in its latest edition, compiled by the dictionary’s unit for South African English at Rhodes University.

* yoh (also yho or yo):

informal; expressing surprise, disbelief, shock or admiration.

* makarapa (noun) (also makaraba):

1. an elaborately decorated hard hat or miner’s helmet, worn as a headdress by supporters of a soccer or other sports team. 2 historical; a mineworker or migrant labourer. ORIGIN from Sesotho sa leboa, “men who work in the cities”.

* vuvuzela (noun):

a long straight plastic horn, chiefly used by spectators at soccer matches.

* eish (also aish or heish):

used to express a range of emotions, including surprise, annoyance and pain. ORIGIN: 1990s, from tsotsitaal.

* sharp sharp (also sharp):

informal. 1 expressing approval, acceptance or agreement. 2 used as a greeting at meeting or parting.

Phillip Louw, of Oxford University Press Southern Africa, is the managing editor of the dictionary, which hit the shelves last month and took more than three years to compile.  According to him, deciding which words to include was difficult.

“Ayoba was one of the words we debated about for some time. It can be used in so many different ways – as a greeting or to describe something. What we had to determine was whether it had penetrated the language beyond the MTN marketing campaign,” he said.

“We also have to determine whether a word will be here in the next few years, and we have to ensure that the word has been used in three to four different publications and by several authors.”

The work was done with the help of the dictionary unit for South African English at Rhodes University, which has a large database of newspapers, books articles and literature at the university’s library.

Cape Talk personality John Maytham lauded the latest edition as “excellent, highly valuable . perfectly pitched for the modern user“.

Louw’s favourite word this year is definitely makarapa. But his all-time favourite?

“There is nothing as lekker as the word ‘lekker‘.”

What can we add to that?

Lekkkkerrrrr!

(This article originally appeared on GoTravel24.com and is reproduced here in the hope that it will give 2010 World Cup and other visitors to our fair country a further introduction to the unique-ness of our language.  Earlier, we published another post on the unique South African diction.  Find it here.)

Simon Williamson March 10, 2010

Back when I spent time in the UK, I was eating breakfast in a hotel one morning when the waitress carrying a coffee pot asked if I would like some coffee. “Just now” I replied with my glintiest grin. “Ok” she said and promptly poured the coffee into my cup.

I was on the verge of a massive irritation attack – something which I am prone to at times – when I realised this poor Moldovan/Polish/Czech/Hungarian/Bulgarian/Serbian woman had probably never heard the term in her life before. In fact, no one outside of South Africa knows what it means. And that’s not the only time we confuse them: walking kaalvoet in the lank rainy weather, picking up stompies, stupid mamparas etc. leave them scratching their heads, wondering what the devil we’re on about.

So for the benefit of those arriving in South Africa for the World Cup, a quick course is required in learning to understand the South African babble we throw your way.  Much like original English adopted (stole) tonnes of words from other Latin-based languages, South African English has ripped words from the dialects and tongues abundant in this beautiful land of ours.

Bare-feet is called kaalvoet in Afrikaans (Pic: spazazen.com)

Afrikaans would be the language from which English has borrowed the most words here. We drive bakkies, not pickups, utes or light delivery vehicles. We eat biltong, not jerky. The flossies make salads while the okes cook the braaivleis, after downing a few Klippies. It’s pretty shweet.

Collectively, our friends/pals/tjommies‘ names are bru, boet and china.

Not a pick-up or ute, but a bakkie (Pic: sanparks.org)

When we shout “chips” we mean watch out, but if we say it we’re giving you either crisps or French fries. Oh, and our farts don’t smell – our baffs hone.

Thin people are skraal and old battered cars are skedonks. While you deal with other people’s drama, we deal with their snot en trane. Your pictures hang skew while ours are squiff, and you wear trainers instead of tekkies. We waai when we’re woes. You leave when you’re angry.

Not runners, but tekkies!

You arrive at your friend’s house to see their young mongrel, and are hungover after a meal and a few drinks. WE pull in at our mate’s pozzie, and when we meet their new pavement special puppy we go “ag shame” or we think it’s sif. After a graze and a few dops we feel a bit sat and we crash, expecting a babbelas in the morning.

Coming from KZN where most people in the province speak Zulu, it took me moving to Johannesburg before I referred to a bulldozer as anything other than a gandaganda (correct word is ugandaganda). To this day I still refer to a doctor as the dokotela and an injection as a jova (umjovo). Meetings are often referred to as indabas (a bastardised plural form of the word), motorbikes as istootoot (terrible vomity Anglicised version of isithuthuthu) and trains as stimele (another bad adoption of isitimela). When we’re sick we take muti and then dudu.

So although it may sound like we’re speaking foreign, it’s not too higher grade. Print this useful piece out and keep it as you flit around our good land, come across our good people, and wish you were South African.

TAXI KNOCKS COW IN ITS MOO

This post is inspired by a picture I recently saw on Seth Rotherham’s award-winning Cape Town-based blog

OK, if The Daily Voice really knew their target market, it would’ve read: TEXI knocks cow in it’s moo!

The poster is from The Daily Voice, a popular Cape Town tabloid/skinner newspaper and refers to a story about a taxi/ texi that ran over a cow.  The poor beast unfortunately died at the hand (spanner?) of the heartless taxi driver because it is apparently in it’s moer.  The report also didn’t mention what it tasted like at the barbecue/braai later that evening!

Wire? Tape? Glue?  Eish! And spanners for steering wheels!  (Pic: www.zapiro.com)

Moving on swiftly…

If you’re planning on visiting our fair country for the 2010 FIFA World Cup (or if you’re thinking of acquiring your very own South African) the following should be helpful, and will hopefully become:

 The Definitive Guide to South Africanisms for non-South Africans:

A

Ag: As in U2′s Achtung Baby, same as Oh (Ag No! Did she really say that?)

B

biltong: dried meat, What Americans call jerky (jerky has nothing on biltong, of course.)

babalaas: hungover (After last night, I have a moerse babalaas!) See moerse below.

Broe/Bru/Bro/Boet: what South African men call their buddies/friends  (Also see China below)

Boot: South African cars have boots, foreigners’ vehicles have trunks

Braai: Like barbecue/BBQ, but not quite.  (South Africans don’t braai burgers and wieners!) 

Refer to the Tong-Master:

C

China (as in My China):  pal/friend/buddy (How are you, my China?)

D

Doos: ass/arse/arsehole (He’s driving like a doos!)

E

F

Fok: as in damn! (Fok! but she’s ugly!)

Fok: as in hit (I’m going to fok you!) (Also refer to Moer)

Fokken: bloody (Fok off, you fokken Prawn!)

Wikus Van Der Merwe lays down the law to the fokken Prawns in District 9.

G

H

Howzit: shortened form of How is it/How are you? (Howzit, my China? or Howzit, Hong Kong?)

I

J

Jol: party (I’m off to a jol on Friday evening!)

Just now: Later, but can be any-time; later… tomorrow… next week. (I’ll speak to you just now.)

K

Kak: shit/bad/crap (That was really a kak movie!)

L

Lekke/Lekker: nice/delicious (Now THAT was a lekke burger!)

or…

Lekke/Lekker:  fun (Have a lekke time!)

M

Moer: hit (I’m going to moer you!)

or…

Moer: angry (I’m really the moer in!)

or…

Moerse: very big/huge (After last night, I have a moersebabalaas!)

N

O

P

Q

R

Robot: others know them as traffic lights, we have robots!

S

T

tekkies/takkies: South Africans wear these, the rest of you wear sneakers/sports-shoes

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Have any more to add to the list?  Let us know…