SOUTH AFRICAN ENGLISH
CLASSIFICATION:
Family: Indo-European
Group: Germanic
Subgroup: West Germanic
VARIETIES:
Black South African English, Indian English, Coloured English, Afrikaans English – variants of South African English
Speakers
Around 3 457 467 people use it as their home language in South Africa.
South African English is probably the most complicated variant of English anywhere because it has always existed in a complex multilingual and multi-cultural environment. English is one of eleven official languages, and mother-tongue English-speakers number just three and a half million in a population of over forty million people – under 9%. So the position of SAE is markedly different from that in multi-lingual but predominantly English-speaking countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the USA. There is the potential for influence by many more languages than in other English-speaking communities, and these languages have widely divergent origins and structures.
General Vocabulary
A few notable South African English words:
dwaal – state of befuddlement
smaak – to like, to enjoy
lekker – nice
handlanger – assistant
skelm – dishonest person, rogue, rascal
veld – field/pasture
spoor – animal track
braai – a barbecue, to barbecue
impi – horde of warriors
lekker – good, well, OK
shebeen – an illegal tavern, usually frequented by black patrons
sommer – for no particular reason, just because
trek – to move, to wander
tsotsi – thug, criminal, bandit
yebo – yes
bakkie – pickup truck
