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South African English is a dialect of English spoken in South Africa and in neighbouring countries with a large number of Anglo-Africans living in them, such as Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. art forms of southern africa, is beautifully painted vases and wood made into animals Categories: Africa-related stubs ... Cookery practised by indigenous people of South Africa such as the Khoisan and Xhosa- and Sotho-speaking people Settler cookery introduced during the colonial period by people of Afrikaner and British descent and their slaves and servants - this includes the cuisine of the Cape Malay people, which has many characteristics... South Africa has a diverse literary history. ... This is a list of writers from South Africa. ... // Lionel Abrahams Tatamkulu Afrika Ingrid Andersen Kojo Baffoe Shabbir Banoobhai Sinclair Beiles Robert Berold Vonani Bila Roy Blumenthal Joy Boyce Breyten Breytenbach Dennis Brutus Frederick Guy Butler Roy Campbell Jack Cope Jeremy Cronin Patrick Cullinan Gary Cummiskey Sheila Cussons Achmat Dangor Ingrid de Kok Susann Deysel Sandile Dikeni Modikwe Dikobe... The South African music scene includes both popular (jive) and folk forms. ... Holidays in South Africa: The Public Holidays Act (Act No 36 of 1994) determines that whenever any public holiday falls on a Sunday, the Monday following it will be a public holiday. ... The following is a partial list of South African television series. ... For dialects of programming languages, see Programming language dialect. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Anglo-Africans are primarily associated with Southern Africa and British ancestry. ...

South African English is not unified in its pronunciation: this can be attributed to the fact that English is the mother tongue for only 40% of the white inhabitants (the remainder mostly having Afrikaans as their mother tongue) and only a tiny minority of black African inhabitants of the region. (In addition some 94% of the 1.1 million inhabitants of Asian descent, and 19% of the 4 million Coloured, or mixed race, inhabitants are English mother tongue speakers.) The dialect can be identified, however, by the multiple loanwords drawn largely from Afrikaans, but increasingly also from Zulu and other indigenous languages as well as Greek, Portuguese and various Indian languages. Some of these words, like "trek", have seeped into general English usage throughout the globe. Native Language Music, founded in 1996 by musicians Joe Sherbanee and Theo Bishop, is an independent adult contemporary record company based in Southern California that produces, markets, and distributes premium jazz, world, and new age music. ... Afrikaans is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia. ... This does not cite its references or sources. ... In the South African, Namibian, Zambian and Zimbabwean context, the term Coloured (also known as Bruinmense, Kleurlinge or Bruin Afrikaners in Afrikaans) refers to a heterogeneous group of people who posess some degree of sub-Saharan ancestry, but not enough to be considered Black under South African law. ... A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ... Zulu (called isiZulu in Zulu), is a language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority (over 95%) of whom live in South Africa. ... Map showing the approximate distribution of Bantu vs. ...

The dialect was exposed to a humorous treatment by Robin Malan in his book 'Ah Big Yaws', first published in 1972. The book is concise, and conforms more or less to the spoken dialect of Cape Town in 1974–76, in the northern Cape Town suburbs of Bellville and Durbanville, where Malan resided, and in the University town of Stellenbosch, where he was at the time a lecturer of spoken English. This book is often considered a high point of South African written wit, and a low point for South African linguistics ^{[citation needed]}, although it is now considered an important cultural time-capsule, as it also gives a pocket outline of white South Africa immediately before the social and political chaos of the 1980s^{[citation needed]}. Nickname: Motto: Spes Bona (Latin for Good Hope) Location of the City of Cape Town in Western Cape Province Coordinates: , Country Province Municipality City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality Founded 1652 Government [1]  - Type City council  - Mayor Helen Zille  - City manager Achmat Ebrahim Area  - City 2,499 km²  (964. ... Year 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1976 Pick up sticks(MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Bellville was originally called 12 Mile Stone, as it is located 20 km from Cape Town city centre. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Stellenbosch from Botmaskop mountain looking towards Cape Town Stellenbosch (IPA: ) is the second oldest European settlement in the Western Cape Province, South Africa after Cape Town, and is situated about 50 kilometers (30 mi) away along the banks of the Eerste River. ... The 1980s refers to the years from 1980 to 1989. ...

The fourth edition of the Dictionary of South African English was released in 1991, and the Oxford Dictionary released its South African English dictionary in 2002. Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar). ... Also see: 2002 (number). ...

Pronunciation

With respect to phonology, South African English is closely related to Australian and New Zealand English and to the English of southeastern England, in which the Southern Hemisphere dialects have their roots. Afrikaans and isiXhosa has heavily influenced only those living in largely Afrikaans or Xhosa areas. New Zealand English (NZE) is the English spoken in New Zealand. ... Xhosa is a language of South Africa. ...

The most noticeable difference in South African pronunciation is probably the flat "i". This is a part of the vowel shift that has occurred in South Africa as well as New Zealand. However in general, native speakers pronounce words in much the same way as the British upper class ^{[citation needed]}. One rapid change is that the 't' (e.g. as in 'city') is rapidly being pronounced as a ('d' i.e. 'cidy') by younger speakers. A vowel shift is a systematic change in the pronunciation of the vowel sounds of a language. ...

One difference between British South African English and New Zealand English is in the pronunciation of 'ar' and 'ow', as in the pronunciation of the sentence 'park the car downtown'.

• New Zealand: [paːk ðə kaː dɛən tɛən]
• South Africa: [pɒːk ðə kɒː dɑən tɑən]

While there are similarities with Australian English, there are also a number of key differences. For instance, South African English does not have the rising intonation found in Australian English. Australian English (AuE, AusE, en-AU) is the form of the English language used in Australia. ... The High Rising Terminal (HRT), also known as uptalk, upspeak or High Rising Intonation (HRI), is a feature of some accents of English where statements have a rising intonation pattern in the final syllable or syllables of the utterance. ...

English spoken by mother-tongue speakers of Bantu languages is often influenced by intonation and pronunciation of their languages. Map showing the approximate distribution of Bantu vs. ...

Vocabulary

Main articles: List of lexical differences in South African English and List of South African slang words

There are words that do not exist in British or American English, usually derived from Afrikaans or African languages, although, particularly in Durban, there is also an influence from Indian languages. Terms in common with North American English include 'freeway' or 'highway' (British English 'motorway'), 'cellphone' (British and Australian English: mobile) and 'buck' meaning money (rand, in this case, and not a dollar). South Africans generally refer to the different codes of football, such as soccer and rugby union, by those names. There is a great difference between South African English dialects: in Johannesburg the local form is very strongly English-based, while its Eastern Cape counterpart has a strong Afrikaans influence. Although differences between the two are sizeable, there are many similarities. This is a list of words used in mainstream South African English but not usually found in other other dialects of the English language. ... South African slang reflects many different linguistic traditions. ... For other uses, see American English (disambiguation). ... Look up Wiktionary:Swadesh lists for Afrikaans and Dutch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Map showing the distribution of African language families and some major African languages. ... For other uses, see Durban (disambiguation). ... North American English is a collective term used for the varieties of the English language that are spoken in the United States and Canada. ... British English (BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere in the Anglophone world. ... Buck may refer to any of the following: Look up Buck in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... ISO 4217 Code ZAR User(s) Common Monetary Area: Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland Inflation 5. ... This article is about the type of currency. ... Look up Football in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Soccer redirects here. ... For other uses, see Rugby (disambiguation). ... This article is about the city in South Africa. ... Capital Bhisho Largest city Port Elizabeth Premier Nosimo Balindlela Area - Total Ranked 2nd 169,580 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 3rd 6,436,761 38/km² Languages Xhosa (83%) Afrikaans (9. ...

Some words peculiar to South African English include 'takkies', 'tackie' or 'tekkie' for sneakers (American) or trainers (British), 'combi' or 'kombi' for a small van, 'bakkie' for a pick-up truck, 'kiff' for pleasurable, 'lekker' for nice, 'donga' for ditch and 'jol' for party.

Idioms

The influence of Afrikaans accounts for many idioms in South African English. Probably the most distinctive example is the use of the Afrikaans/Dutch/German/Scandinavian word "ja" as a contraction of "yes" as opposed to using word "yeah" (used by British, Irish, North American, Australian and New Zealand English speakers). The only other English-speaking region where this idiom is found is in the American Midwest where it results from German and Scandinavian influence. The Midwest is a common name for a region of the United States of America. ... For other uses, see Scandinavia (disambiguation). ...

Other idiomatic phrases influenced or taken from Afrikaans include "are you coming with?" ("are you coming with us?" -- also found in the U.S. Midwest), "she'll be here just now" instead of "she'll be here soon", "ja well, no fine" instead of "things are okay, so-so", and "hey bru. You know who I am?" instead of "excuse me but what do you think you're doing?". There is a distinction between " now", which is immediate, "just now" which may be any time later today (or never!) or "now now" which would be soon. So "The surf is looking good today, lets go just now" means at some point today as opposed "Jislaaik! It's cooking ma bru, let's go now now, hey!" which means going soon. Afrikaans words like "Jirre", "Jisses", "Jislaaik" are common even amongst Anglo-Africans. Also, the use of "bru" (from Afrikaans "broer") is analogue to "bro" amongst English speakers in the western US and Hawaii.

The use of "hey" at the end of a sentence (mainly used in Gauteng province) derives from Cape Dutch eg: "Are you well, hey?" or "It's a nice day today, hey?"; there is no relation the Canadian "eh". "Must" is sometimes used figuratively to express a desire rather than a literal command, eg: "You must come say hi after the show" would mean "It would be nice to meet after the show". (The use of "should" in this way is common in the United States.) The term Cape Dutch was used to describe the inhabitants of the Western Cape, descended primarily from Dutch, French, German and other European immigrants and a percentage of their Asian and African slaves, who, from the 17th century into the 19th century, remained more or less loyal subjects of European...

'How's it?', or 'Howzit?' is a very common informal greeting for English speaking South Africans and second language speakers of English from all backgrounds. It may derive from the informal Afrikaans greeting "Hoe's dit?" (lit. "How's it?").

Contributions to English Worldwide

Several South African words, usually from Afrikaans or native languages of the region, have entered world English: aardvark; apartheid; commando; veld; impala; mamba and trek. Look up Wiktionary:Swadesh lists for Afrikaans and Dutch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Aardvark (disambiguation). ... A segregated beach in South Africa, 1982. ... For other uses, see Commando (disambiguation). ... The term Veld, or Veldt, refers primarily (but not exclusively) to the wide open rural spaces of South Africa or southern Africa and in particular to certain flatter areas or districts covered in grass or low scrub. ... Binomial name Aepyceros melampus (Lichtenstein, 1812) An impala (Aepyceros melampus Greek aipos high ceros horn + melas black pous foot) is a medium-sized African antelope. ... Species - Eastern green mamba - Jamesons mamba - Black mamba - Western green mamba For other uses, see Mamba (disambiguation). ... In South African history, the Great Trek was an eastward and north-eastward migration of the Boers, descendants primarily of immigrants from western mainland Europe. ...

English Academy of Southern Africa

The English Academy of Southern Africa (EASA) is the only academy for the English language in the world, but unlike such counterparts as the Académie française, it has no official connection with the government and can only attempt to advise, educate, encourage, and discourage. It was founded in 1961 by Professor Gwen Knowles-Williams of the University of Pretoria in part to defend the role of English against pressure from supporters of Afrikaans. It encourages scholarship in issues surrounding English in Africa through regular conferences, but also remains controversial among language scholars in South Africa for its strong encouragement of International English and British English against local variants. The Académie française In the French educational system an académie LAcadémie française, or the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. ... The University of Pretoria is a university in South Africa, with a total of about 38 499 students being enrolled in 2005. ... International English is the concept of the English language as a global means of communication in numerous dialects, and the movement towards an international standard for the language. ... British English (BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere in the Anglophone world. ...

See also

• Formal written English
• List of South African slang words
• Regional accents of English speakers
• List of English words of Afrikaans origin

Note: this article may be of particular interest to non-native users of English. ... South African slang reflects many different linguistic traditions. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Words of Afrikaans origin have entered other languages. ...

External links

• English Academy of South Africa
• Rhodes University: The Dictionary Unit for South African English
• Picard, Brig (Dr) J. H, SM, MM. "English for the South African Armed Forces"
• Zimbabwean Slang Dictionary
• "Surfrikan", South African surfing slang
• The influence of Afrikaans on SA English (in Dutch)
• The Expat Portal RSA Slang

Software

• Spell checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox web-browser, and Mozilla Thunderbird email program in South African English
• Project to "translate" Free and Open Source Software into South African English

v • d • e  Languages of the Republic of South Africa
Official languages Afrikaans · English · isiNdebele · Northern Sotho · Sesotho · Siswati · Xitsonga · Setswana · Tshivenḓa · isiXhosa · isiZulu This is a list of varieties of the English language. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... English language skills of European Union citizens The English language in Europe, as a native language, is mainly spoken in the two countries of the British Isles: the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and the Republic of Ireland. ... English is a West Germanic language originating in England. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Estuary English is a name given to the form of English widely spoken in South East England, especially along the river Thames and its estuary. ... St Mary-le-Bow The term cockney is often used to refer to working-class people of London, particularly east London, and the slang used by these people. ... East Anglia - the easternmost area of England - was probably home to the first-ever form of language which can be called English. ... Traditionally, East Midlands English was spoken in those parts of Mercia lying East of Watling Street (the A5 London - Shrewsbury Road). ... West Midlands English is a group of dialects of the English language. ... The West Country dialects and West Country accents are generic terms applied to any of several English dialects and accents used by much of the indigenous population of the southwestern part of England, the area popularly known as the West Country. ... Northern English is a group of dialects of the English language. ... Lancashire Dialect and Accent refers to the vernacular speech in the historic county of Lancashire excluding that of Liverpool. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... This article is about the accent. ... Look up Mackem in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the people and dialect of Tyneside. ... Scottish English is usually taken to mean the standard form of the English language used in Scotland, often termed Scottish Standard English. ... Glasgow patter or Glaswegian is a dialect shouted in and around Glasgow, Scotland. ... Highland English is the variety of Gaelic influenced Scottish English spoken in the Scottish Highlands. ... Welsh English, Anglo-Welsh, or Wenglish (see below) refers to the dialects of English spoken in Wales by Welsh people. ... Mid Ulster English (Ulster Anglo-Irish) is the dialect of most people in Ulster, including those in the two main cities. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Guernsey English is the dialect of English spoken by natives of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, distinguished by the fact that it has considerable influence from Dgèrnésiais, the variety of Norman indigenous to Guernsey. ... North American English is a collective term used for the varieties of the English language that are spoken in the United States and Canada. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Appalachian English is a common name for the Southern Midland dialect of American English. ... Baltimorese, sometimes phonetically written Bawlmerese or Ballimerese, is a dialect of American English which originated among the white blue-collar residents of working class South and Southeast Baltimore. ... The Boston accent is found not only in the city of Boston, Massachusetts itself but also much of eastern Massachusetts. ... Buffalo English, sometimes colloquially referred to as Buffalonian, is the unique variety of English used in and around Buffalo, New York. ... California English is a dialect of the English language spoken in the U.S. state of California. ... Chicano English is a dialect of American English used by Chicanos (persons of Mexican descent in America). ... Acadiana, the tradtitional Cajun homeland and the stronghold of both the Cajun French and English dialects. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Maine-New Hampshire English refers to the speech patterns found mainly in the northern New England states of New Hampshire and Maine. ... For a small state, New Jersey is dialectally quite diverse, with two regions of the state overlapping with other dialect areas, New York and Philadelphia, and several autochthonous dialects. ... The New York dialect of the English language is spoken by most European Americans who were raised in New York City and much of its metropolitan area including the lower Hudson Valley, western Long Island, and in northeastern New Jersey. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Northeast Pennsylvania English is the local dialect of American English spoken in northeastern Pennsylvania, specifically in the Wyoming Valley area, which includes Wilkes-Barre and Scranton. ... The Inland North Dialect of American English was the standard Midwestern speech that was the basis for General American in the mid-20th Century, though it has been recently modified by the northern cities vowel shift. ... Pacific Northwest English is a dialect of the English language spoken in the Pacific Northwest. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... City Hall The Philadelphia Dialect is the accent of English spoken in Philadelphia and extending into Philadelphias suburbs in the Delaware Valley and southern New Jersey. ... Pittsburgh English, popularly known as Pittsburghese, is the dialect of American English spoken by many residents of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and surrounding Western Pennsylvania. ... // Southern American English as defined by the monophthongization of to before obstruents (Labov, Ash, and Boberg 2006:126). ... Tidewater Accent is a American English accent. ... Utah English, sometimes humorously referred to as Utahnics, is a dialect of the English language spoken in the U.S. state of Utah. ... Yat refers to a unique collection of dialects of English spoken in New Orleans, Louisiana. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... The West/Central Canadian English dialect is one of the largest and the most homogenous dialect areas in North America. ... Caribbean English is a broad term for the dialects of the English language spoken in the Caribbean, most countries on the Caribbean coast of Central America, and Guyana. ... For other uses, see Oceania (disambiguation). ... Australian Aboriginal English (AAE) is a term referring to the various varieties of the English language used by Indigenous Australians. ... Torres Strait English is a dialect of the English language spoken by the Torres Strait Islanders of north Queensland, Australia. ... For other uses, see Asia (disambiguation). ... Sri Lankan English (SLE) is the English language as spoken in Sri Lanka. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Look up Appendix:Basic English word list in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... International English is the concept of the English language as a global means of communication in numerous dialects, and the movement towards an international standard for the language. ... Globish is a portmanteau neologism of the words Global and English. ... For the region within the United States, see: Mid-Atlantic States Mid-Atlantic English describes a version of the English language which is neither predominantly American or British in usage. ... Plain English focuses on being a flexible and efficient writing style that readers can understand in one reading. ... Disambiguation: see also simple English Simplified English is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. ... Special English is a simplified version of the English language used by the United States broadcasting service Voice of America in daily broadcasts. ... Standard English is a nebulous term generally used to denote a form of the English language that is thought to be normative for educated users. ... This is one of a series of articles about the differences between American English and British English, which, for the purposes of these articles, are defined as follows: American English (AmE) is the form of English used in the United States. ... E-Prime, short for English Prime, is a modification of the English language that prohibits the use of the verb to be in all its forms. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_South_Africa. ... Look up Wiktionary:Swadesh lists for Afrikaans and Dutch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Southern Ndebele language (isiNdebele or Nrebele in Southern Ndebele) is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the amaNdebele (the Ndebele people of South Africa). ... Northern Sotho, Sepedi, or Sesotho sa Leboa, is one of the official languages of South Africa, and is spoken by 4,208,980 people (2001 Census Data), mostly in the provinces of Gauteng, Limpopo Province and Mpumalanga. ... Sesotho is a language spoken in southern Africa. ... Swati (siSwati in the language itself; Swazi in Zulu) is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Swaziland and South Africa. ... The Tsonga or Xitsonga language is spoken in southern Africa by the Tsonga people, also known as the Shangaan. ... Tswana (Setswana), is a Bantu language. ... Venda, also known as Tshivenda, or Luvenda, is a Bantu language. ... For the Xhosa people, see Xhosa. ... Zulu (called isiZulu in Zulu), is a language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority (over 95%) of whom live in South Africa. ...
Non-official languages Fanagalo · Kxoe · Lobedu · Nama · Northern Ndebele · Phuthi · Tsotsitaal · Other Khoisan · South African Sign Language Fanagalo or Fanakalo is a pidgin based on the Zulu, English, and Afrikaans languages. ... Kxoe is a Khoisan language of Namibia, Angola, Botswana, South Africa, and Zambia. ... Lobedu (also Lovedu or Selobedu) is a Bantu language regarded as a dialect of Northern Sotho (Sepedi). ... Nàmá, previously called Hottentot, is the most populous and widespread of the Khoisan languages. ... The Northern Ndebele language, or isiNdebele, or Sindebele, is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the Ndebele or Matabele people of Zimbabwe. ... Phuthi, also siPhuti is a Bantu Nguni language variety with Sotho influence spoken in scattered communities in the Eastern Cape / Lesotho borderland. ... Tsotsitaal, or (isi)Camtho, is a patois mainly spoken in the townships of the Gauteng province in South Africa, such as Soweto. ... The Khoisan languages (also Khoesaan languages) are the indigenous languages of southern and eastern Africa; in southern Africa their speakers are the Khoi and Bushmen (Saan). ... hi This page is a candidate for speedy deletion, because: it is patent nonsense. ...

v • d • e  Languages of the Republic of Zimbabwe

English · ChiShona · Northern Ndebele · Fanagalo · Lozi  · Tsoa  · Tsonga · Venda  · Image File history File links Flag_of_Zimbabwe. ... ShonaThe word Shona is derived from the Ndebele word itshonalanga(where the sun set)(or ChiShona) is native language of Zimbabwe and southern Zambia; the term is also used to identify those Bantu-language speaking peoples in Southern Africa who speak one of the Shona languages(dialects) namely Zezuru,Karanga... The Northern Ndebele language, or isiNdebele, or Sindebele, is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the Ndebele or Matabele people of Zimbabwe. ... Fanagalo or Fanakalo is a pidgin based on the Zulu, English, and Afrikaans languages. ... Lozi, also known as Silozi and Rozi, is a Bantu language (of the Niger-Congo language family) that is spoken by the Lozi people primarily in southwestern Zambia and also, to a lesser extent, in surrounding countries. ... Tsoa is a Khoisan language of Botswana and Zimbabwe spoken by about 9300 speakers (Cook 2004). ... The Tsonga or Xitsonga language is spoken in southern Africa by the Tsonga people, also known as the Shangaan. ... Venda, also known as Tshivenda, or Luvenda, is a Bantu language. ...