Learn some common Afrikaans slang
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Intro |
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| Antoni: What is Afrikaans slang like? |
| Dewan: And is it commonly used? |
| Antoni: At AfrikaansPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine this scene: Rentia Oosthuizen and Ben Lee are talking, when Rentia uses a slang expression Ben Lee has never heard before. It translates to |
| "Now now." |
| Rentia Oosthuizen: Nou nou. |
| Dialogue |
| Rentia Oosthuizen: Nou-nou. |
| Ben Lee: Wat beteken dit? |
| Rentia Oosthuizen: Dit beteken "binnekort". |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Rentia Oosthuizen: Nou-nou. |
| Antoni: "Now now." |
| Ben Lee: Wat beteken dit? |
| Antoni: "What does it mean?" |
| Rentia Oosthuizen: Dit beteken "binnekort". |
| Antoni: "It means "soon."" |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you will be learning some Afrikaans slang words and we will discuss the various situations in which they can be used. The Afrikaans translation of the word “slang” is |
| Dewan: sleng. |
| Antoni: Slang words, in case you are not sure, are words that are very informal. For this reason, they are most often used in the form of speech in casual, informal interactions, and they are almost never used in formal writing or in formal situations. Slang words also tend to be words that are used by a particular group of people, or within a particular context. Very often, people who do not belong to that group will not understand the slang being used by the group. |
| In South Africa, many slang Afrikaans words have found their way into the South African English language as well. This has resulted in the fact that foreigners often hear words being used in English that they don’t understand, or that they recognize but don’t understand in a particular context. We will be looking at several examples of these, starting with the example you heard in the dialogue earlier. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: Do you remember how Rentia says "Now now."? |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Dewan as Rentia Oosthuizen: Nou-nou. |
| Antoni: In the dialogue, Rentia explains to Ben Lee that this expression means “soon”. It can be used in Afrikaans as |
| Dewan: nou-nou |
| Antoni: but also in English, as “now now”. For many people who hear this for the first time, it is very confusing because they feel it should mean “immediately”. Don’t be surprised, therefore, if you hear an Afrikaans person say something like |
| Dewan: Ek sal dit nou-nou doen |
| Antoni: but then they only do the thing some time later. In standard English, this means “I will do it soon”, but in South African English slang, it translates to “I will do it “now now”.” There is another slang expression in South African English that has a similar meaning. The expression is “just now” and it comes from the Afrikaans word |
| Dewan: netnou |
| Antoni: which directly translates to “just now” but, in Afrikaans, it means “soon” or “shortly”. Again, the English expression is often misinterpreted as meaning “immediately”. One can replace the previous expression with this one in the sentence we used earlier. This is how it would sound: |
| Dewan: Ek sal dit netnou doen. |
| Antoni: In English, it would be “I will do it just now.” We're going to discuss a few more examples of Afrikaans slang just now! |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: So far, in this lesson, you’ve learned that slang is the use of informal, colloquial language that is best suited to casual speech and texts. It is also usually limited to specific groups who share a particular type of slang. For instance, South African people use slang that would, for the most part, be incomprehensible to foreigners. This is because a lot of it has been heavily influenced by Afrikaans and other languages. Let’s now look at some more examples of Afrikaans slang. |
| Perhaps the most common Afrikaans slang word you will hear in South Africa is |
| Dewan: lekker. |
| Antoni: Like the English slang word “cool”, it can be used in a variety of contexts but it can also mean “delicious” or tasty”. For instance, it can be used twice in this sentence meaning “I ate well and I enjoyed my visit”: |
| Dewan: Ek het lekker geëet en ek het lekker gekuier. |
| Antoni: The South African English equivalent of this would be |
| Dewan: I had a lekker meal and a lekker visit. |
| Antoni: Another very common South African slang word that has been adopted from Afrikaans is |
| Dewan: ag. |
| Antoni: This is an interjection that is used in various situations, from wanting to express sympathy or endearment, to expressing frustration or disregard. It can, for instance, be used in a sentence like |
| Dewan: Ag, kyk hoe oulik! |
| Antoni: which means, “Oh, look how cute!” or it can be used in a sentence like |
| Dewan: Ag, hou op! |
| Antoni: which translates to “Oh, stop it!” The closest English equivalent would be “oh”, as you will have surmised, but in South Africa, even English speakers use this word. A very common expression of disapproval, disappointment, or frustration that you might hear South African English speakers use is |
| Dewan: Ag, no man! |
| Antoni: Let’s imagine that the person using this expression of frustration finds a sympathetic ear in a friend, and tells the friend what is bothering them. The friend might well respond with, “Is it, hey?” It is not uncommon at all to hear a South African person, using the expression “is it?”. It is based on the Afrikaans |
| Dewan: Is dit so? |
| Antoni: which translates to “Is that so?”, but the truncated version of this expression, in Afrikaans, is |
| Dewan: Is dit? |
| Antoni: which, when said quickly, sounds like this: |
| Dewan: Issit? |
| Antoni: Out of this, the South African English “Is it?” was born. |
| If you go out partying while in South Africa, you might well hear someone talking about a |
| Dewan: jol. |
| Antoni: This is an Afrikaans word for “party”, which can be used as a noun or a verb. Using it as a noun, for instance, one could say, |
| Dewan: Ag, dit was ’n lekker jol! |
| Antoni: meaning, “Oh, that was a great party!” The slang South African English version of this would be |
| Dewan: Ag, that was a lekker jol! |
| Antoni: One can also use the word as a verb in this way: |
| Dewan: Sjoe! Ons gaan lekker jol vanaand! |
| Antoni: This sentence translates to “Wow! We are going to party well tonight!” and the slang English version of it would be |
| Dewan: Sjoe, we are going to jol lekker tonight! |
| You probably noticed that we used another slang word in those sentences. The word was |
| Dewan: sjoe |
| Antoni: and it is a slang interjection used to express wonder, surprise, relief, admiration, and exhaustion, among other things. It is a very versatile expression indeed. |
| Another Afrikaans interjection that has been adopted by English speakers in South Africa is |
| Dewan: Jissie! |
| Antoni: If you hear a South African person using this word, they are probably very impressed by something. You might hear someone say something like |
| Dewan: Jissie, dis ‘n groot trok! |
| Antoni: which, in South African English, would be |
| Dewan: Jissie, that’s a big truck! |
| Antoni: meaning, of course, that the speaker is impressed by the size of the truck. |
| So far, all the slang words we have used tend to be quite harmless, but slang also is known to contain words that are not so innocent. We’ll look at one or two of those next. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Antoni: In South Africa, there is a large population of “colored” people. The use of the term “colored” in South Africa can be a derogatory term and refers to an ethnic group that is often of mixed race or is descended from the Khoi and the San ethnic groups. A large proportion of this group speaks Afrikaans as their home language and has given it a unique color and flavor. They are famous for their use of Afrikaans slang, and most of them live in or around the Western Cape. This is why, if you visit Cape Town, you are likely to hear a brand of Afrikaans and of Afrikaans slang that you won’t often hear anywhere else in the country. |
| A simple example of this slang would be the word for “dance” which is |
| Dewan: swaai |
| Antoni: and is originally an Afrikaans word meaning “to sway” or “to swing”. Another commonly heard slang word in Cape Town is this one, which is used to refer to a cigarette: |
| Dewan: entjie |
| Antoni: which means “short distance” in Standardised Afrikaans. As you can see, the original meaning of a word and the slang version of it are not always semantically related, but that is probably because the original correlation has been forgotten. |
| There are many examples of such words in the version of Afrikaans that colored South Africans use. The accent, intonation, and rate at which they speak are quite different from that of other Afrikaans speakers. They also tend to use a lot of humor in their speaking and all these factors make their language usage quite entertaining and fascinating. |
Outro |
| Antoni: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Dewan: Totsiens! |
| Antoni: See you soon! |
| Credits: Dewan (Afrikaans, Pietermaritzburg), Antoni (English, synthetic voice) |
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