Talk:List of South African slang words
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[edit] skolie not Greek slang
According to the Etimologiewoordeboek van afrikaans, already mentioned, skolie is not Greek but Dutch. See Afrikaans "skollie" meaning "smeerlap, straatboef" found in South Dutch as "schoelje" "arme drommel" (which is still used today in Dutch, found it in my Kramer meaning "fripouille" in French, so "scoundrel") maybe from French "escouillon" (see English scullion -- cook's boy -- also from French ).
- Interesting, Greeks in CT understand the term to be Greek. The pronunciation is closer to Greek skolios than to Dutch schoelje which would correspond to an Afrikaans form of "skoelie" which not used. It might have started out as Dutch schoelje and was then reinterpreted by Greek immigrants with the pronunciation being affected. Kuratowski's Ghost 10:18, 28 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] gogga not a Bantuism
"gogga - bug (from Khoikhoi xo-xon)", so-called Khoikhoi is not a Bantu language, but is part of a separate linguistic language group.
[edit] Nê?
The Etimologiewoordeboek van afrikaans (van Wyk, 2003) says nè comes probably from Dutch : nie(t) waar, cites Boniface in 1832 recording "Hy zeg mus daar woord zoopies verkog, neh".
This word comes from Zulu, not Afrikaans. To formulate a question in Zulu, you either raise the tone of your voice at the end or add 'na', to make sure the listener knows it's a question --> 'You liked the movie, nê?'
- Hmm nope I don't think so, this is definitely Afrikaans, I've even heard the equivalent in Dutch and there is a similar word in German dialects. Kuratowski's Ghost 11:16, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
Okay, well I guess it could be from both then. And laaitie? It's just from 'light', not Afrikaans. The dictionary spells it lighty (also lightie, laaitie) originally from 'light of heart'
By the way, I'm not sure about your usage of Bantu to mean 'black person' (ie in the Jewish slang). Going on instinct, I looked it up in OED and it says 'Bantu is a strongly offensive word in South African English, especially when used of individual people' Joziboy 1 March 2006, 18:58 UTC
- Its a no win situation. "Black" is offensive to many, more so internationally than in SA. "Bantu" is considered offensive by some because it was used in the early days of apartheid. "Bantu" is however the term used by ethnologists for the speakers of the so-called Bantu languages. Got a better term that no one will find offensive? "African" doesn't work because a lot of white people born in Africa will moan that it is excluding them. Kuratowski's Ghost 01:49, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
Yeah, true. Can't even use 'native African' (like the native American model) because that would include the San etc. I've seen 'black African' quite often - what do you think of that? It assumes that there are other types (white Africans, Asian-Africans etc) and takes the edge off just using black as a noun. Joziboy 2 March 2006, 09:36 (UTC)
[edit] gesuip?
You're sure that gesuip is derived from "animal drinking water", it sure looks like Dutch "zuipen", which according to vandale.nl primarily seems to mean "swig", (I know OK basic German, but my Dutch is slightly rudimentary, although it's much easier to read) 惑乱 分からん 00:40, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
Comments: The derivation is from suip (animal drinking water). Afrikaans has a lot of words that basically mean the same thing for animals and humans.
e.g. stomach = maag (human), pens (animal) foot = voet (human), poot (animal) mouth = mond (human), bek (animal) drink = drink (human), suip (animal)
As with many other derogatory terms, the animal equivalent is taken, hence "gesuip" --Igitur za 19:02, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Profanity
Marked some of the words as 'profanity', occassionally 'upgrading' them from 'rude' to 'profanity' because there is a difference. Shanada 11:41, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
- Isn't "gatvol" referring to the asshole? (There's a similar expression in Swedish, meaning having way too much to do...) 惑乱 分からん 23:10, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
Almost. "Gat" can refer to your ass:"move your gat". "Gatvol": Ass is stuffed; sick & tired of something:"Im getting gatvol of all this traffic..."--Shado.za 11:42, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Attention: Slang Glossary policy discussion underway
Slang glossaries violate the following policy:
Wikipedia is not a dictionary or a usage or jargon guide. Wikipedia articles are not:
- Dictionary definitions. Because Wikipedia is not a dictionary, please do not create an entry merely to define a term. An article should usually begin with a good definition; if you come across an article that is nothing more than a definition, see if there is information you can add that would be appropriate for an encyclopedia. An exception to this rule is for articles about the cultural meanings of individual numbers.
- Lists of such definitions. There are, however, disambiguation pages consisting of pointers to other pages; these are used to clarify differing meanings of a word. Wikipedia also includes glossary pages for various specialized fields.
- A usage guide or slang and idiom guide. Wikipedia is not in the business of saying how words, idioms, etc. should be used. We aren't teaching people how to talk like a Cockney chimney-sweep. However, it may be important in the context of an encyclopedia article to describe just how a word is used to distinguish among similar, easily confused ideas, as in nation or freedom. In some special cases an article about an essential piece of slang may be appropriate.
Due to the many AfDs which are initiated to enforce this policy and due to the resistance to such deletion by defenders of the glossaries, I have started a discussion at Wikipedia talk:What Wikipedia is not#Slang glossaries to rewrite the policy in order to solve this problem and to readdress this question: should slang glossaries by allowed on Wikipedia? --List Expert 23:39, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] South African Indian Slang????
±some of the indian slang looks like durban coloured slang,not indian!! e.g : laanie, onetime, pozzy, maader. This is durban coloured slang! I would like to claim this as our own "durban coloured slang" not indian. If you heard indians using these terms, well i would hope that they told you where they got it from. All in all, no1 can beat the afrikaans slang!
[edit] South African slang vs South Africanisms
My opinion is that many of the words listed here are not slang, but rather South Africanisms.
Good example:
"ja" is a totally acceptable Afrikaans word, and is not slang (substandard language). "doos" is not acceptable in standard language and hence is slang.
I suggest that the article's title be amended to something like "List of South African terms". Slang isn't really appropriate here. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 196.211.3.242 (talk) 18:27, 27 February 2007 (UTC).
[edit] Some errors and other amendments
ag man: man is not pronounced as in English. Rather it's pronounced like "mun"
bosbefok: one word
bliksem: can also mean lightning
chommie: in Afrikaans it would be written as tjommie
choon: Yes it comes from English tune (and that's how I imagine it when I say it) but if you really want to write in Afrikaans, it would be tjoen
domkop[space]-[space]idiot
droëwors: one word and diacritic symbol on the e (if it were two words it would literally mean dry sausage of any kind)
ghoef: notice the "h" so that it is pronounced as the Afrikaans "gholf" (golf, the game) and not "golf" (wave)
hotnot: from Hottentot
jirre: mark this as a profanity
nè: not nê
skaapfokker: Never heard this one before, but can't think that it would be spelt with a -ck-
trek: this word is already in English (think Star Trek) so is it really worth mentioning?
tril: one L in Afrikaans
valie: one A in Afrikaans
veldskoen: don't you mean velskoen? vel = hide
voertsek: unnecessary line break
vry: Afrikaans for rub = vryf. Vry has nothing to do with vryf.
Your comments please. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Igitur za (talk • contribs) 18:50, 27 February 2007 (UTC).
