The MeFi obit post for Robin Malan introduced me to that ebullient South African educator, collator, editor, actor, director, writer, and publisher, well remembered for his Ah Big Yaws? A Guard to Sow Theffricun Innglissh, by “Rawbone Malong.” The post provides “a few examples of common Innglissh”:
Daze off the Wick: Munnay, Chooseday, Whenceday, Thirsty, Frarday, Sarrarray, Sunnay.
Martyr’s Horse [known as Ketchup in other parts of the world]
At the cinema
A: ‘Thus nufe fillum’s got Stief Makween innit. Jew larkkim?”
B: ‘Yers. Klunt Eastwards eggshi mah fafe-rit, bit Stief’s orso kwart narse.’If someone wanted to loan my copy of Malan’s book they might use the term: Fur kips, meaning in perpetuity. As in: ‘Issue borrowurn ut tomb-ie orkin Ahhaffit fur kips?”. But my response would probably be: Goat a yell!
You can learn more at Carol’s Blog:
Rule of thumb: do not pronounce any vowels or diphthongs as you believe you should – this would be wrong. Most are pronounced further forward in the mouth with the lips much more rounded that you expect. Here are some of the most important STI vowel sounds […] Then there are the consonants […] h (house) is pronounced y (zis yaw yeeouss? – Is this your house?) or as Rawbone Malong says in his classic curse: Goat a yell!
She provides examples of words that “have been changed completely in the STI idiom” (e.g., robot ‘traffic light’ and lekker ‘nice’) as well as “some of Robin Malan’s classic phrases.” It all reminds me of Afferbeck Lauder and Let Stalk Strine, discussed here in 2003.
‘Lekker’ is just an Afrikaans borrowing, I think. (It’s ‘tasty’ in Norwegian, which was close enough to make me wonder.)
‘Martyr’s Horse’ amused me, though, even if you do have to be very consciously non-rhotic to read it!
Yes, I had to unrhoticize myself to get it!
The claim that “what foreigners call ketchup, we call tomato sauce” is one I associate with Australia. Perhaps it is the whole Southern Hemisphere?
The one used by our African population, but this accent is common to most African countries […] No problem there, if you can speak African, you can speak Effricun Innglissh
Bollocks. Also, What??? “If you can speak African” …
What is it with these people?
@mollymooly: Perhaps it is the whole Southern Hemisphere?
Very likely. The thicker stuff runs down and concentrates there.
DE’s reaction makes me wonder: do South Africans colloquially refer to their country (plus, say, Namibia, Lesotho, and Eswatini) as “Africa”, the way Usonians refer to theirs as America? Or maybe Namibia is their Canada?
South Africans of my acquaintaince don’t seem to, but I suppose that their usage might be different when talking among themselves. However, I think this particular specimen of myopia is unlikely to be explicable thus in any case.
But as I’ve said before, Big place, Africa. Even if you have only ever actually noticed the more-or-less Anglophone bits.
(South Africa: population estimated at 63 million. Nigeria, something like 218 million.)
DE’s reaction makes me wonder: do South Africans colloquially refer to their country (plus, say, Namibia, Lesotho, and Eswatini) as “Africa”, the way Usonians refer to theirs as America?
Some of them do call themselves Afrikaners.
But they don’t define it as “citizens of the Republic of South Africa” and may even prefer the South African Republic to the latter.
(and I think the contrast Afrikaner-European is still there… to an extent. I also note that while I tend to think of them as “an African tribe” many in turn tend to think of them as a subgroup of Europeans. ).
associate with Australia. Perhaps it is the whole Southern Hemisphere?
There’s enough of a Brit [**] hangover in NZ that ketchup (Heinz) has always been as available as Tomato Sauce (Watties) — at least in the past 40 years. I mean in both supermarkets and fush’n’chup shops
[**] Yes i know _now_ that Heinz has always been American. Put it down to a 1950’s childhood that Heinz ketchup and Branston Pickle and Kellogg’s Cornflakes were staples.
The Malans are a very prominent Afrikaner family (with a surname that arrived in the 17th century borne by a Huguenot), but some of the clan’s more rebellious members may have functioned as Anglophones in more recent generations. One Malan (although she then acquired another name by marriage) is said to have been a good field linguist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francina_Susanna_Louw
You come across same surnames all the time. Who is not le Roux must be du Toit (I happen to know a number of songs by Koos Kombuis and he’s André le Roux du Toit).
Du Toit is tailormade for Anglophone merriment. I see why he changed to “cum box”.
Put it down to a 1950’s childhood that Heinz ketchup and Branston Pickle and Kellogg’s Cornflakes were staples.
That sounds like a horrible breakfast, even by 1950s British standards.
“Tomato sauce” for ketchup was common in my British childhood too (the ’90s, in the North). If a schoolfriend’s parents offered pasta with tomato sauce, it usually meant something roughly Italian, but not always.