“The Guardian reported that J & Mrs Z ‘had matching white trainers’,” observed Gus Silber, reflecting on the Jacob Zuma marriage saga, “which confused me until I realised they meant shoes”.
Happening across this comment on Twitter, I realised that there are people in the world who do not have access to a word like “takkie”. How do they cope?
Here, in no particular order, is a list of some of my favourite South Africanisms:
As mentioned above, takkie, which has far more personality than either “trainer” or “sneaker”.
Skop, skiet en donner. Fundi and veld have managed to make it into the Oxford English Dictionary, and this one surely belongs in Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. There can surely be no better description of a Jean-Claude Van Damme flick anywhere on this good earth.
Moer. As in. “I’m the moer in” or “I’ll moer you”.
Bakkie. Only the Australians have a word that comes anywhere near to encapsulating the cultural significance of the bakkie. They call them “utes” (short for utility vehicles) and sing rude songs about “rootin’ in the ute”. “Pickup truck”, which is used by the British and Americans, is poncy.
Eish. Very useful when applied to any situation that would otherwise require the use of more traditional Anglo-Saxon terms, especially as it conveys less aggression and can be used in earshot of children.
Bliksem. When used as a verb, and a useful synonym for moer.
Kak. A word which I believe is taking off in the UK. Short, sweet, and descriptive.
Doos. As a rooinek, I grew up blissfully ignorant of the actual meaning of this word, which I took to refer to a common or garden moron. Naturally, when I became aware of its actual meaning, I was more enamoured of it than ever. Though the English “twat” comes close, nothing captures the oafish dofness (see below) of people who are both offensive and stupid.
Poephol is also useful, as is another word beginning with P. If Giles Coren, the famously acerbic food critic, had access to a South African vocabulary, he could be so much more creative in the following Very Rude tweet describing Kevin Pietersen:
“A cunt. An absolute cunt. A monstrous, moustachioed, mimsy-voiced, self-serving South African cunt. Just like I said on Monday. A total cunt.”
Dof. So much more onomatopoeically evocative than “stupid” or “dumb”.
Braai. Obviously. “Barbeque” is just wussy.
Jol or jolling. A word that’s been around for a while, but still merits a place in our lexicon.
Zhoozh. The spelling is a challenge (I always assumed it was juge, pronounced in the French style) but it’s a word I use often to describe something I consider to be stylish and smart. Not strictly South African since it originated on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, but in many respects we’ve made it our own. Certainly, when I’ve used it around non-South Africans, nobody knows what on earth I am on about. The Mansfields used it in the title of their cookbook, substantial piles of which I once saw on sale in a cut-price bookshop in Chatswood in Sydney. Small world.
There are many other wonderful South Africanisms out there, not all of which are not suitable for use in polite company. Which ones could you not do without?
‘Kak’ – pronounced ‘cack’ with a flatter A has been in use in English for practically ever, at least in the North (see ‘cack-handed’ but also, more tellingly, cacky (as in cacky underwear, not to be confused with ‘cacky pants’, which is just plain illiterate). Lots of funny Norse words (cack, skrike – favourite one of relatives when we were little ‘stop th’nippers skriking, eh?’ – sken and a whole bunch of others I’ve struggled to forget) that probably also made their sorry way into Dutch.
Robot, as in turn left at the robot. Most non-South Africans must think we have high tech humanoid robots directing traffic at intersections. Or maybe we are so technologically retarded that we thing inanimate structures that automatically change lights are something out of star wars.
how about the best Afrikaans word of em all: Lekker!
Boots. As in the ones cars have, not the ones ladies put on their feet (although they can be quite delicious too!). A trunk is something that belongs on an elephant.
Robots. The ones that stop traffic with little coloured lights. “Traffic lights” or “stoplights” are just so… unimaginative.
And a bit “from boksburg” but how about tune. Not as in music, but as in “I tuned you bru, don’t look at my cherrie!”
Of course, bru…
Lekker article.
They’re mainly Afrikaans words that have been absorbed into SA English speech.
The terms are obviously appealing to South Africans, and are clearly culturally expressive, but other countries and languages manage to express themselves just as adequately.
Is the key point not just that some South Africans are a bit self-conscious about some things? “We’ve got the best weather, people and swearing. No-one can match the expressiveness of ‘you ma se ….’ ”
(Prosecutor: “And then, after he insulted your mother in this fashion, what did you do?”)
The vocab is really just a tribal label. In the same way that rival boarding schools would feel superior about the subtle differences between their slang.
I also suspect that Giles Coren probably has access to a slightly wider vocabulary, but that he just chose to be cunt-centered in that particular insult.
As Billy Connolly said: “People often say that swearing shows a lack of vocabulary. I disagree. I know thousands of words, but I still prefer ‘fuck’.”
A new one I like to use… ‘you cheeky fokken prawn’!
During my time in the UK, the poms always struggled with the term ‘aswell’, “I will kick you in the head, aswell, if you choon me again.”
And
Just now…as in “I am just going for a run, and should be back just no.”
The poms think just now means, NOW! RIGHT NOW!
as a foreigner, I love ‘ lekker” ,’eish’ , “agh man”; and “shame!” (as in what a pity); jol is sweet.
what does: “Skop, skiet en donner” mean, and ‘moer’.
I had always thought that ‘twat’ and ‘cunt’ were horribly vulgar worse than ‘fuck’. I’m shocked to read them. Maybe it’s my age.
On my return to Canada, I find people’s self-expression really vulgar: “won-fucking-derful…people don’t even hear it any more.
Whatever happened to words like “Fully” – a rather Durbanite term I think, and “lank” and “Schweet”.
And what about “once”, pronounced “Waaance” as in “choon you waaance ma bru!”
Oh and “Nought”as in nothing or no. Or “Kif” as in “That was really Kif bru”, although there is a hebrew word “Kef” which means pretty much the same thing, ie fun. Another one the kids have come up with is “Chillax” as in “stop stressing and just Chillax!!
You left off “howzit” – I use that word everyday, and the response should be “lekker, man” or “cool by the pool” or possibly “diep in die kak”.
I don’t like the word “takkie”. In my personal lexicon, takkies refers to white canvas tennis shoes with a hard sole and which need to be continually cleaned by anointing it with a white fluid. Quite aglik actually.
My preferred footwear are Nike running shoes (not cross trainers). To describe Nikes as takkies makes me gril.
Totsiens, bru.
I do think you should adjust the spelling to “tekkie”. A takkie is used to scrape the kakkie of your shoes when you don’t watch your step in the veld!
How about SIES! no other word on this earth can describe disgust, disapproval and contempt like this one.
You’re grasping at straws when you try to claim a word that originated on a US television show. The reason you don’t hear it used much here is that the show is off the air and therefore its slang is kind of 2003, no?
I HATE the word “takkie.” What the hell does it mean? And why on earth does it have “personality” when it’s a made-up word? At least “trainer” and “sneaker” (or “running shoe” or “tennis shoe”—”tennies” for short) describe the thing.
I do love kak and eish. I’m with OneFlew though–this feels defensive and self-conscious. Every language has its great and original expressions that reflect local flavor.
My favorites as a US Southerner? “Don’t piss in my boots and tell me it’s raining” and “useful as teats on a boar.”
Sarah I enjoy your writing and love the way you always inject a little humour and lightness into things. I must tell you though that I find some of the above words quite strongly repulsive. There is something quite threatening to me in the way a South African man uses the “f” word. With our accent it actually sounds quite menacing. And if he has an accent from Johannesburg it is even worse. And if he is standing there in a suit like the attorney that I worked for more than twelve years ago, well, I have never forgotten it. As for a man who uses the Afrikaans “p” and “d” words, I won’t call you I promise. A bit like a man who calls a woman a “slut”. Even if she was one the fact that you can say that says so much more about you than it does about her. Just wanted to say …..
Fokol.
Much bleaker and emptier and sub-zero than fuck-all.
Bliksem! (lightning)
Here in Oz I often get blank stares when I use:
Shame – like in sorry to hear of your bad luck
Of course Robot
Circle – which should be round-about
Schucks – we all know what that means
In the end, every culture has it’s own. If the article was written by someone different they might have used Sneakers…
Chillax is universal kid slang, though, not originally SA. It’s a few years old.
I think a lot of youth slang is ubiquitous now thanks to the power of hip-hop culture as global youth culture and the viral spread of trends through social networking.
And those road markings: ONLY SLEGS followed by a left-turn arrow.
Are those of us who are a tad unsure of our sleg status supposed to drive straight ahead or can we just take that left turn and hope we won’t get pulled over by a cop wanting to see our sleg ID card?
Thanks for a good laugh. (What cracked me most was the mental image of Zooma and Wifey No. what, 5? each with a “matching” white trainer making ‘em sweat).
The truly forgotten word that only I seem to remember is “rop”.
It meant a kind of macho cool, but was always used in a put down: “You think you rop, hey ou?”
Dumb denotes an inability to speak, not stupidity, Sarah.
Fuck remains my most favourite word; it’s short and sweet and doesn’t sound the slightest bit dirty. I love calling men cunts; the ultimate insult!
The sort of words I hate are those that are too descriptive by their sound, like vomit; makes me want to.
But none of those are particularly South African.
Walking on Mykonos once, a friend struggled to avoid a man coming towards us. Frankly, he seemed to think his was the right of way; she expected him to give way for a lady. After both danced the same way a couple of times, he let out a sharp ‘Hella!’ and without missing a beat, she replied ‘Hella se moer!’ We laughed for days…
I believe that the takkies in question should properly be called sandshoes or plimsoles, as those used in traditional dancing are usually of the pre-trainer old fashioned variety as popularised by bands such as Mahlathini & Mahotella Queens. Mbaqanga bands on TV2 invariably wear such Puma plimsoles, often discarding tribal traditional skins and beaded skirts for peculiarly quaint high school gymslip pinafores undershirts and ties. I’ve often wondered whether this fetish with Victorian school attire by Mbaqunga dancers is some form of unconscious pubescent erotic display.
Thanks for the new spelling of juge; zhoozhie. I tend to use that word juge a bit, but regret that it and zhoozie are strictly moffoisie slang, and bounce blankly off the hetero honchos.
The Newlands crowd called Kevin Pietersen a “knob”. This provoked him to throw beer at his tormentors. This somewhat effete insult seems more provocative than cunt, doos or poes – all of which are so overused in Cape Town that they no longer have that sharp slap in the face quality?
Richard Catto, I think the word you are looking for is “plimsoll”?
I agree that the term “takkie” would apply to plimsolls. But not to everything else. Calling a range of other shoes – from £ 100 running shoes to streetwear – “takkies” is inappropiate.
“Trainer” as a generic description does, however, work.
I think the whole enterprise of absorbing Afrikaans words into English and presenting same as one’s culture, or as evidence of one’s earthiness, is just a bit fraught.
The impact of a curse or insult is, I think, diluted when it relies on words that belong to other languages.
There are of course utility words that are simply incorporated. In the military “balsak” and “pikstel” would be examples.
But a good tirade has to display virtuosity. And I think virtuosity isn’t properly displayed when you impotently have to scrabble around for words in someone else’s language just because your English vocabulary is insufficient, or because you aren’t properly attuned to English idiom.
Staying with the military, a good South African RSM tirade is (or was) always conducted in Afrikaans. Foul-mouthed, creative, glorious, full-blooded, vicious, unambiguous guttural Afrikaans. Not even the Afrikaans of the Cape, but a strain of Afrikaans in which the mere existence of liberals is simply inconceivable. Certainly not a wimpish hybridised “well, Smith, what heff you got to say? Fokol, hey?”
Of course the British and American military are in equally good voice. And it is, of course, an English voice.
Sarah, you give me new insight into the mind of a woman. Or more precisely, you actually scare me. Expressive words are not the sole prerogative of men but you use these words with apparent ease. However, it shows you are not a hypocrite in this sense. I think the two most popular of these words would be “kak” en “moer”. The word “p–s” is REALLY down there and would normally be the last thing you hear before a physical fight breaks out. Something I found is that woman somehow prefer the word “stront” to “kak”. (Whoever thought the words so freely used by the Sestigers in Afrikaans would one day make it to the general pages of a newspaper!!).
Where I come from in Wales, we had the term “Now just”, which means exactly the same as the SA “Just now”.
Kuier – is there an equivlent English word that can capture the pure joy of a long evening with friends, Cape wine, a fire and good conversation. Lots of laughter.
I love eina and the term ‘is it’ – mainly because it would drive my mother mad. I once called a bus driver in Benoni a doos (I was 12) and got kicked off the bus. As for adopting words, the very strength of English is it’s capacity for absorbing words from other languages. Melvyn Bragg’s The Adventure of English is a brilliant read of the evolution of the language. Those who are trying so desperately to preserve their mother tongues should read it.
Sarah, another South African is the term “bottle store”. In the UK it is called an off licence and in the rest of the world it is a liquor store.
When I first came to SA from the USA, I used to think that “take away” is quaint when compared to the American “take-out”. Also the expression “the line is engaged” suggested to me that the line, rather than being busy, has now been “connected”. Calling the movies a bioscope also sounded so ancient and colonial! By now, practically all American slang has been adopted in SA. Fopr example, a market in Northgate, Gauteng had put up a sign saying “We’ve got you covered”. This expreasion, borrowed from New York , originally meant that “guns were aimed at all of you”. The sign at the market meant that “underground (i.e. covered0 parking is now available”. The sign was taken off later since many people still did not understand it.
Howzit Sarah!
10+ years in the UK has resulted in me substituting “cell” with “mobile”, “trainers” for “tackies” (I confess, “traffic lights” for “robots”, (sometimes) “braai” for “barbeque” (gasp!).
But there is one word for which this country has no equivalent – “bakkie”. To the extent that it is an intrinsic part of the vocabulary of my very English wife.
“Shucks” have been updated, it is now pronounced “Shaiks”, as in “Shaiks! where did he go?”.
“Purlease!” to signify total disbelief.
Yes, “Prawns”, definitely. It seems to be quite popular, I refered to the “prawns” hanging around my pavement the other day and the other guy knew exactly what I was talking about and he hadn’t even seen the movie.
Mamela wena! is just so much more insistent than Listen person! and much friendlier at the same time.
Howzeet? – (Cape Town version) Very laid back and friendly.
Fok! – it is better than anything else to relieve pain when hammering thumb instead of nail.
as an import in joburg i find the word ‘gogga’ very useful. anything that crawls (lots!) and that i haven’t yet learnt the name of can thus be described.
‘mahala’ has, to me, a ring of freer than gratis, free-without-the-hidden-small-print.
What about “voetsek” ???
All dogs the world over understand it..!!