South Africa has 11 official languages! Fortunately for us, one of
those languages is English. While we didn't have to learn a new
language to start the ministry, there are a lot of differences! I
thought it might be fun for you to see just a few of them.
Bakkie (pronounced bah-cky) - pickup truck
Boot - trunk of car
Bonnet - hood of car
Hooter - horn
Robot - stoplight
Trolley - grocery cart
Serviette - Napkin
Brinjal - Eggplant
Marrow - Zucchini
Mince - Ground Beef
Peg - Clothes Pin
Cot - baby crib
Dummy - pacifier
Nappy - diaper
Doo Doo - nap
Pronunciation and spelling are also often very different! Here are a couple of examples:
When saying "path" the a would be pronounced like the a in wigwam; but when saying "wigwam", the a would be pronounced like we say the a in path!
Due to other languages, street and suburb names can get quite interesting! We lived in Weltevreden Park (veltefreeden). Yet now we live in Wilro Park, and it's pronounced like it's written. Another suburb is Helderkruin (helderkrane). W's can be"v", V's can be "f", ui says long a....
Here are a couple of the spelling differences: colour, practise.
Dates are written as day/month/year. For example, today is 26/09/2006, or 26 Sept 2006.
Time is frequently referred to as military time. It is currently 22h42.
Needless to say, we've had some good laughs, but we're learning!
We are working at learning Afrikaans slowly but surely, and hope to speed up on it soon.
That is interesting! Thank you Mary for your response on the articles I've written on our blog!!! Gratefully, Thelma
ReplyDeleteIn today's Korean paper there is a big debate in the country over whether to use Romanized English spelling or change... it's interesting to see SA spellings of things..
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like it is fun to learn but it would be really confusing at times. Wait till that is normal and then you come back to the US. I love reading about the different things you get to talk about. I think writing the date like that is very confusing, I have gotten schedules written like that and it takes so much longer to figure out. If it is in a program like excel you can go in and change the way the date is written... but that really does not help you learn to read it that way. Have a wonderful rest of your week... thanks for sharing! Mitzi Hawley
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