h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Don't worry, I'm not throwing anything.
Don't forget Afrikaans is a mixture of old German, Dutch and of course English words. You're bound to find words that are derivates of cockney rhyming slang, if it's true what you're saying about 'China'. (I know only 'struggle' and 'strife' .) Words used in Northern England or in Australia will not be foreign to South-African people, whether they are from Afrikaans or English descent or are the descendants of their ancestor who lived there before the Portugese and the Dutch arrived. All I know is that it is very much a language of the conservative white farming Boer-people and their previous black slave poor laborers.
Perhaps the writer of this entry can shed some light on this. I also would like to know whether the English of the descendants of the English colonists is as old-fashioned as the Afrikaans sounds to the Dutch.

I was also pointing out that a few of these words are not SA slang, but are proper english words so shouldn't be in the entry

I see nothing wrong with this entry that some visual formatting (NOT re-ordering) wouldn't fix. Put in some GuideML to set off the words themselves in bold, and you should be fine.

BTW, Krabatt, do you know if there is Afrikaans slang for 'people in glass houses'?

OK... this is looking good. Koshana, did you get around learning some rudimentary GuideML? For Entries like this one this might be of importance.

I agree this Entry needs a brief Intro chapter, explaining why it is interesting/relevant/important to learn about SA Jargon/Slang. One little paragraph, briefly explaining why the English spoken in SA is quite different from English spoken in the rest of the world. Include one or two sentences explaining why you chose these specific words, or if the list is comlete/incomplete. And another sentence could explain if it is spoken by everyone (according to Gnomon's comment). And that's it.

HELL

"Braai: What is a braai? It is the first thing you will be invited to when you visit a South African ex-pat or are invited to a "do" in South Africa. A braai is a backyard barbecue and it will take place whatever the weather. So you will have to go even if it's raining like mad and hang of a cold. At a braai you will be introduced to a substance known as mealiepap. Read further for an explanation of "pap".
Now that you know what a braai is, here are some other words and phrases you will encounter when talking to a South African."

This makes no real sense to me - why have you started the entry off with this word, and why does the introduction come after it? Surely it would make more sense to have a couple of lines saying something like 'If you go to South Africa you will hear many words which are unknown to you - here is a list of the most popular slang and meanings of the words.'

Also something about where each word comes from - is it from the Afrikaans, is it used elsewhere or just South Africa, is it local to a particular region of South Africa or is it country-wide?

Well, I am buggered . Am I the only one who thinks that Afrikaans is not slang but a unique language? I'll be back when I know something more about this subject. Perhaps I can find an South-African expert at the university of Stellenbosch, or a journalist of some local South-African rag on the internet. I'll be back.

If you are referring to my comment, please consider that I am an absolute ignorant! That is also another good reason for you to include an introductory paragraph explaining all this, so that dummies like me fully comprehend what this Entry is about. The title 'Jargon' made me think that this is a form of 'slang' (I also thought people speak some form of English in SA). Maybe you should modify the title in the lines of:

"Afrikaans Jargon in South Africa - A guide..."

HELL

***mutters about some of the words not being jargon but proper English ,like, y'know***

"Bliksem! Nee, 'n Oorsese kraai, 'n spreeu in aandpak' nie wete oor lugversorging vir witmens in kweekhuiseffect. Dankie aardopwarming." Inteendeel.

Braai = bbq

Lekker, ek het peusselhappie uit kombuis.

Mooie loop.

ummm... yah... sure... I wanted to say that, too

H

What's 'bus shelter' in Afrikaans?

Well tjm, you took a lot of time with that so I will take time to review at length, just a few initial comments (and thanks for the heads up on the typos) -
firstly, although SA was a Brittish colony, and a lot of English people stayed here, these words are now firmly entrenched in South African jargon/slang - and I cannot agree that they are "English" or even nescessarily of English origin. It may be that certain words have evolved simultaneously in both places.
SA is certainly more English than American (thank goodness!) but I wrote this for neither "audience".

Your perspective however really highlighted how much closer SA is to England than the USA, but our linked history does not make us "Mini-English". I re-itterate that this is a list of South African Slang, not English slang used in SA . . the difference is subtle, but I think any South African might be offended by the inferrence.

SA is litterally a melting pot, and what is adopted here blends in to become uniquely south african flavoured - that the English can pick through SA slang and find something of themselves doesn't . . . I digress . . . . I'm puzzled about the comment that this was written for an American audience. Perhaps that just pushes a button for me because I didn't write it for anyone but someone who might visit SA - and I dont envision many Americans on that list.

Kosh

"Why have a and bark yourself?" unquote Dame Iris Murdoch. what has she got to do with it? Well, nothing.
Momentarily wrapped up in the encyclopedia . Let me see, what does it say here? Where are my glasses ...?

Karbaat.

Thanks for other input, I happen to like the beginning, its different and doesn't read like a boring thesis or documentary. I'll look at making it more expansive perhaps.

And while I agree that bolding and such might make it more interesting, I have absolutely no idea how to do that and have lots of better things to do than find out - that's why writers have DTP support, but if anyone wants to offer to give it a polish in that way, I'd welcome the input.

I think I'll go back over the entry over the weekend and go through the feedback that seems valuable.

Thanks all for your time, mostly I just hope someone got a smile out of it somewhere or that some SA visitor will be relieved of bafflement by reading it.

Keep passing open windows

Kosh

Kosh, take your time. You've got all the time of .
So do I. If I've found something interesting that you could use, I let you know.
Cheers mate

Well, I certainly hope you'll reconsider making some of the suggested changes . To be honest, after three seperate attempts I haven't actually made it through your entire entry because visually it doesn't hold my attention adequately.

Taking the time to format this in the proper GuideML would make a huge difference and would be relatively easy to do:
--Put paragraph tags and around each paragraph or word entry.
--Put bold tags and around the jargon words in your list.
--Select the GuideML radio button below the edit window and press "Change Format"
--Update your entry.

As this is a jargon directory, it might be interesting to include the etymology for the words you can find one for (like the Cockney Rhyming Slang, you might check out A649).

Starting your introduction off with a jargon word does make it appear to not be an introduction . Perhaps you could explain the whole melting-pot thing and the different cultures that make up the SA population, the different languages that have gone into creating the jargon.

Best of luck with this

my two main points were with using words like sneakers and garbage can in the explainations these are inheriantly americanisms so it seems to me that it is addressing an american audiance.

The other is that is that words like dummy and dustbin are not even English slang, they are fully Oxford English Dictionary / Queen's English / BBC English words, in some of the more regessed colonies like the US the words may have fallen out of use, but fail to see how they can be counted as slang in one country but not in the mother tounge.

Thanks Jon for that. However my point is still that having lived neither in the US nor in the UK I really dont know what words are used where except where I've had people remark on the use of a certain word and say - what's that?? For all I know, Brits could call dummys pacifiers too - who knows? I just know that not everyone in the world does but we do.

So maybe I should rewrite the title : Words used in south africa that may or may not be used in other parts of the world. . . and that may be helpful to know about if you ever get to SA or are invited to a braai with an ex-pat. Hmmmm?

Ok, all this heaviness is just getting up my nose now - thans all for highlighting the typos and the gramatica errors. If you didn't get through it or didn't understand it . . . well sollly 4 dat!
If you smiled or even just enjoyed some parts of it, then my object is acheived.

Sheesh! So lang as die lepel in die popol staan ne?

KPOW
Kosh

I like the order of the entry, because Koshana gives increasingly involved examples. It's fun.

Koshana mentions 'skop' inside another entry, and I didn't remember what it meant when I found the word again. I took me a few times to go fetch the meaning. Perhaps a separate entry for it would be good?

There's an Edited Entry on Stoop Sitting already in the Guide. Is 'stoop' a jargon word?

Spelling fix: ignor-> ignore

I can't tell what 'plan plastic bad' means.

Is this entry still being worked on?