{"id":779,"date":"2010-06-14T20:46:03","date_gmt":"2010-06-14T20:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/?p=779"},"modified":"2010-06-14T20:46:03","modified_gmt":"2010-06-14T20:46:03","slug":"more-south-africanisms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/14\/more-south-africanisms\/","title":{"rendered":"More South Africanisms"},"content":{"rendered":"

England haven\u2019t yet been kicked out of the World Cup (despite the shameful draw with the USA) so to celebrate, why not learn some more South African slang?<\/p>\n

Last week<\/a> I brought you such gems as \u2018chips! Chips!\u2019 \u2013 now it\u2019s time for some more useful terms:<\/p>\n

BLIKSEM<\/strong> (BLUK-SEM): If you’re in a pub and you accidentally spill a beer belonging to a man with a thick neck, he may say: “Do you want me to bliksem you?” Don’t respond. Just run. Run for your life. It’s the Afrikaans word for hit or strike or punch.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That could definitely come in handy.<\/p>\n

DINGES<\/strong> (DING-US): An indeterminate, nondescript thing or term for an object whose name you’ve momentarily forgotten. Like this: “Please pass me my dinges there.” “What?” “My dinges. I want to blow it.” “You mean your vuvuzela?” “Yes, my vuvuzela.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dinges<\/strong> seems to me like the South African version of \u2018thing\u2019 or \u2018thingy\u2019 in English. As in: \u201cPlease pass me my thing there.\u201d \u201cWhat?\u201d \u201cMy thingy. I want to blow it.\u201d \u201cYou mean your vuvuzela?\u201d \u201cYes, my vuvuzela.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

ROBOT<\/strong>: When you’re asking for directions and someone says: “Left at the third robot,” it is not because our streets are overrun with menacing cyborgs made by Japanese scientists. No. A robot is simply our word for traffic light.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Source: Times Live<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

England haven\u2019t yet been kicked out of the World Cup (despite the shameful draw with the USA) so to celebrate, why not learn some more South African slang? Last week I brought you such gems as \u2018chips! Chips!\u2019 \u2013 now it\u2019s time for some more useful terms: BLIKSEM (BLUK-SEM): If you’re in a pub and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,40,57],"tags":[25,57,759,770,757],"class_list":["post-779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-language-acquisition","category-slang","tag-languages","tag-slang","tag-south-african-slang","tag-vuvuzela","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":781,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779\/revisions\/781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}