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AFRICAN VOICES NEWS
The African Voice September 2001 The Seventh Edition Heyta! Ola! Shap! - to all of you! Eish, we know it has been some time, but our excuse is that we have been hard at work on a beautiful something … THE INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED ZULU CD-ROM We have at last completed the Intermediate to Advanced Zulu CD-ROM! This is a massive, wonderful course with hundreds of exercises and interactive activities, pictures, graphics, games and videos - all designed to get you FAR beyond "Sawubona, unjani?" Amongst the many things you will learn are useful phrases for when you are shopping or selling, on the phone, congratulating, sympathizing, complimenting, organizing or even chatting someone up! Unlike our other courses, this one presents the textbook not in book form, but on the CD-ROM, so you can print it if you need to. There are ten lessons, each with conversation, grammar, culture, exercise and vocabulary sections. Sometimes language slips out of its standard frame - it slides and jives with the times. So we thought we would devote this issue to telling you some of the wonderful and witty things that African language speakers say in this multilingual country of ours. This section draws from Tessa's research on African Humour and Language in Advertising, which was commissioned by the Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing at the University of Cape Town. Isicamtho Isicamtho is a language spoken mainly by young men in the townships. It is often very witty and descriptive and reflects the preoccupations and styles of the times. The vocabulary of isicamtho is constantly changing, although some words become entrenched and are widely understood.
ISICAMTHO QUIZ What would your reaction be if someone gave you a:
de klerk? choc? walky-talky? smiley? g-string? Do you admire beautiful:
windscreens? balloon-tyres? Have you ever met:
a joe? amagents? Have you ever done the following?
codesa tongue-tongue jumpa speeda mandela repossess abza i-askies vaya goboza fly IIMPENDULO (ANSWERS)
de klerk - R2 (because this coin came out when De Klerk was state president) choc - R20 (because of the brown colour of a R20 note) walky-talky - chicken legs and feet smiley - sheep's head g-string - a BMW (the ones with the nice butt!) amareverse - buttocks windscreens - faces balloon-tyres - well-shaped calves oros - fat person joe - a friend amagents - young men goboza - gossip codesa - meet tongue-tongue - kiss jumpa - act aggressively speeda - try and impress mandela - be a bit bossy repossess - steal abza i-askies - say sorry vaya - go goboza - gossip fly - act cool, modern GROOVY GREETINGS A typical township greeting could go something like this:
Vusi: Heyta! (Hi!) Mandla: Filingi? (How are you?) Vusi: Shap. (Fine.) You might hear the people saying goodbye like this:
Babayini! (Good-bye!) Or asking how you are:
Do you know how Zulu speakers refer to shacks? They say: Kwalahl' umlenze - "There where the leg was too freely opened." ("Too much sexual activity goes on there," was the explanation given to us.) Xhosa speakers say Kwavez' unyawo - "There where the foot sticks out" (because they are so small that people's feet normally stick out of the front door). Listen to people chatting casually to each other. Do you notice how many English and Afrikaans words creep in? Here are some examples.
SOME THINGS THAT AFRICAN LANGUAGE SPEAKERS FIND FUNNY ABOUT ENGLISH SPEAKERS:
COMPANY COURSES Contact African Voices for customized Xhosa Language and Culture courses for companies and institutions. TSHAWUZA! (Good-bye!) Stay cool, carry on speaking those African Languages - goboza, codesa - whichever, you'll be so loved! African Voices . No 3 Arthur Road . Muizenberg . 7945 . RSA Phone: +27 21 7883954 . Fax:+27 21 7883940 email: avoice@iafrica.com |