Short quiz for you. What is South Africa’s main language?
English, right? After all, they were a colony of Britain.
Wrong, not just English. South Africa has 11 different official languages. CIA World Factbook lists them as such:
IsiZulu (official) 22.7% IsiXhosa (official) 16% Afrikaans (official) 13.5% English (official) 9.6% Sepedi (official) 9.1% Setswana (official) 8% Sesotho (official) 7.6% Xitsonga (official) 4.5% siSwati (official) 2.5% Tshivenda (official) 2.4% isiNdebele (official) 2.1%
I’d think in the main cities you could do just fine speaking English, but in case you want to brush up on the colloquialisms. Check these out:
just now sometime soon, shortly
now now sooner than “just now”
lift elevator
boot trunk of a car
howzit hello (a greeting), as in “how is it going”
koppie rocky hill
play play pretend
bakkie pick-up truck
flat apartment
robot traffic lights
bundu bushveld
kloof ravine
braai bar-b-que (as found http://www.sa-venues.com/sa_languages_and_culture.htm)
Dare I say a few of these are also popular in the UK? Yes, yes I think I will. The UK certainly makes no secret of their love for South Africa. So next time you’re off for a jaunt in the lovely South Africa, take a wee bit of language savvy with you, eh?
