Every now and again I stumble upon ‘English’ words that have developed an own South African flavour over time. Generally I find nothing wrong with this, but some sensitivity to them and our usage of them may assist us to write clearer texts for English readers who may not always understand the Seffrican context. My advice is to steer clear of them when writing for non-South African audiences or for the formal worlds of academia and business.
Robot or traffic light?
All over the English-speaking world a traffic light is the device used to control traffic flow at road intersections electronically. This applies even in the good old US of A where they often prefer coining their own words for English gadgets. Why the hell call a lift an elevator in the first place? A US inventor once argued: “It is an elevator; we invented the damn thing!” To this an Englishman retorted dryly: “It is a lift; we invented the bloody language”. The international drive to plain English may just settle this one in the near future.
But back to the traffic lights debate. It would appear that the South African robot derived its name from the purpose of the device: to be a robotic replacement for the traffic officers who used to perform this task manually.
But don’t confuse your foreign readers. Just switch to traffic light.
Robot or traffic light?
All over the English-speaking world a traffic light is the device used to control traffic flow at road intersections electronically. This applies even in the good old US of A where they often prefer coining their own words for English gadgets. Why the hell call a lift an elevator in the first place? A US inventor once argued: “It is an elevator; we invented the damn thing!” To this an Englishman retorted dryly: “It is a lift; we invented the bloody language”. The international drive to plain English may just settle this one in the near future.
But back to the traffic lights debate. It would appear that the South African robot derived its name from the purpose of the device: to be a robotic replacement for the traffic officers who used to perform this task manually.
But don’t confuse your foreign readers. Just switch to traffic light.
A hectic lady language cop?!
Our hectic habits
Only in South Africa will you hear someone referring to a beautiful girl as a “hectic chic” or to a terrible hangover as a “hectic babelas”. It is generally used colloquially as an exaggerative word, either positively or negatively. The hectic chick could therefore also be exceptionally ugly.
The Oxford Dictionary defines hectic as:
“adjective
1. full of incessant or frantic activity:
a hectic business schedule
2. Medicine, archaic relating to or affected by a regularly recurrent fever typically accompanying tuberculosis, with flushed cheeks and hot, dry skin.”
Considering the “hectic chic” or the “hectic babelas” against this explanation just serves to illustrate how far off target this word has drifted in our country. Hectic!
Only in South Africa will you hear someone referring to a beautiful girl as a “hectic chic” or to a terrible hangover as a “hectic babelas”. It is generally used colloquially as an exaggerative word, either positively or negatively. The hectic chick could therefore also be exceptionally ugly.
The Oxford Dictionary defines hectic as:
“adjective
1. full of incessant or frantic activity:
a hectic business schedule
2. Medicine, archaic relating to or affected by a regularly recurrent fever typically accompanying tuberculosis, with flushed cheeks and hot, dry skin.”
Considering the “hectic chic” or the “hectic babelas” against this explanation just serves to illustrate how far off target this word has drifted in our country. Hectic!
The timeous revival of timely?
For many years thousands upon thousands of South Africans have been puzzled pink by the glaring inability of their favourite spellchecks to recognise timeous and to stop underlining it in red every time they use the word in a text. The simple fact of the matter is that timeous has so far only been recognised in two English-speaking countries in the world. The first is South Africa. Can you guess the second? Of course you would have guessed Australia, but they are not always the odd ones out. Really.
No, Scotland shares that dubious honour with us Seffricans. For this purpose you can include our friends in Namibia.
Play it safe and rather use timely where such a phrase is required.
The Comparative Degree
One of my favourite ice breakers when facilitating English writing workshops is to lead delegates into traps with the proper use of degrees of comparison in English. I inevitably find students conjuring up examples such as the following:
Example: “May the best team win” can only be correct if more than two teams are competing for the honours. When only two teams compete, it would be correct to say: “May the better team win”, although this is seldom done in informal spoken language.
In her blog, Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, Grammar Girl offers a useful tip. Remember that “-er” (the comparative form) has two letters. It is for comparing two things. On the other hand the superlative (“-est”) has three letters, and is for comparing three or more things. With this in mind, the incorrect examples above can now be rectified as:
Please share your observations of similar idiosyncrasies with me and my readers.
For many years thousands upon thousands of South Africans have been puzzled pink by the glaring inability of their favourite spellchecks to recognise timeous and to stop underlining it in red every time they use the word in a text. The simple fact of the matter is that timeous has so far only been recognised in two English-speaking countries in the world. The first is South Africa. Can you guess the second? Of course you would have guessed Australia, but they are not always the odd ones out. Really.
No, Scotland shares that dubious honour with us Seffricans. For this purpose you can include our friends in Namibia.
Play it safe and rather use timely where such a phrase is required.
The Comparative Degree
One of my favourite ice breakers when facilitating English writing workshops is to lead delegates into traps with the proper use of degrees of comparison in English. I inevitably find students conjuring up examples such as the following:
- Between a Greyhound and a Basset Hound, the greyhound is the fastest.
- Which one of these two actresses is the most beautiful?
- Of the twins, James was the fastest learner.
- The eggs were hidden under the smallest of the two bushes in the garden.
Example: “May the best team win” can only be correct if more than two teams are competing for the honours. When only two teams compete, it would be correct to say: “May the better team win”, although this is seldom done in informal spoken language.
In her blog, Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, Grammar Girl offers a useful tip. Remember that “-er” (the comparative form) has two letters. It is for comparing two things. On the other hand the superlative (“-est”) has three letters, and is for comparing three or more things. With this in mind, the incorrect examples above can now be rectified as:
- Between a Greyhound and a Basset Hound, the greyhound is the faster.
- Which one of these two actresses is the more beautiful?
- Of the twins, James was the faster learner.
- The eggs were hidden under the smaller of the two bushes in the garden.
Please share your observations of similar idiosyncrasies with me and my readers.
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