Toe in the Water

The Scandalous Behaviour of Language

The Scandalous Behaviour of Language

Today’s amusing newsfeed post from Adherennium Dr of Phoolishness spurred me to comment on his use of the word “tuned.” I recalled that “tune” once had a special place in southern African slang and, typically, was an important part of the sentence, “Don’t tune me grief, kerel.”

This led me away from my intention to think of a suitable plot for a story, and I found that my brain refused to go back to that, preferring to ponder on ancient South African slang and the mixture of languages that contributed to it. That one sentence I quoted contains offerings from English (“Don’t” and “me”), slang (“tune” and “grief”), and Afrikaans (“kerel”). South Africa may have been the land of apartheid but nothing could stop the many languages of the country from joyously and interestingly mixing with each other.

There was a lot of good humour involved too, most obviously in the the little phrase “ek sê.” This would be used in any of the languages to give extra impact to what was said. So one might say, “This Coke is lekker when cold, ek sê” or “Ek sê, have you been to the bioscope lately?” Literally, the two words mean “I say” in Afrikaans but the irony is in the fact that one would never say such a thing in that language. To the Afrikaaners, it is blatantly obvious that, if you speak, there is no need to say that you are. Only the English were in the habit of announcing things in this way, perhaps to add a little pomposity to whatever is said (and sometimes doubled as in “I say, I say, did you know Carruthers has a gorilla?”).

So the use of the Afrikaans in this way is actually making fun of the English expression. The fact that all languages use it shows that everyone understands this and finds it funny. Quite often, English speakers would turn the joke around by saying, “Ek say.”

Which just goes to show that language is a freedom loving thing and no great regarder of the law. And to the French, who are trying to keep English out of their language, I hope they enjoy “le weekend.”


Word count: 366