Eish, but is it English?
Subtitle: celebrating the South African variety
By: Rajend Mesthrie with Jeanne Hromnik
Contributors: Hromnik, Jeanne
Publisher: Zebra Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Cape Town
Language: eng
Number of pages: 154
ISBN-13: 9781770221529; 9781770221789; 9781770223929; 9781770223936
Subjects: English language; Variation
Description: " ... Traces the evolution of the language in the country, looking at the diverse forms of English spoken here, where they come from and how they fit into the world spectrum of English. Humorous and informative, it outlines the distinctive features of South African English and is packed with examples and explanations of common expressions, slang, pronunciations and typically South African words and phrases, including {u2018}bunny chow{u2019}, {u2018}just now{u2019}, {u2018}veldskoen{u2019}, {u2018}sundowner{u2019} and, of course, {u2018}eish{u2019}--Publisher's website.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 153-154).
Table of contents: title: 'Coeree home go' : historical firsts; title: 'He was busy dying' : grammar with a difference; title: 'Imagin't excusations' : missionary endeavours; title: 'Who did throw that?' : a question of acceptance; title: 'The robot's not working again' : making sense of the vocabulary; title: 'There's a gogga in my veldskoens' : words, words and more words; title: 'Not just a matter of mixing jou tale' : slang and code switching; title: 'I like my coffee to be black' : a recognisable black variety; title: 'A ghetto of mediocrity?' : finding the middle ground; title: 'He has a headache in his toes' : the English of Indians; title: 'He tried to kill mah daddy' : no laughing matter.