African Words

Southland Times, Issue 22915, 13 June 1936, Page 22 (Supplement)

African Words

Do you remember a list of African words in the Page a few weeks ago? I have had a very interesting letter from a grown-up reader of our Page who has spoken the South African Dutch language for over twenty years, and he tells me that the list was not quite accurate. Speaking of the contributor of the words, he says: “ — for her guidance I give the correct meaning of the words and the correct phrase. The phrase is ‘Ek het nie meer nuuws vaatell.’ ‘Ek’ is the personal pronoun meaning ‘l’, similar to the German Tch’; ‘het’ is the present tense of the verb ‘hebben’—to have, ‘nie’ is no or not. There is no word ‘nie’ in Dutch. The word for more is ‘meer’ not ‘meek’, and ‘vaatell’ means to tell or say. The language is known in South Africa as ‘Afrikaans.’ ”