• dop (a drink, from Cape brandy)
• dorp (a hick town)
• donga (a gulley)
• indaba (conference, affair)
• sjambok (a whip)
• biltong (dried meat, jerky)
• robot (a traffic light)

Can you think of other examples?

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However, sometimes we use words which do exist elsewhere in the world, but we use the words in a different way, often with meanings seemingly the opposite to their more standard useages.

Look at the following dialogue:

Mpho: (seeing Mike trip) Sorry!
Mike: Thanks!
Mpho: They should fix that. I tripped there last week.
Mike: Shame! Are you going inside?
Mpho: Yes. See you just now!

Look at the word "sorry". In standard English "sorry" means that you are accepting blame for doing something, and are apologizing to another person. That is not what Mpho meant. She was expressing pity at seeing another person's misfortune. This is a common useage of the word among black South Africans, and is not widely shared by white South Africans, although it is undertood.

When Mike says, "Shame" he is using a South Africanism as well. Shame means that one should be ashamed, one has done something which brings shame upon one. In South African English, however, it is often used to mean pity, expressing sympathy with a person who has suffered misfortune.

When Mpho says that she will see Mike "just now" she is also using a well-known South Africanism. Literally it means immediately, now! However, in South Africa, the expression is usually used to indicate that something will happen after a period of time, in other words "not now"! It is often used as a euphemism for "never"!

Writing Exercise