According to the results of the 2011 census . . ., English is the fourth most widely spoken mother tongue [in South Africa] behind isiZulu, isiXhosa and Afrikaans.

It stands to reason that Afrikaans, which became the language of power when the National party took over in 1948, has influenced South African English more than any other. Afrikaans was used as a tool to suppress the masses throughout apartheid, itself an Afrikaans word that has been appropriated not only by South African English speakers, but in English the world over. . . .

[I]ts remarkably easy, even for an armchair etymologist, to write a litany of South African regionalisms that English has pilfered from Afrikaans. But there are two words that are foremost in my mind when I think about how Afrikaans has shaped the way I speak.

One is ja (with a soft y), meaning yes, whose ubiquity might be attributed to its pronunciation. Its takes so little effort to say that its basically an exhale.

The vocabulary is the really striking thing. It is hugely distinctive and diverse, thanks to the number of languages which feed it. There are 11 official languages in South Africa. Each one borrows wildly from the others. And English borrows most of all. . . .

I overheard a woman in the British Council office talk about going to meet mer mamazala. I found out later this was a Zulu word for mother-in-law.

Five types of South African English have been identified, which may be crudely separated according to population groups (Branford 1996: 35). Within each type there is a continuum of varieties ranging from broad to close to standard British English.

What we refer to as South African English (SAfE) in this chapter is the variety spoken by the smallest of these groups, namely the English spoken as a first language by white South Africans. . . .

The other types of South African Englishes are predominantly (with some exceptions) non-native varieties of English:

Afrikaans English is the variety spoken by South Africans of Dutch descent (including white

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