A dictionary of South African Indian English / Rajend Mesthrie.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mesthrie, Rajend.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Provincialisms--South Africa.

English language.

English language--Foreign words and phrases--indo-aryan languages.

English language--South Africa--Usage.

English language--Foreign words and phrases.

English language--Provincialisms.

South Africa.

Physical Description:

xxviii, 260 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Cape Town : UCT Press, 2010.

Summary:

South African Indian English (SAIE) is a dialect spoken by about one million people. From abayah, a traditional Islamic woman's cloak, to zol, a marijuana cigarette, the dictionary defines 1,700 terms, covering baby talk and children's speech, rare words, and words spoken by older speakers, as well as slang and vulgar terms. The dictionary focuses on SAIE as spoken in KwaZulu-Natal, but also includes words from the Western Cape and Gauteng, in an effort to document the cultural, historical, and linguistic diversity of SAIE and highlight the wit of the dialect. Entries include information on pronunciation, definition, history, and language origin, and give citations from literature and examples of use. Mesthrie, professor of linguistics at the University of Cape Town, draws on his own experience as a native speaker of the dialect, in addition to sociolinguistic interviews with speakers from diverse social, educational, regional, and linguistic backgrounds. He also draws on written sources, including newspapers, fiction, memoir, and historical works. The book includes an introduction on the history of SAIE, 1860-2010. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

ISBN:

1919895361

9781919895369

OCLC:

692148081

Publisher Number:

99944975515