South African English

South African English

Part of a series on the
Culture of South Africa
History
People
Languages
  • Afrikaans
  • English
  • Ndebele
  • Northern Sotho
  • Sotho
  • Swazi
  • Tswana
  • Tsonga
  • Venda
  • Xhosa
  • Zulu
Traditions
Mythology and folklore
Cuisine
Festivals
  • Public holidays
Religion
Art
Literature
  • Writers
  • Poets
Music and performing arts
  • Musicians
Media
  • Radio
  • Television
  • Cinema
Sport
Monuments
  • World Heritage Sites
Symbols
  • Flag
  • National anthem
  • Coat of arms
Culture portal
South Africa portal

The term South African English (SAfrE, SAfrEng, SAE, en-ZA) is applied to the first-language dialects of English spoken by South Africans, with the L1 English variety spoken by Zimbabweans, Zambians and Namibians, being recognised as offshoots.

There is some social and regional variation within South African English. Social variation within South African English has been classified into three groupings: Cultivated, closely approximating Received Pronunciation and associated with upper class; General, a social indicator of the middle class, and Broad, associated with the working class, and closely approximating the second-language Afrikaans-English variety. This is similar to the case in Australian English.

Read more about South African English:  Pronunciation, Demographics, English Academy of Southern Africa, Examples of South African Accents

Famous quotes containing the words south, african and/or english:

    Indeed, I believe that in the future, when we shall have seized again, as we will seize if we are true to ourselves, our own fair part of commerce upon the sea, and when we shall have again our appropriate share of South American trade, that these railroads from St. Louis, touching deep harbors on the gulf, and communicating there with lines of steamships, shall touch the ports of South America and bring their tribute to you.
    Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)

    Like dreaming, reading performs the prodigious task of carrying us off to other worlds. But reading is not dreaming because books, unlike dreams, are subject to our will: they envelop us in alternative realities only because we give them explicit permission to do so. Books are the dreams we would most like to have, and, like dreams, they have the power to change consciousness, turning sadness to laughter and anxious introspection to the relaxed contemplation of some other time and place.
    Victor Null, South African educator, psychologist. Lost in a Book: The Psychology of Reading for Pleasure, introduction, Yale University Press (1988)

    It is hard to believe that England is so near as from your letters it appears; and that this identical piece of paper has lately come all the way from there hither, begrimed with the English dust which made you hesitate to use it; from England, which is only historical fairyland to me, to America, which I have put my spade into, and about which there is no doubt.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)