South African slang guide | FourFourTwo

The following A-Z offers a rough guide for football fans worried about getting lost in South Africa's linguistic jungle. A - Ayoba. A made-up word meaning "cool", and given

continent-wide currency after its appropriation as a World Cup slogan by MTN, Africa's biggest mobile phone company. B - Braai. Cooking meat on a fire is one of the few things that

appeals equally to all South Africans, no matter their colour. Expect to go hungry if you refer to it as a barbecue. You may like C - China. No, not the country, which failed to qualify for

the World Cup despite having 1.3 billion people to choose from. China, as in "Howzit, my old China?", means "friend", much as it does in London's East End, its

probable port of origin. "Chommie" takes "China" to the next level. D - Dagga. Marijuana. Even though weed grows like a, er, weed in many parts of temperate South Africa,

it is still illegal. That said, expect more than the odd whiff at soccer fan parks, where you will also meet the "diski dance", a series of township soccer-inspired moves, and the

"dumpie", a squat bottle of beer. The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week. E - Eish! A catch-all expression of surprise or mild

annoyance. Not allowed to appear in print without an exclamation mark. F - Fundi. Every language has to have a word for the armchair soccer know-it-all. In South Africa, the Zulu word for

"teacher" fills the void. G - Gatvol. "Fed up" in Afrikaans. With the 'v' pronounced like an 'f', it's very similar to the English

"gutful". As in "Eish! man. I'm gatvol of this fundi. He has no idea what he's talking about." H - Howzit. Guttural shortening of "How is it going?"

and the standard South African greeting. Spoken by true exponents with minimal movement of the lips. Response should simply be another "Howzit" - unless you are an excessively

polite and verbose Englishman, in which case you can stick to "I'm fine, thanks. How are you?". "Hola" and "Heita" are popular alternatives, especially if

you want to be ayoba on the streets of Soweto. I - Izzit. Another product of the same linguistic mangle as "Howzit", the abbreviation of "Is it?" signifies vague

disbelief or surprise as in: "My girlfriend is something of a soccer fundi." Reply: "Izzit?" J - Jol. Afrikaans for "party", a surprisingly widespread term

given the former Dutch settlers' puritan reputation. K - "Ke Nako". Sesotho for "It's time", and the expression that helped convince FIFA bosses in 2004 to

award Africa its first World Cup. L - Lekker. Pronounced "lacquer" but has nothing to do with furniture polish and everything to do with "good". Likely to be heard in

conjunction with another L, "Laduma" - Zulu for "He scores" - if the prayers of 50 million South Africans are answered. M - Moegoe. Idiot. Nothing more to say. N - Now. A

hard one to grasp for English-speakers used to their "nows" in the present or recent past.