Thursday, July 29, 2010

zef slang woordeboek

 I'm rather embarrassed to post this to my blog, but since Die Antwoord made a huge splash in New York the other day, I'm suddenly getting a bunch of questions.
To answer a couple of them up front:
  • No, they are not the topic of my dissertation. Karen Zoid is.
  • No, Karen Zoid does not sound like this.
  • No, they are not meant to be taken seriously. It's a spoof, and an extremely profane one at that.
  • Yes I speak Afrikaans. but no, I don't speak it like they do.
  • Yes, I have listened to their music. I find them as a popular phenomenon fascinating, but I don't listen to their music for pleasure. I may write about them at some stage, but for now, I'm focused on the dissertation.
Feel free to post any additional questions in the comments here.
5 - EP [Explicit]

2 comments:

WALKER said...

Can you translate some of the slang words, I can't speak Afrikaans but am very interested in the evolution of Zef slang.

choirgirl said...

Hi Walker,
Which slang words are you particularly interested in? Some of them are not easy to translate directly, but I can give you an idea of where they come from, and how they are used. Zef, for example, is a made-up word, but it is used roughly the same way that "cool" is in English slang. The class component, however, is particularly pronounced, because it is very self-consciously deployed. Zef slang is used ironically, as a sort of camp performance of lower class.
The title of the website, "wat kyk jy" is a slang construct, because while the words are perfectly standard, their arrangement isn't. Literally they translate as "what look you" though they are used to mean "what are you looking at". It is used as an equivalent to the somewhat aggressive use in English.