Fanakalo

 

 

 

My father: Rre  Lekgoanyana K. Kgasa

My late father fluently spoke 2 languages: his mother tongue of Setswana and the hybrid language of Fanakalo. Everyday at home he would casually drop a line or 2 of the “funny”, catchy and foreign language in his sentences. I know Fanakalo. My dear sister, my dear brother and my lovely mother know the Fanakalo language – thanks to my father.

“Ene khathalile khakholo!: I’m tired

“Nanze kudla”: Take the food

“Kweu madoda!”: Wow guys

“Sebenza kakhulu!”: Work hard

“Come come meya buya”: It’s about to rain

Fanakalo is a makeshift South African pidgin language mainly used in places of work, particularly in the various mines. “Its vocabulary is roughly 70 per cent Nguni (mainly Zulu), 24 per cent English and 6 per cent Afrikaans, in origin, but it retains hardly any of the unique phonetical, morphological and syntactical characteristics of the Nguni and other Bantu languages. It therefore lacks the main features by which Bantu languages are identifiable as such. Furthermore, the Bantu themselves do not automatically understand Fanakalo, but must learn it just as the Europeans do (Cole, 53: 01).