Irreplaceable Words?!?!
Hello Guys!
Away from my father drama for a while, I was thinking about the way I speak and my mish mash of languages that I use on a daily basis. I was wondering which words (and in what language) have you found to be irreplaceable, or even expression?
Words that you use so much that even your friends who do not speak the language have picked up?
Mine have changed quite a few times through the years, the one I have found no suitable equivalent for are in Afrikaans (what can you say my hubby and I live a bit isolated form the rest of the world, so inevitably we have created our own language 
)
This are some of my irreplaceable words:
Naar (Afrikaans, disgusts me or makes me angry)
Lus (a craving, I am in the mood for x)
kie or tjie (Afrikaans diminutive suffix at the end of each word, even if in English eg. dolletjie for small doll, which in Afrikaans would actually be Poppetjie)
Ag (g as in Scottish Loch or the Spanish J, meaning alas or no) Ag nee (Oh no!)
I also use a lot the south African expression Ag no man! or Ag sorry man! the word man is used indiscriminately for both men and women!
The other one is “Shame” but is SA they use it as a term of endearment or admiration even, eg Ag Shame what a beautiful baby.
I also love their concept of time If you say that a person is coming back now-now it means they’ll be right back, instead if you say they are coming back just now (also depends on the emphasis you put on just) they will only be back in a few hours!
I used to use a lot the Hausa expression Sannu! (greetings, or hello)
Yebo (zulu for yes)
Those are the ones I could think of!
May 13th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Oh yes - I still use “alright?” too. And that brings up a whole lot of British terms that my kids and I use: taking the piss, blimey, you daft divvy, the boot and the bonnet of a car, and a whole host of rhyming slang.
Rhyming slang is useful in itself if you want to talk about something with a select group of people who know it but you don’t want everyone to know what you’re talking about.
Some popular rhyming slang: a cup of tea is called a cup of Rosy - rhymes with Rosy Lee. (Rosy Lee = tea). Aching feet are aching plates - plates of meat = feet. Get it? The best ones I learned were - get this pint down your Gregory (Gregory Peck = neck); and when my husband was working in King’s Cross, the electricians on a construction project were installing raspberry alarms in the bathrooms. He asked what a raspberry alarm was - the “sparks” explained it was for raspberry ripple - cripple. Not very politically correct, but got the gist across!
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May 13th, 2008 at 11:50 am
for me its just ‘Scheiße’ is an irreplacable word and in my old school we invented our own language as a result of multi culturalism a few examples most are a mix of swahili german and american slang a well as many
east african languges
plonye - plot
coco ponyes - coco pops (dont ask)
hotee’s (hoties)- hotdogs
Alexander - ale (ALle)
phillip - philo
scott - Sconye
abey - abu
supu - sweet heart
beste - best friend
Slanyo - to slam
five oh - teacher
man it’s realy great that this site was made for ppl like myself
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May 13th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
haha some of the words are pretty funny! i can’t believe you call your teacher five oh =D
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May 13th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
LOL i couldn’t stop myself from laughing. i got it. understood what you meant. hahahaha
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May 13th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
what can i say the influence of rap muzic on a bunch of TCK hooligans mixed in with a bit of vodka and you get a bit of magic god i miss the boyz
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May 13th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
I love rhyming slang! But I can’t do it myself.
It’s very, very cool though.
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November 11th, 2008 at 12:02 am
I like to use Japanese words like “Giri giri” (someone else already mentioned that I think), “Natsukashii” (what you say when you see something that you haven’t seen in a long time and it brings back memories), “yoroshiku” (when you meet someone for the first time, or give someone a task…), “ganbatte” (do your best!), there’s tons more that don’t really translate… I use “kaja” (let’s go) from Korean too, just because it’s fun and short
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November 12th, 2008 at 7:06 am
besu-chan, “natsukashii” I always can’t seem to find a replacement for. It brings so many nuances and this deep homey feeling.
haha “kaja” is a good one! many asian american friends of mine use that expression. i like ‘aigooo’ in korean. it can be used in so many different circumstances. when you see someone say/do something crazy.. you respond with ‘aigo’.. when you are met with a task you don’t know how to start you say ‘aigo..uhddukhae’
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November 12th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Haha, I didn’t think about that, but yeah, I use “aigo” and “uhddukhae” all the time, especially when I want to use my whiny voice
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