Sunday, October 5, 2008

Xhosa

There is another language spoken around here and it is called Xhosa. Or maybe this is the name of the people that speak it, I'm not sure. But I learned how to say 'hi. how are you' in Xhosa. It's:

MOLO! KUNJANE! and the Kunjane part is "KOON JAAAAAAAHHHHN AY" So it's fun to say. But the best part about Xhosa is that the Xh in Xhosa is said with a click. So you have to click your tongue to your teeth and then say 'osa' but all at the same time. I have been practicing this in most of my spare time.

Click -- osa.

Most of the people here either speak Xhosa or Afrikaans, but everybody speaks English. So it's easy for me.

In Afrikaans, you can say a fun swear word that is not a swear word at all. It's "vreck". But it is pronounced "FRECK." And you roll the 'r', so that it almost sounds like you're saying 'fud-eck.' Anyway it means damn or something very tame like that. But as you can see it sounds a lot like our 'f' word and so it seems much more dangerous in English. But safe to use in front of the littlest of old ladies.

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