Idioom: Wys waar David die wortels gegrawe het.
" As hy nie opskud nie, sal ek hom wys waar
David die wortels gegrawe het."
English: To show a person a thing or two. When
irritated with a person's lack of action,
threaten to take some action yourself.
This idiom literally translated means "To show where
David dug up the roots." The idiom has, however,
nothing to do with the name David and is an indigenous
Afrikaans idiom. The word "Dawid" is a Khoi word
made to sound like something familiar to Dutch ears.
In Khoi the word "davib/daveb" can be used for more
than one type of tree. The ending -b indicates the word
as masculine.
Quite a large number of original Khoi words exist
in Afrikaans (and South African English.) Most of them
are for flora and fauna and in place names. However, the
Khoi heritage that I find most interesting in Afrikaans
is the large number of exclamatory words that we have
taken over from the Khoi: Aitsa (surprise and admiration),
arrie (expression of surprise), eina (ouch), g^a (when
smelling something bad), sies ( disgust), soe ( to express
reaction to heat), e^ (yes), e^-e^ (no).
Ek is nie doodseker van hierdie een nie, want dis 'n baie ou een wat ek
dink al amper verdwyn het. Tekens van die tye!
Idioom: Hand in die as geslaan; Sy hand is in die as geslaan.
Meaning: His romantic advances to a girl was rejected. More specifically:
In the race for the girl's romantic attention he was beaten to it by
another chap.
Idioom : Neem die Kimberley se trein.
" Om sy lewe makliker te maak, het hy besluit
om die Kimberleyse trein te neem."
To "take the Kimberley train" meant to be a Coloured
but to try and pass yourself off as white. It was a phrase
from a World War One folk song sung by the Coloured
people. It was said to be easier to pass yourself off as
white in the rougher conditions on the Kimberley diamond
mines than in the structured society of Cape Town. The
song went like this:
"The Kimberley train is coming tonight,
It comes in black and it goes out white."
It was a sad situation that until recently the people of mixed
race in South Africa could gain better jobs and privileges
by passing themselves off as white.
It is also interesting that there is now a movement in the
USA to have people of mixed heritage considered a separate
category. They say that in the USA there is as much occasion
when people are asked what category they fit in, and that they
are at a disadvantage if they are neither black nor white.
The idiomatic expression in the above song explains the
words of the folk song "Hoe ry die trein, hoe ry die trein,
Kimberley se trein." The words of the song, telling of going
up and down mountains on the way to Kimberley, fits in
with this explanation. If you go to Kimberley from Cape
Town you have to traverse a series of mountains before you
get to the flat Karoo.
"Is jy regtig so dom? Jy is so toe soos 'n klei-os se g*t!"
[Are you really so stupid? You are as impenetrably closed as a clay ox's ass!]
I first heard this extremely offensive "skelwoord" [insult] a few years ago being used by a very
refined lady from Springs - which made its vulgarity all the more startling - to her neighbour who
was dumping kitchen refuse over the garden wall into her garden. Needless to say it had the desired
effect. I have often wondered about the origin of this most expressive metaphor. Can somebody help?
One occasionally comes across it in a very funny sequence of sign language gestures used by deaf
(and not so deaf either) persons. Useful when caught up in a Johannesburg traffic snarl. In English
we speak of people being "anal" but this delightful idiom is the very pits if you really want to
insult them! I imagine it must have had its origin among little Afrikaans boys accustomed at
"clay-play" making clay oxen (and other things!), a pastime which itself conjures up for me happy
memories of "kleilat" [lit. "clay twig" - a 'war game' played by young South Africans using long
twigs to catapult missiles of mud at the opponent] as boy in Potchefstroom along the "Mooirivier".
Perhaps somebody on the newsgroup can throw some light on the roots and origins of the idiom.
Indeks:
1. Inleiding en looflied
2. Voorgestelde Formaat of Ree"ls
3. Spangees
1. Idiome - is hulle nie wonderlik nie? Ultra-kort gediggies, as't ware,
behalwe dat hulle nie in boeke, maar in ons monde leef.
Ek sou graag 'n hele versameling van idiome op my hardeskyf wou he^, sodat
ek hulle een vir een kan uithaal en soos blokkies biltong 'n dag op 'n
slag kan kou.
2. Hoe nou gedaan om die uitruil en versamel van idiome maklik te maak?
Daar is natuurlik ook die probleem dat vele idiome verpolitiseer sal word.
Hoe gaan ons die kaf van die koring skei?
Met die bogenoemde in ag genome, stel ek volgende ree"ls voor:
2.1. Een idioom per boodskap (of wat is die Afrikaans vir "posting"?)
2.2. Begin die titel van die boodskap met "Idioom: " gevolg deur enige
woord uit die idioom. Dit sal verwarring voorkom, en maak alfabetiese
sorteer makliker. Dit bly dan aan jouself oorgelaat of jy al die response
op die nuusgroep ook wil vergader.
2.3. Begin die boodskap met die idioom
2.4. 'n Verduideliking in soveel tale as wat tot jou beskikking is, kan
die pittigheid Afrikaans vir meer mense toeganklik maak.
2.5. Gee een of twee voorbeelde, asook 'n klein storie, as verduideliking
van die betekenis of oorsprong saam.
2.6. Teken gerus met jou naam, of gee dan een of ander verwysing.
2.7. Vermy afjak en politiek.
Natuurlik is hierdie voorstelle, net soos enige ree"ls op die internet,
net so kragtig as wat die gebruikers dit maak.
Dus sal ek 'n voorbeeld gee:
Titel - Idioom: pap...
Idioom: Van die hand na die mond, val die pap op die grond
Verduideliking: dinge draai nie altyd so uit as wat beplan is nie.
(English: Things often do not turn out as planned. There is many a slip
twixt ? the cup and the lip.)
Voorbeeld: Ek wil graag 'n elektroniese idioompers op die been bring,
maar tussen die hand en die mond, val die pap op die grond.
3. Spanwerk sal die kanse van pap op die grond minder maak. Ek huiwer om
die idioom, of is dit 'n leuse, wat met "Eendrag" begin, te noem.
Na aanleiding van Gloudina se elektroniese gedigpers, wonder ek of daar
genoeg belangstelling is in hierdie nuusgroep vir 'n spanpoging tot 'n
idiomebundel?
Wat van die talle Afrikaans studente?
Daar is defnitief 'n behoefte aan bydraes.
Enige Webmeesters onder ons wat stoorplek op 'n Netblad vir die vergaarde
idiome beskikbaar sou stel, is natuurlik baie welkom om van hulle te laat
hoor.
Hallo Mense,
Ek het lanklaas iets in die Nuusgroepe gesien oor die Lieg-en-Bieg-Komissie
aka Waarheidskomissie se doen en late. Wat is die huidige stand van sake?
Groetenis,
Andre
In die koerante en ook op die internet is die Vlaamse Week
aangekondig - die wat foto's en iewat meer spesifieke inligting soek
kan by die houmpeitsj kom kyk:
Daar is geen program inligting nie, anders word ek verantwoordelik
gehou vir foute en/of verouderde inligting!
Groetnis
Franz
--
_________________________________
Franz Dullaart (021) 650 3053
j...@its.uct.ac.za http://www-jfd.its.uct.ac.za/
_________________________________
Snoepie oor sy inkleurboek:
"Ek maak altyd die lug blou"
Inligting oor die Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees en die volledige
program is nou op die Net beskikbaar.
Gaan na http://www.karoofees.com
of vat die langer pad as jy sukkel om kontak te maak: http://www.naspers.co.za en liek op die Karoofees-knoppie
Inligting oor die Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees en die volledige
program is nou op die Net beskikbaar.
Gaan na http://www.karoofees.com
of vat die langer pad as jy sukkel om kontak te maak: http://www.naspers.co.za en liek op die Karoofees-knoppie
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