Lied vir Beginner-studente : etimologie van "nonna, nooi..."
DAAR KOM DIE ALIBAMA Daar kom die Alibama, die Alibama die kom oor die see. Daar kom die Alibama, die Alibama die kom oor die see. Nooi, Nooi, die rietkooi, nooi, die rietkooi is gemaak, die rietkooi is vir my gemaak, om daarop te slaap. Die Alibama, die Alibama, die Alibama kom oor die see. Die Alibama, die Alibama, die Alibama kom oor die see. See : ocean, sea Nooi : mistress, portuguese "dona". "Nooi" and "noi" can also be used with the meaning "girlfriend." Nonna : alternative to "nooi" from Port. "dona" Nooientjie, nointjie : girlfriend, young friend riet : reed (riete; rietjie) kooi : alternative word for "bed." Word used for bunks on ships by the Dutch sailors in the seventeenth century. maak : make daarop : on it slaap : sleep The words 'nooi, nonna, noi, nooientjie,noientjie' all probably come from the Malay "nyonyah" / njonjah" spoken at the Cape by the Malay slaves imported by the Dutch from the Dutch East Indies. Apparently "njonjah" was the Malay version of the Portuguese "dona" and not indigenous Malay. The Malay people first had to find a word to show their subservience to the Portuguese masters in the Far East. They then used it for their Dutch masters, first in the East, then on the southern tip of Africa. The indigenous inhabitants of Southern Africa then picked up the word and it became widely used all over South Africa. The ship called "Die Alibama" in the song is really the Confederate ship "the Alabama" which fought many different successful battles all over the Atlantic during the American Civil War in the middle of the last century. It is about the approach of this ship that the Coloured people sang. The Alabama was eventually sunk by the Union ship Kearsage near the coast of France. The North tried to sue England for the damage done by the Alabama. They argued that England should pay because the ship was built in England. This is known as the "Alabama Claims." Gloudina Bouwer