Cape Town and the Western Cape, South Africa
Kaaps
Also called Afrikaaps or Cape Flats Afrikaans. The variety spoken by Coloured communities of the Cape, long dismissed as a corruption of standard Afrikaans and increasingly argued for, by its own speakers and by scholars, as a language in its own right.
3 terms
A to ZAn all-purpose Kaaps greeting and affirmative: it opens a conversation, signals agreement or approval mid-conversation, and stands alone as an exclamation of enthusiasm. The WAT also records an adjectival sense, incredible or breathtaking.
Please, and also to do something for someone as an unpaid favour. Recorded as a politeness word by Davids and as an intransitive verb by the DSAE, to help or care for someone. The related kanalawerk is work done for a neighbour or friend as a favour rather than for payment. From Malay karna Allah.
Thank you. The traditional expression of thanks in Cape Muslim Afrikaans, from Malay terima kasih. Community writers report it is now receding, increasingly displaced by the Arabic shukran and regarded by younger speakers as old-fashioned, heard more on the Cape Flats than in urban Muslim circles.