Durban and KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
South African Indian English
The English of South Africans descended from indentured labourers and traders who arrived from India from 1860, carrying vocabulary and structure from Tamil, Hindi, Gujarati and Urdu. Largely associated with Durban.
2 terms
A to ZA takeaway meal of curry packed into a hollowed-out half or quarter loaf of bread, eaten with the hands and no plate. Named by its filling: mutton bunny, chicken bunny, beans bunny. Originated in Durban and now eaten across South Africa. Definition adapted from Mesthrie's dictionary entry.
The South African Indian English wh-question pattern: the question word moves to the front, but the subject and auxiliary do not swap places and no dummy 'do' is inserted, with tense staying on the main verb. This uninverted wh-question is the characteristic marker. The same absence of inversion in yes/no questions is NOT distinctive: the cited study notes that pattern is shared with informal English and other non-standard South African varieties.