Making it click: working on South African words in the OED

One of the challenges facing OED editors is the inclusion of World English in the revised text of the Dictionary, in order to cover those vocabulary items which are important in each variety of English. Working in the Dictionary Unit for South African English (before I came to the OED in February 1999), I and my colleagues advised on the incorporation of South African words into the OED, and I continue to be consulted on South African words and their treatment.

Some candidates are easier to find than others. Who would have spotted Dane gun and femina as South African, or globe (meaning 'light-bulb'), or packet (in the sense 'shopping-bag')? The Second Edition of the OED of course also includes many better-known South African borrowings such as Boer, bobotie, donga, indaba, frikkadel, muti, padkos, trek, and veld, and the process of revision is increasing the South African coverage further. Among the new entries included in the December 2001 OED Online release are several South African terms which illustrate the lexicographical headaches caused by the interaction between English and the many African languages of South Africa.

Mfecane, a Xhosa word used by historians for the large-scale dispersal of northern Nguni peoples during the early 19th century, has a parallel term from Sesotho, Difaqane, which is used almost as frequently. Difaqane is represented in South Africa with the initial D, but in neighbouring Lesotho with the initial L - both being pronounced as 'd'! Both words include click sounds - the c in Mfecane representing the dental click () in Xhosa (the sound used in English for 'tsk tsk!'), and the q in Difaqane the apical alveolar click (!), reminiscent of a popping cork. The third click is the lateral click (), represented by x (as in Xhosa), and rather like the English sound used to encourage a horse. As South African English speakers frequently pronounce the clicks in borrowed words, three new and rather exotic phonemes have had to be added to the OED list.

Because African languages use a formidable range of prefixes, indicating features such as word-class and plurality, some words have to appear in the OED in several places. One such is Mfengu, the name of a Xhosa people from the Eastern Cape. This term will also be listed as Fingo (the Englished spelling) and AmaMfengu (the plural form). Totally confused by the plural prefix, English speakers in the past wrote about the 'AmaFeng', 'Mfengu', and 'Phengoes', using the Ama- prefix, the unmarked plural, and the English plural -(e)s interchangeably (or in combination!). Borrowed words are often in flux in this way, and therefore describing their use in the OED is complicated.

Another difficult issue is the interface between Dutch, South African Dutch, and Afrikaans...but that's another story.