Howzit!! It's South African greeting which means: hello, how are you and what are you up to? Alternatively, I dont really have the energy to stop and chat with you, but take this "Howzit" as being friendly enough -thanks. Also a clear marker for when someone is a South African.
South Africa has 11 official languages, and scores of unofficial ones besides. English is the most commonly spoken language in official and commercial public life – but only the sixth most spoken home language.
Most South Africans are multilingual, able to speak more than one language.
South Africa's second-largest language: isiXhosa is spoken by 17.6% of all South Africans, or 7,907,149 people.
The languages you will hear most frequently spoken in South Africa depend on where in the country you are.
It's always nice to know some basic words and sentences in other country. Here a link with some of them for the isiXhosa:
This is fascinating Jenny! I had no idea that is what Howzit meant! I had a friend from South Africa and he never could quite explain what it meant. Once again, a great blog!
ReplyDeleteAwesome info this week. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat info on the language of South Africa
ReplyDeletevery interesting about the languages!
ReplyDeletemost south africans are multilingual? that must be very very cool!
ReplyDeleteIm going to start saying HOWZIT to you!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting!
ReplyDelete