The Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) has moved to assure South Africans that all terms written in Xitsonga on the modern banknotes are accurate and correct.
This comes after reports of a spelling error in the translation of the words ‘Reserve Bank’ into Xitsonga.
PanSALB rebutted those reports and said the words were verified and are correct.
“There were consultations between the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and PanSALB, and the terms were verified and authenticated by the Xitsonga National Language Body, a statutory and advisory structure established in terms of the PanSALB Act.
“Therefore, the Pan South African Language Board hereby confirms the words written in Xitsonga, ‘Bangikulu’, as reflected on the upgraded banknotes, are accurate and correct, and consistent with the revised Spelling & Orthography Rules published by the Pan South African Language Board in May 2022.
“PanSALB notes the confusion that may gain been caused by the change and wishes to encourage members of the public to download the latest revised spelling and orthography rules available in all official languages on the PanSALB website,” the language body said.
It explained that on the dilapidated notes, there had been an error in the translation.
“The Xitsonga NLB has pointed out that in prior notes, the term ‘Bangikulu’ was spelt erroneously as ‘Banginkulu’, with a /n/ that was not supposed to be there. The following is the explanation for why the Xitsonga NLB advised the removal of the /n/ in the current banknotes.
“Bangikulu is a compound noun, which is formed by two words, the noun ‘bangi’ and the adjective stem ‘-kulu’ to form bangikulu. The /n/ cannot be accounted for, as to where it comes from. As much as we cannot say bangi leyinkulu/yinkulu, we also cannot say banginkulu.
“The /n/ that goes with the adjective stem ‘-kulu’ can only be accounted for in nouns that pertain to humans. Matsalanankulu, mhaninkulu, and papankulu are a few examples. This is because the /n/ on these words is an allomorph of /mu/, which can stand as a prefix of class 1 words,” PanSALB said. – SAnews.gov.za
Sugar Man
A British man on safari walks into a bar far out in the reaches of a game reserve in Southern Africa, he stays at the bar for a while shooting the shit with the bartender and drinking like a fish, he offer to buy the barkeep a round and since no one else is within 2km of their small oasis of liquor the barkeep obliges. The englishman goes off to the bathroom to have a good old go at the porcelain, he\’s back and ready for a few more whiskeys. He\’s just sat down when suddenly in the distance he hears a scream. He looks over his shoulder and dismisses it as nothing, he turns to the barkeep and orders a drink, takes a sip and hears the scream again. He looks at the barkeep who just shrugs it off. A minute or two later he and the barman hear it again and go outside to take a look. They see a lone figure running towards them screaming, he spots them and lets out a cry, RUN!!!!! HE\”S COMING!!!!!
The barkeep and the Englishman both look at the terrified bedraggled sight before them, and try to calm him down, but he\’s completely inconsolable. They give him water and finally manage to get a word out of him but he struggles free from their grasp and run away screaming.
A few minutes later the same thing happens with a whole group of men running in and screaming, he\’s coming, he\’s coming the barkeep grabs hold of one of the men as he tries to sprint past the bar and tries to get information out of him, again no response other than terrified gibberish.
The barkeep and his customer are starting to get worried, they start to pack up before another group of horrified natives run up to the bar most of them flee but one tries to hide behind the bar, the barkeep pulls out a shotgun and points it at the terrified man\’s face, finally managing to coax some words out of him. \”He\’s coming for us, Vernon Koekemoer is coming for us, we have to hide!!! We have to get out of here.\” He gets up and tries to run but the barkeep grabs him, feeling trapped in a panic he grabs the barkeeps shotgun and blows his own head off. The Englishman and the barkeep look at each other starting to really panic now.
They look out of the window and off in the distance they see a tornado coming towards the bar, at the bottom of the tornado they see the hugest beast of a man they have ever seen, as he gets closer they spot that he is riding a rhinocerous and using a crocodile as a riding whip, with each smack of the crocodile across the back of the rhino the louder is screams and the faster it runs, the tornado following it getting ever larger.
The 2 look at each other and start to fortify their position, they\’ve got a gun and they\’re waaay to drunk to run, so they start piling bar stool and tables and anything they can get their hands on to make sure they\’ll be safe when he arrives. They\’re not gonna make it, they can see the man slowing down his rhino, by now the crocodile is nothing but reptile paste on the bruised rump of the half dead rhino, the rhino drops down dead from exhaustion and crashes to the ground right outside the bar the tornado loses it\’s last breath in a cloud of dust as the huge man crashes his way through the make shift barricade and charges up towards the bar where the 2 men have taken shelter, he grabs a bottle of the hardest liquor on the shelf and down the entire litre in 1 gulp, he peers over the bar sobbing and sees the 2 defenders cowering down behind the crates of beer, they look up at the mans\’ face and he stares at them with a look of complete and utter hopelessness, he stares at them for a half second and half screams, half sobs, \”Oh my god what are you still doing here!!! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!! Vernon Koekemoer is coming!!!!\”
Spooky Yellowjacket
Fun South African Fact: South Africa was once the world’s number one producer of gold