My vreugdes en frustrasies

A - Z (2016)

L: Lekker

This post is dedicated to my new friend ouchmybackhurts who took the time to introduce me to a leprechaun in his “L” post today. This is the lekkerste compliment I ever had – a show of friendship from a self-confessed Saffer who longs for a taste of his mother tongue every now and then.

Not too many years ago, Afrikaans-speaking teenagers used to intersperse their conversations with the words cool, neat or groovy to express their pleasure with all aspects of their life. The Afrikaner language purists worried to the point of being sick about the degeneration of the Afrikaans language.

Then, out of the blue, all South Africans, be their mother tongue Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa or Zulu, discarded the cool, neat and groovy slang in favour of lekker.

Lekker is an Afrikaans word meaning nice, enjoyable, pleasant, pleasurable, agreeable, delightful, satisfying, gratifying, acceptable, to one’s liking, entertaining, amusing, diverting, marvellous, good, lovely, great, fine, gorgeous … you catch my drift.

The Oxford Dictionaries give the following examples of the word used as an adjective meaning good or pleasant:  the lekker local flavour of South Africa and we’ve got some lekker tourist attractions for you here; an adverb meaning well: we got on lekker and as submodifier for extremely: he was lekker drunk. So, there we are, lekker is now officially a part of the informal English language.

 

Lekker is natuurlik nie die enigste woord wat sommerso uit Afrikaans oorgeneem is in ander tale nie. Dink maar aan babelaas, biltong, snotklap, moetie, brannas, jislaaik, jol, bliksem, sommer (soos in I’ll sommer bliksem you) en ek is seker daar is nog baie meer.

Ons praat ‘n lekker taal, maar moet tog nie dat die taalpuriste hierdie blog beetkry nie, ek sal lekker op my moer kry.

Groete daar in Ierland AJ.

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28 Comments

  1. Lekker gelees! 😀

  2. Dankie, dankie and thank you!! Dis nou ‘n lekker surprise om voor wakker te word!! Gepraat van lekker… ek wonder of ek vanoggend ‘n lekker bord stywe pap sal inkry of sal dit maar weer winkel pap en skim milk moet wees?

    Dis so lekker om weer omtrent elke dag die taal te hoor! Ons praat ‘n bietjie hier by die huis maar my goeie dame is gebore Engels en het nie te veel jare in SA gebly nie so dis net die twee van ons wat dit praat… behalwe lekker… almal ken van lekker en SK en PK en k*K!!

    Nou moet ek die pad vat voor jy my ‘n lekker SK gee! Mind you, I could have written that in a very explicit Saffer way… using three letter words that aren’t so lekker!

  3. Lekker! Die woord sê so baie. Die taalpuriste sal flou val in ons huis, ai. Ek moet darem byvoeg dat ek heel trots is op ons jongste wat net vir 3 jaar van haar lewe in Suid-Afrika gewoon het en mooi Afrikaans praat, en veral wanneer sy sê: “lekkerrr” en met ‘n Aussie aksent die “r” op die einde lank uitrol (sy’t nooit geleer om die “r” te sê soos dit in Afrikaans gedoen word nie).

  4. Great post, what an interesting thing!

  5. I use Lekker all the time… blame my Indonesian Oma. 😀 Now even my Aussie hubby uses the word. Very useful as a subtle expression in the US, Asia and even in Aussieland when visiting family.

  6. Lekkerrr was nog ooit sleg nie!Na die maan met puriste,soms moet mens se onderrok bietjie uithang.

  7. Hehehehe … mens kan daaie lekker lekker oordryf

  8. Sonel

    Whahahahha! Ai, jy laat mens lekker lag ook Hester. Ek geniet jou lekker skrywe ook altyd vreeslik baie! Dankie hoor en pragtige foto’s ook! 😀 ♥