Creative language

It's Carnaval here in Brazil. From Friday last week through to Wednesday afternoon this week, absolutely nothing happens here, except the inevitable sequins, feather boas and samba. Business is closed. A few supermarkets remain open, but for limited hours.

I wanted to get industrious this morning. It's not often I get free time at home. I cleaned out the cat litter, then took the bag of dirty litter upstairs to put any dog doo-doos into the bag. I've only fallen on those steps once since moving in here, which, in itself, is remarkable.


This time, I was clever enough to fall UPstairs. I somehow managed to smash both big toes into a step at the top. On my left foot, the toenail is split up the middle and one half is lifted *throb throb* On the right foot, the toe is bruised. How the heck did I manage that? Oh... and cat litter over everything, me included. Jurgis was a great help cleaning up, while graciously trying to hide his laughter. I broke out in some creative language.

This is where I'm eternally grateful for my Afrikaans heritage. No one swears quite like the ou tannies (old aunts) and oomies (uncles).

"Blikskottel!!" It came out hard and loud, not once, but a few times. Jurgis piped up with "Why blikskottel and not blikemmer?" I don't know. It was just a 'skottel' moment somehow.

• blik - tin
• skottel - cooking pot or basin
• emmer - bucket
  

Not my photo! "Old tin bucket." Photo by {JO} / Flickr

The old Afrikaners were very conservative, both in their lifestyle and their language. Of course, they had their fair share of frustrations. I imagine that burning the daily loaf of bread that took hours to knead, rise and bake must have inspired some fairly creative language. I know it would have done so for me. 'Bliksem' is another word one will frequently hear. It's really 'lightning'. 'Donner' was one I heard a lot as a child, meaning 'thunder'. Somehow, hearing 'donner' was a lot worse than hearing 'bliksem'. Not sure why. It was usually used as an adjective, a bit like 'darn' or 'damn'. "Daai donnerse kat!" translates to 'that darn cat'.

"Voetsek!" Oooh, I love that word! It's a little like 'go away' or 'get lost', but the sense of it is quite untranslatable. It's a word used when a person or animal (I used it on HRM today) is really annoying you. The tone in which it's said also speaks volumes. Generally, when using this term in a foreign country, people look at you oddly, but get the gist of what you're saying by your tone and body language... or because they pretty much know they're being annoying and expect you to tell them to go and climb trees.

I wanted to do a video blog on the subject for a few reasons. One is that I bullied poor Kerry into speaking on her videos, but mainly to give you the sounds of the Afrikaans words. I also needed to test the cam. It hasn't been coming on when I needed it lately. I think my usb connections are funky. I need the cam for some of my Skype classes. I got it working now, but HRM decided he was finished playing with his gate (he periodically takes it apart to refinish it, just because he can) and has come inside. No way will I do a video blog with him in around. I'm not enough of an exhibitionist. Besides, when typing, I can gleefully talk about him. It's rather hard to do that when talking, as he listens to every word.