“It is almost like seeing a new baby,” said Jill Wolvaardt, the executive director of the Dictionary Unit of South African English at the launch of the Oxford Concise South African Dictionary.
The launch of the new dictionary began with a speech from Peter Ellis, the husband of outgoing UPB owner Irene Ellis, where he thanked the Grahamstown community and Rhodes University for their support over the 15 years of the running of the bookshop.
“It is almost like seeing a new baby,” said Jill Wolvaardt, the executive director of the Dictionary Unit of South African English at the launch of the Oxford Concise South African Dictionary.
The launch of the new dictionary began with a speech from Peter Ellis, the husband of outgoing UPB owner Irene Ellis, where he thanked the Grahamstown community and Rhodes University for their support over the 15 years of the running of the bookshop.
Also in attendance was Rhodes University Vice Chancellor Dr Saleem Badat and Phillip Louw, the Managing Editor of Dictionaries at Oxford University Press of Southern Africa.
Wolvaardt opened the launch by talking about South African English and how it has borrowed from the other ten official South African languages.
“The South African version also has more than its fair share of words ‘borrowed’ from our indigenous languages and Afrikaans we happily attend bosberaads, indabas and lekgotlas but would you know what to do if the municipality suggested a letsema in your neighbourhood?” said Wolvaardt.
She also thanked the university on behalf of the DSAE. Wolvaardt said compiling the dictionary was not exciting, but fascinating and intriguing as the process required a lot of nit-picking.
“The word choice does require a lot of scrutiny,” added Wolvaardt. Co-editor Tim van Niekerk, who had worked with her through the editing of the dictionary, agreed.
“I worked on the dictionary for three years, so I am very relieved,” said Van Niekerk. Wolvaardt said that they had to work with the various departments for help with technical terms.
“We went to the linguistics department for pronunciation and the African languages department to help with the pronunciation of borrowed terms,” said Wolvaardt.
Louw, whose role was to oversee the process of the dictionary, said the edition was long overdue. “We aim to have a new edition every five years, but this one took eight years,” said Louw.
He said that the old edition catered more for the adult market, so this edition is well rounded and is suitable for all ages.
“The process was difficult. It had technical challenges. It had editorial challenges, but it was a worthwhile challenge,” he said.
Attending the launch was Kate Compton from England, who says she is completely new to the South African English Dictionary and South Africa.
“I haven't seen the ictionary,but I’m very interested in it,” she said. Irene Ellis, who will be presently handing over UPB to Van Schaik, was ecstatic to hold the launch at UPB and it was a big event for them. “It is our swansong and it is a lovely way of saying thanks and goodbye,” said Ellis.
