List of South African English Regionalisms - List - C-E

C-E

• cafe - when pronounced /kæˈfiː/ refers to a convenience store not a coffee shop (originally such stores sold coffee and other basic items)
• china - (e.g. howzit my china?) - abbreviated rhyming slang, "china plate", for "mate" also used in Cockney rhyming slang; derived from Chum
• chips - Potato crisps by default, but may also used for French fries, which are more commonly referred to as 'slap chips' (pronounced 'slupp', Afrikaans for drooping, not firm).
• circle - traffic circle or roundabout
• Coloured - refers to typically brown skinned South Africans of mixed European and Khoisan or black and/or Malay ancestry.
• cool drink, cold drink - soft drink, fizzy drink not necessarily chilled
• dagga - marijuana, dag-gah, dagca (similar in pronunciation to an Arabic herb)
• dam - also used to mean a reservoir
• donga - a ditch of the type found in South African topography (from Zulu, 'wall')
• dumpy - bottled beer 330ml.
• erf plural erven - a plot of land for a building (from Cape Dutch).