a language lesson

I was mortified.
Where did he learn such language?

While a friend was visiting one day this week, Devan was playing with a truck at our feet. Suddenly he exclaimed: “Look at the truck’s azs!”

I was stunned to silence.
Even greater was my astonishment when my deeply Southern friend returned the excitement: “ I see the truck’s azs! Those lights look just like azs!”

It took me a confused second to realize that they were actually speaking Southern and that my South African British English trained ears misunderstood that they were indeed talking about “eyes”. The truck’s eyes. I am after all not in a very different boat than Scott – most of his household speaks a language he barely understands: Afrikaans. Most of my household speaks a language I barely understand: Southern. We have an interesting journey ahead of us!