Catchword: Ja well no fine

Filed under: South Africa

Part of speech: other.

Quotation: Consider the local expression, “Ja, well, no fine.”….Is it one word? Does it have commas? Even the Dictionary of South African English stumbles: “to explain this to a non-South African is a challenge.” A few years ago, the former radio broadcaster RJB Wilson, who coined the expression back in 1978, tried to explain it. “My youngest brother,” he wrote, “was in the habit of saying ‘no fine’ to everything that really required a ‘c’est la vie’ or ‘that’s the way the cookie crumbles.’ It had a nice South African feel to it. I added ‘Ja, well…’ to it to reinforce the South Africanism.”

Article or Document Title:
“Letter from South Africa: Blend of Languages Hard to Digest”

Author:
Kurt Shillinger

Article, document, publication, web site:
Boston Globe

Dateline:
Johannesburg, South Africa

Date of publication:
Oct. 22, 2000

Page number:
A17

This cite belongs to a full entry for Ja well no fine.