How Afrikaans women became fierce-tempered (Zürich 2021)

bit.ly/feeks-WAL2021

How Afrikaans women became

fierce-tempered

Gerhard B van Huyssteen

Roald Eiselen

Centre for Text Technology (CTexT)

This content was presented for the first time at the Zürich Workshop on Afrikaans Linguistics (5 October 2021, Zürich). Use the top right menu to navigate to the different slides. Short YouTube video’s to follow soon.

[ill-tempered woman]

A folk etymology

The word [feeks] is a contraction of the word [fee] "fairy" (which is interpreted mostly as positive, magical), and [heks] "witch" (which mostly has a negative, evil meaning).

Two questions

What is the history of feeks and helleveeg ?

Are words like feeks and helleveeg swearwords?

Context

Towards an encyclopaedic constructicon of Afrikaans swearing, called

Vloekepedia

as part of

feeks: Two dictionaries

feeks

feeks (1607)
feks (deu)
fekke, fikke, fikkert (fry)
fēkn; feihan; fācn; feikn

Afrikaans

feeks

feex (1607) (feeks in 18th c.)
fekke, fikke (fry); fikke (Groningen); Fēks (Rhineland)
*faihiso ≈ *faih· (gem) < *peig·, *peik· (ine)
fēkn; feihan; fācen; feikn; bifaihōn; piger; písuna

Dutch

helleveeg: Three theories

helle + veeg

A comely woman, worthy only of sweeping in Hell

helle + tēve

A female dog from Hell

hel + vegen

A person regarded with animosity

(vegen ‘to treat hostilely’)

What is a swearword?

A swearword is a construction

that is offensive

to several users

in different contexts

vloek.co.za/vloekmeter

Statistical analysis

Related-samples sign test

Nonparametric test for ordinal data, to determine whether there are differences in the median scores of related samples

Null hypothesis: no difference

Respondents

feeks: N = 151; helleveeg: N = 99

Overlap: N=94

Image: statistics.laerd.com

Results: Eight questions

Results: Comparison

Acknowledgements

Data processing

Jaco du Toit | Cornelius van der Walt

Sound-boarding

Adri Breed | Suléne Pilon

Adam Lund (Laerd Statistics)

Funding

Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns

In natura contributions

Ethical clearance

Language Matters Ethics Committee of the NWU (ethics number: NWU-00632-19-A7)

References

De Vries, M., Te Winkel, L. A., e.a. 1864-1998. Woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal. ‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff.
De Vries, W. 1915. “Etymologische aanteekeningen: feeks.” Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde, 34:10.
Hilpert, Martin. 2013. Constructional change in English: Developments in allomorphy, word formation, and syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Israel, Michael. 2006. "The pragmatics of polarity." In The Handbook of Pragmatics, edited by Laurence R. Horn and Gregory Ward, 701-723. London: Blackwell.
Köbler, G. 2014. Altsächsisches Wörterbuch. 5th ed. https://www.koeblergerhard.de/ aswbhinw.html [10 September 2021].
Lyngfelt, Benjamin, Lars Borin, Kyoko Ohara, and Tiago Timponi Torrent. 2018. Constructicography: Constructicon development across languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Pokorny, J. 1959 [2007]. Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch: An Etymological Dictionary of the Proto-Indo-European Language. Bern: Francke.
Scheepers, Riana. 2021. Riana Scheepers borg die word: feeks [Riana Scheepers sponsors the word: feeks]. Facebook post. https://www.facebook.com/diewoordeboek/posts/10159460135944085. [2021/06/30].
Schiller, K. & Lübben, A. 1875. Mittelniederdeutsches Wörterbuch. Volume 5. Bremen: J. Kühtmann.
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs, and Graeme Trousdale. 2013. Constructionalization and constructional changes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Von Fallersleben, H. 1845. Niederländische Glossare des XIV. und XV. Jahrhunderts nebst einem Niederdeutschen. Leipzig: Engelmann.

fierce-tempered

[ill-tempered woman]

A folk etymology

Two questions