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The accents of South Africa.

A few years back global media was talking of a "South African accent" & some insisted that South Africa does not have an accent. South Africa is a country of many nations, so there are obviously many accents in this land. I will try list them below, how they sound & public figures who have these accents. 

The South African English accent: This accent sounds a bit closer to Australian English than England English just with a lower tone & often a hint of an Afrikaans accent. 
Public figures: William Smith, Graeme Smith, Mark Boucher. 

The Zulu accent: The Zulu accent sounds like "speaking with the back of your throat". The "th" in English is pronounced "d" with a Zulu accent & "r" is often pronounced as a "w" or "l". 
Public figures: King Goodwill Zwelithini, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Ngizwe Mchunu, Tshatha Ngobe. 

The model C accent: This accent is the accent black children adopt when they attend South African English schools. It is based on South African English pronounciation hence it's uniformity across black people of different ethnicities. The running joke is that people who have this accent sound like they're "speaking with their noses" & it's true, that's what it sounds like. 
Public figures: Maps Maponyane, Pearl Thusi, Vusi Thembekwayo. 

The Sotho-Tswana accent: Sotho-Tswana people often speak English fast & their accent sounds like it comes from the just behind their chin. 
Public figures: Jerry Phele, Bonang Matheba. 

The Limpopo accent: This accent has hard pronunciations of consonant & vowel sounds. It also sounds like "speaking with the back of your throat". 
Public figures: Julius Malema, Clement Moasa. 

The coloured accent: This sounds like a higher pitched Scottish accent & usually faster speech as it is spoken in suburban areas. 
Public figures: Riaad Moosa, Benni McCarthy, Gayton Mackenzie. 

The suburban street accent: This is an urban accent often found in suburban youths who try to find a middle ground accent for all the groups they live among. Not all people on suburban streets sound like this. It often sounds like a mimicry of one or another black accent with hard emphasis on consonant sounds. It's not that common a accent accept on some smaller towns but I'd say it's more common among Portuguese South Africans. 

The Xhosa accent: This accent emphasizes vowel sounds a bit more than the Zulu accent. It often sounds like it's coming from the bottom of the throat. 
Public figures: Fikile Mbalula, Nelson Mandela & Gwede Mantashe. 

The Afrikaaner accent: This sounds like a Dutch accent but just slower speech & harder pronounciation of sounds. Public figures: Pieter Mulder, Eugene Terreblanche, Leon Schuster. 

The South African Indian accent: This accent is very nasal & sounds like the words are being exhaled out (as with Hindi) but the problem is that English has few words pronounced like Hindi so you almost get a stereotypical Mexican accent with a lower tone & more nasal pronounciations. 
Public figures: Jack Devnarain 

Of course, people change accents & I no longer sound like I did when I was younger going from a Model C accent to a hybrid Model C & Zulu accent. Many times people adopt the accent of another group in South Africa or based on where they live. You'll find a lot of South Africans who consume US media have a USA accent but most South African accents (accept South African English & Afrikaans accents) tend to stick & don't easily change. There are black South Africans who spend years in foreign lands but come back speaking with their home accent. These are the accents of South Africa, there is no standard or uniform South African accent.

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