Toe in the Water

In Any Other Tongue

In Any Other Tongue

A few days ago, Andrea and I had a conversation ending in speculation on what Shakespeare would sound like in Australian (Strine). Just try speaking Hamlet’s famous soliloquy in your best Ozzie impression and you’ll understand why we found the idea amusing. And that’s in spite of admitting that it’s entirely possible that Strine may be pretty close to how the Bard himself would have spoken. Much of the English spoken in former colonies has preserved some of the speech patterns of earlier ages.

But the matter reminded me powerfully of something that was reported during my time in southern Africa. It seems that the play, Hamlet, was translated into Afrikaans and then staged in some posh theatre or other, probably in Johannesburg. All was going along swimmingly until the following line was proclaimed:

“Omlet, Omlet, Ek is jou papa se spook!”

The audience collapsed in uncontrollable laughter.


Word count: 148