together", with saam being misinterpreted as with. In Afrikaans, saamkom is a separable verb, similar to meekomen in Dutch and mitkommen in German, which is translated into English as "to come along". "Come with?" is also encountered in areas of the Upper Midwest of the United States, which had a large number of Scandinavian, Dutch and German immigrants, who, when speaking English, translated equivalent phrases directly from their own languages. The use of the "strong obligative modal" must as a synonym for the polite should/shall. "Must" has "much less social impact" in SAE than in other varieties. Now-now, as in "I'll do it now-now". Likely borrowed from the Afrikaans nou-nou, this expression describes a time later than that referenced in the phrase "I'll do it now". A large amount of slang comes from British origin, such as "naff" (boring, dull or plain), or “China” from cockney rhyming slang. Demographics The South African National Census of 2011 found a total of 4,892,623 speakers of English as a first language, making up 9.6% of the national population. The provinces with significant English-speaking populations were the Western Cape (20.2% of the provincial population), Gauteng (13.3%) and KwaZulu-Natal (13.2%). English was spoken across all ethnic groups in South Africa. The breakdown of English-speakers according to the conventional racial classifications used by Statistics South Africa is described in the following table. Examples of South African accents The following examples of South African accents were obtained from George Mason University: Native English: Male (Cape Town, South Africa) Native English: Female (Cape Town, South Africa) Native English: Male (Port Elizabeth, South Africa) Native English: Male (Nigel, South Africa) See also List of English words of Afrikaans origin List of lexical differences in South African English List of South African slang words Zimbabwean English Australian English New Zealand English Regional accents of English Dunglish References Notes Citations Sources Further reading External links English Academy of South Africa Zimbabwean Slang Dictionary The influence of Afrikaans on SA English (in Dutch) The Expat Portal RSA Slang Several Samples of The Dialect Languages attested from the 18th century Dialects of English English