And SA’s word of the year is…
The Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) revealed South Africa’s word of the year for 2020 on Friday. Tand it is 'Lockdown.'
‘Lockdown’, ‘Jerusalema’ and ‘Covid-19’ were the top 3 most-commonly used words in the country this year.
PanSALB's spokesperson Ntombi Huluhulu says the word of the year is a word, term or expression meant to reflect a year in language.
"As everybody knows we have been through a pandemic and we had to change the way we live our lives.
"Lockdown has had a cultural significance in term of how we conduct business and most of us have been working from home," she explains.
Listen to Huluhulu below:
'Zondo commission' named word of the year
It made the announcement on Wednesday, which is also World Dictionary Day. Zondo commission beat gender-based violence and amapiano, which both made the shortlist. PANSALB says the word 'Zondo commission' had been used over 30 000 times in mass media. Its CEO David Maahlamela says the process of finding the word of the year starts with public consultation.
Can you guess South Africa's world of the year?
The 2018 South African word of the year is land expropriation without compensation, the board said on Tuesday. PanSALB spokesperson Sibusiso Nkosi says choosing a word of the year has been done internationally for quite some time but is a relatively new phenomenon in South Africa.