'Zondo commission' named word of the year

'Zondo commission' named word of the year

The Zondo commission has been announced as the South African word of the year by the Pan South African Language Board (PANSALB).

Justice Zondo
GULSHAN KHAN / AFP

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.


 


"People are allowed to submit words that are commonly used then the second phase is the one that the service provider gives analysis on data from newspapers, internet etc," says Maahlamela.

All the phrases that were nominated are translated into all the official languages and are then included in the dictionary.

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.

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