Why? See, I personally believe that people will make all sorts of assumptions towards anything, if they don’t it well enough. So what makes one language superior over another? Is it the way certain syllables sound or perhaps the expressions used? But what makes “dumela” lesser than “hello”?įrom my own observations, I find that it’s usually people who don’t speak the language and are not Batswana or Batswana who rarely or never speak it, that label the phrases and expressions from the language as ratchet. There have been plenty of times when I have been in a situation in which, a person may speak Setswana in a group of people speaking English, and is either described as ratchet or the language is. A person from Botswana, who speaks Setswana. So how can a language be described as “ghetto” and/or “stupid” and why would anyone think of it as such? I am a Motswana. The definition of ratchet is written above. Is there such a thing as a ratchet language?.Who identifies the language as ratchet? Why?.
When a prominent part of people’s lives and culture is reduced to a “mispronunciation”, I begin to ask myself a series of questions (I tend to over-analyse EVERYTHING.) A tool used to communicate, celebrate, mourn, evoke emotion and in many African cultures, record history. However, certain descriptions using this word tend to make me question the validity of it. I have heard the above be used to describe many things, from behaviour to dress. This mispronunciation has taken on the meaning of severely ghetto and stupid, esp. A horrific mispronunciation of “wretched” || A device consisting of a bar or wheel with a set of angled teeth in which a pawl, cog, or tooth engages, allowing motion in one direction only.ĭefinition of ratchet according to the Urban Dictionary :Īdjective. ||Definition of ratchet according to the Oxford Dictionary : An example of this, is usage of the word ‘ratchet’. Words become popular and are thrown around so often, they tend to lose their meaning. “Did you hear them speak? They sound so ratchet!”Įvery scene of popular culture comes with a set of components such as music, fashion, dance and language/slang, which identifies it and separates it from the rest.