A Repertoire of South African Quotable Gestures

By Heather Brookes

Among black urban South Africans in Gauteng province, quotable gestures are a prominent part of everyday communication. Using observations and video recordings of spontaneous communicative interactions, elicitation interviews, and a decoding test, this study presents the repertoire of quotable gestures in current use. Quotable gestures fall within three main gestural types: lexical, holophrastic, and concept, with lexical gestures constituting the highest proportion. Within each gestural type, gestures vary in their range of meanings, functions, and independence from speech. This variation suggests that sharp distinctions between gestural types and between quotable and speech-dependent gestures may obscure continuities in meaning, function, and how gestures originate and develop.

The article discusses recent work that suggests alternative organizational criteria for the analysis of gestures. It proposes that analysis of gestures begin at the level of interaction, taking into account how social relationships, cultural notions, and identity shape forms of gestural use and behavior

Gesture Dictionary

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

	arrest phakata (Is = Iscamtho) Undersides of both wrists are tapped together. Hands are made into fists.
	arse (Fat arse) Dibono tse kgolo (S = Sotho) Hand is held out behind buttocks.
	balls (Your balls are hanging) Ulengisitse masende (S) Forearm held up. Hand dangles and swings side ways.
	balls (Your balls are getting harder) A ya tiyatiya (S) One hand held up with palm facing upwards. Slightly curved and spread fingers are moved in and out as if squeezing.
	beard ntshebe (Z = Zulu) Palm of hand and fingers strokes cheek and chin downwards once.
	beat keqa (Is) First finger is flicked against thumb and second finger held together at the tips.
	beat shaya (Z) shapa (S) Fist held up with knuckles pointing away from the gesturer.
	beat shaya (Z) shapa (S) One fist is hit diagonally downwards into palm of other hand.
	beer [home brewed] sqo/shake-shake (Is) Hands held as if holding a large pot and rotated gently as if mixing the contents.
	bewitch loya (S) (Z) Wrist, with palm facing up and fingers slightly curved, is placed just below mouth level. Gesturer blows across hand.
	boast (He/she is boasting) Ushaya dithopa (Is) Both hands are held up. Second fingers and thumbs make several clicking sounds.
	break phula (Z) Fists held together in front of the torso and turned sideways so knuckles meet as if breaking something in two.
	breasts (Big breasts) Matswele a kgolo (S) Hands held over chest.
	burn tjhesa (S) lighta (Is) First finger and thumb are held together at tips as if holding a match and drawn along palm of other hand. Then the hand holding the match makes a throwing action.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.