brei, noun
- Forms:
- Show more Also bray, brey, bry.
- Origin:
- See brei verb2.
A guttural ‘r’ in speech (as in French), common especially in the Malmesbury district of the Western Cape.
- Note:
- The normal South African English pronunciation is /breɪ/; /bʁeɪ/ is used in imitation of the sound made by those who brei.
1957 L.G. Green Beyond City Lights 166People of the Western Province wheat belt have an unmistakeable bry, a rolling of the letter ‘r’...I am told that this bry is a Huguenot legacy.
1990 R. Malan My Traitor’s Heart 25Ben’s speech was haunted by the brei — a roll of the r that harked back to French, a language unspoken in South Africa for almost two centuries.
A guttural ‘r’ in speech (as in French), common especially in the Malmesbury district of the Western Cape.
Visualise Quotations
Quotation summarySenses
Copyright © 2023 Dictionary Unit for South African English.