Potchefstroom, South Africa
The Potchefstroom Accent
Potchefstroom sits inside the South African dialect area, which covers Johannesburg, Gauteng and South Africa. No other dialect area in the survey comes close to it.
Take the quiz and see how close your accent is →
What people in Potchefstroom sound like
- The kit split — the vowel in “kit” differs depending on nearby consonants.
- Steady, non-gliding “face” and “goat” vowels.
- A clear, unaspirated T.
- Afrikaans loanwords in daily use: “braai”, “lekker”, “bakkie”, “robot” for traffic light.
These are the markers of the South African accent as a whole. No survey claims every speaker in Potchefstroom has all of them — the full South African profile sets out where the region varies.
Is your accent from Potchefstroom?
There is no way to answer that from a description. The test asks 29 questions about the words you use and how you say them, scores your answers against the Johannesburg South African English profile and every other profile in the survey, and shows you where people who answer the way you do actually live.