Ja well no fine
other.— «Consider the local expression, “Ja, well, no fine.”….Is it one word? Does it have commas? Even the Dictionary of South African English stumbles: “to explain this to a non-South African is a challenge.” A few years ago, the former radio broadcaster RJB Wilson, who coined the expression back in 1978, tried to explain it. “My youngest brother,” he wrote, “was in the habit of saying ‘no fine’ to everything that really required a ‘c’est la vie’ or ‘that’s the way the cookie crumbles.’ It had a nice South African feel to it. I added ‘Ja, well…’ to it to reinforce the South Africanism.”» —“Letter from South Africa: Blend of Languages Hard to Digest” by Kurt Shillinger in Johannesburg, South Africa Boston Globe Oct. 22, 2000. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
When an international team of scientists traveled to a research station in Antarctica for six months, the language they all shared was English. After six months together, their accents changed ever so slightly — a miniature version of how language...
What’s the difference between ethics and morality? Between a proverb and an adage? Eli Burnstein’s Dictionary of Fine Distinctions: Nuances, Niceties and Subtle Shades of Meaning (Bookshop|Amazon) helps readers distinguish between such...