Afrikaan
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Afrikaans (, ) is a
West Germanic The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into t ...
language that evolved in the
Dutch Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie) was a Dutch United East India Company (VOC) colony in Southern Africa, centered on the Cape of Good Hope, from where it derived its name. The original colony and its successive states that the colony was inco ...
from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the
Hollandic dialect Hollandic or Hollandish ( ) is the most widely spoken dialect of the Dutch language. Hollandic is among the Central Dutch dialects. Other important language varieties of spoken Low Franconian languages are Brabantian, Flemish (East Flemish, West ...
) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gradually began to develop distinguishing characteristics during the course of the 18th century. Now spoken in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
,
Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
and (to a lesser extent)
Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...
,
Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...
, and
Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
, estimates circa 2010 of the total number of Afrikaans speakers range between 15 and 23 million. Most linguists consider Afrikaans to be a partly
creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...
. An estimated 90 to 95% of the vocabulary is of Dutch origin with adopted words from other languages including
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
and the
Khoisan languages The Khoisan languages (; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a group of African languages originally classified together by Joseph Greenberg. Khoisan languages share click consonants and do not belong to other African language families. For much of th ...
of Southern Africa. Differences with Dutch include a more analytic-type
morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
and grammar, and some pronunciations. There is a large degree of
mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
between the two languages, especially in
written form A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable form ...
. About 13.5% of the South African population (7 million people) speak Afrikaans as a first language, making it the third most common natively-spoken language in the country, after Zulu and
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
. It has the widest geographic and racial distribution of the 11 official languages and is widely spoken and understood as a second or third language, although Zulu and English are estimated to be understood as a second language by a much larger proportion of the population. It is the majority language of the western half of South Africa—the provinces of the
Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi T ...
and
Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...
—and the first language of 75.8% of ''Coloured'' South Africans (4.8 million people), 60.8% of
White South Africans White South Africans generally refers to South Africans of European descent. In linguistic, cultural, and historical terms, they are generally divided into the Afrikaans-speaking descendants of the Dutch East India Company's original settlers, ...
(2.7 million people), 1.5% of
Black South Africans Racial groups in South Africa have a variety of origins. The Race (classification of human beings), racial categories introduced by Apartheid remain ingrained in South African society with South Africans and the South African government contin ...
(600,000 people), and 4.6% of
Indian South Africans Indian South Africans are South Africans who descend from indentured labourers and free migrants who arrived from British India during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The majority live in and around the city of Durban, making it one of the l ...
(58,000 people).


Etymology

The name of the language comes directly from the Dutch word (now spelled ) meaning "African". It was previously referred to as "Cape Dutch" (''Kaap-Hollands''/''Kaap-Nederlands),'' a term also used to refer to the early Cape settlers collectively, or the derogatory "kitchen Dutch" (''kombuistaal'') from its use by slaves of colonial settlers "in the kitchen".


History


Origin

The Afrikaans language arose in the
Dutch Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie) was a Dutch United East India Company (VOC) colony in Southern Africa, centered on the Cape of Good Hope, from where it derived its name. The original colony and its successive states that the colony was inco ...
, through a gradual divergence from European Dutch dialects, during the course of the 18th century. As early as the mid-18th century and as recently as the mid-20th century, Afrikaans was known in standard Dutch as a "kitchen language" ( af, kombuistaal, links=no), lacking the prestige accorded, for example, even by the educational system in Africa, to languages spoken outside Africa. Other early epithets setting apart ' ("
Cape Dutch Cape Dutch, also commonly known as Cape Afrikaners, were a historic socioeconomic class of Afrikaners who lived in the Western Cape during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The terms have been evoked to describe an affluent, apolitical se ...
", i.e. Afrikaans) as putatively beneath official Dutch standards included ', ' and ' ("mutilated/broken/uncivilised Dutch"), as well as ' ("incorrect Dutch"). Den Besten theorises that modern Standard Afrikaans derives from two sources: *
Cape Dutch Cape Dutch, also commonly known as Cape Afrikaners, were a historic socioeconomic class of Afrikaners who lived in the Western Cape during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The terms have been evoked to describe an affluent, apolitical se ...
, a direct transplantation of European Dutch to Southern Africa, and * 'Hottentot Dutch', a
pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...
that descended from 'Foreigner Talk' and ultimately from the Dutch pidgin spoken by slaves, via a hypothetical
Dutch creole A Dutch creole is a creole language that has been substantially influenced by the Dutch language. Most Dutch-based creoles originated in Dutch colonies in the Americas and Southeast Asia, after the 17th century expansion of Dutch maritime powe ...
. Thus in his view Afrikaans is neither a creole nor a direct descendant of Dutch, but a fusion of two transmission pathways.


Development

Most of the first settlers whose descendants today are the
Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from Free Burghers, predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: ...
s were from the United Provinces (now
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
and
Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...
), with up to one-sixth of the community of French
Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
origin, and a seventh from
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. African and Asian workers,
Cape Coloured Cape Coloureds () are a South African ethnic group consisted primarily of persons of mixed race and Khoisan descent. Although Coloureds form a minority group within South Africa, they are the predominant population group in the Western Cape. ...
children of European settlers and
Khoikhoi Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also ''Hottentot (racial term), Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 ...
women, and slaves contributed to the development of Afrikaans. The slave population was made up of people from
East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...
,
West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
, and the
Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
(modern
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
). A number were also indigenous
Khoisan Khoisan , or (), according to the contemporary Khoekhoegowab orthography, is a catch-all term for those indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who do not speak one of the Bantu languages, combining the (formerly "Khoikhoi") and the or ( in t ...
people, who were valued as interpreters, domestic servants, and labourers. Many free and enslaved women married, cohabited with, or were victims of sexual violence from the male Dutch settlers. M. F. Valkhoff argued that 75% of children born to female slaves in the Dutch Cape Colony between 1652 and 1672 had a Dutch father. Sarah Grey Thomason and Terrence Kaufman argue that Afrikaans' development as a separate language was "heavily conditioned by nonwhites who learned Dutch imperfectly as a second language." Beginning in about 1815, Afrikaans started to replace
Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...
as the language of instruction in
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
schools in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, written with the Arabic alphabet: see
Arabic Afrikaans Arabic Afrikaans (, ) or Lisan-e-Afrikaans () was a form of Afrikaans written in Arabic script. It began in the 1830s in the madrasa in Cape Town. Beside a 16th-century manuscript in the German language written with Arabic script, it is the on ...
. Later, Afrikaans, now written with the
Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...
, started to appear in newspapers and political and religious works in around 1850 (alongside the already established Dutch). In 1875, a group of Afrikaans-speakers from the Cape formed the ' ("Society for Real Afrikaners"), and published a number of books in Afrikaans including grammars, dictionaries, religious materials and histories. Until the early 20th century, Afrikaans was considered a
Dutch dialect Dutch dialects are primarily the dialects that are both cognate with the Dutch language and are spoken in the same language area as the Dutch standard language. Dutch dialects are remarkably diverse and are found in the Netherlands and northern ...
, alongside
Standard Dutch Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives German and English. ''Afrikaans'' i ...
, which it eventually replaced as an official language. Before the
Boer wars The military history of South Africa chronicles a vast time period and complex events from the dawn of history until the present time. It covers civil wars and wars of aggression and of self-defence both within South Africa and against it. It in ...
, "and indeed for some time afterwards, Afrikaans was regarded as inappropriate for educated discourse. Rather, Afrikaans was described derogatorily as 'a kitchen language' or 'a bastard jargon', suitable for communication mainly between the Boers and their servants."


Recognition

In 1925, Afrikaans was recognised by the South African government as a distinct language, rather than simply a slang version of Dutch. On 8 May 1925, twenty-three years after the
Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...
ended, the
Official Languages of the Union Act An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their ...
of 1925 was passed—mostly due to the efforts of the
Afrikaans language movement The Afrikaans language movement is one of three efforts that have been organised to promote Afrikaans in South Africa.Hein Willemse"More than an oppressor’s language: reclaiming the hidden history of Afrikaans" ''theconversation.com'', April 27, 2 ...
—at a joint sitting of the
House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...
and the
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
, in which the Afrikaans language was declared a variety of Dutch. The Constitution of 1961 reversed the position of Afrikaans and Dutch, so that English and Afrikaans were the official languages, and Afrikaans was deemed to include Dutch. The Constitution of 1983 removed any mention of Dutch altogether. The
Afrikaans Language Monument The Afrikaans Language Monument ( af, Afrikaanse Taalmonument) is located on a hill overlooking Paarl, Western Cape Province, South Africa. Officially opened on 10 October 1975, it commemorates the semicentenary of Afrikaans being declared an ...
is located on a hill overlooking
Paarl Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...
in the
Western Cape Province The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...
. Officially opened on 10 October 1975, it was erected on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the
Society of Real Afrikaners The Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners (Afrikaans language, Afrikaans for "Society of True Afrikaners") was formed on 14 August 1875 in the town of Paarl by a group of Afrikaans speakers from the current Western Cape region. From 15 January 1876 the ...
, and the 50th anniversary of Afrikaans being declared an official language of South Africa in distinction to Dutch.


Standardisation

The earliest Afrikaans texts were some doggerel verse from 1795 and a dialogue transcribed by a Dutch traveller in 1825. Afrikaans used the Latin alphabet around this time, although the
Cape Muslim Cape Malays (, in Arabies script) also known as Cape Muslims or Malays, are a Muslim community or ethnic group in South Africa. They are the descendants of enslaved and free Muslims from different parts of the world who lived at the Cape du ...
community used the Arabic script. In 1861, L.H. Meurant published his ' ("Conversation between Claus Truthsayer and John Doubter"), which is considered to be the first book published in Afrikaans. The first grammar book was published in 1876; a bilingual dictionary was later published in 1902. The main modern Afrikaans dictionary in use is the ' (HAT). A new authoritative dictionary, called ' (WAT), was under development as of 2018. The official
orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...
of Afrikaans is the ', compiled by .


The Afrikaans Bible

The Afrikaners primarily were Protestants, of the
Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...
of the 17th century. Their religious practices would later be influenced in South Africa by British ministries during the 1800s. A landmark in the development of the language was the translation of the whole
Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
into Afrikaans. While significant advances had been made in the
textual criticism Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in ...
of the Bible, especially the Greek
New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
, the 1933 translation followed the
Textus Receptus ''Textus Receptus'' (Latin: "received text") refers to all printed editions of the Greek New Testament from Erasmus's ''Novum Instrumentum omne'' (1516) to the 1633 Elzevir edition. It was the most commonly used text type for Protestant denomi ...
and was closely akin to the . Before this, most Cape Dutch-Afrikaans speakers had to rely on the Dutch . This had its origins with the
Synod of Dordrecht The Synod of Dort (also known as the Synod of Dordt or the Synod of Dordrecht) was an international Synod held in Dordrecht in 1618–1619, by the Dutch Reformed Church, to settle a divisive controversy caused by the rise of Arminianism. The firs ...
of 1618 and was thus in an archaic form of Dutch. This was hard for Dutch speakers to understand, and increasingly unintelligible for Afrikaans speakers. C. P. Hoogehout, , and
Stephanus Jacobus du Toit The Reverend Stephanus Jacobus du Toit (9 October 1847 – 29 May 1911) was a controversial South African nationalist, theologian, journalist and failed politician. In his younger years Du Toit did much to promote the Afrikaans language as a s ...
were the first Afrikaans Bible translators. Important landmarks in the translation of the Scriptures were in 1878 with C. P. Hoogehout's translation of the ' (
Gospel of Mark The Gospel of Mark), or simply Mark (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). is the second of the four canonical gospels and of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist to h ...
, lit. Gospel according to Mark); however, this translation was never published. The manuscript is to be found in the South African National Library, Cape Town. The first official translation of the entire Bible into Afrikaans was in 1933 by J. D. du Toit, E. E. van Rooyen, J. D. Kestell, H. C. M. Fourie, and
BB Keet Barend Bartholomeus Keet (1885–1974) was an Afrikaner theologian. He is best known for his rejection of the theological basis of separate development and apartheid policies. (Others in this category included Albert S. Geyser, Ben Marais, Be ...
. This monumental work established Afrikaans as ', that is "a pure and proper language" for religious purposes, especially amongst the deeply
Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
Afrikaans religious community that previously had been sceptical of a
Bible translation The Bible has been translated into many languages from the biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. all of the Bible has been translated into 724 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,617 languages, and ...
that varied from the Dutch version that they were used to. In 1983, a fresh translation marked the 50th anniversary of the 1933 version and provided a much-needed revision. The final editing of this edition was done by E. P. Groenewald, A. H. van Zyl, P. A. Verhoef, J. L. Helberg and W. Kempen. This translation was influenced by
Eugene Nida Eugene A. Nida (November 11, 1914 – August 25, 2011) was an American linguist who developed the dynamic equivalence, dynamic-equivalence Bible translation, Bible-translation theory and one of the founders of the modern discipline of transla ...
's theory of
dynamic equivalence The terms dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence, coined by Eugene Nida, are associated with two dissimilar translation approaches that are employed to achieve different levels of literalness between the source and target text, as evidenc ...
which focussed on finding the nearest equivalent in the receptor language to the idea that the Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic wanted to convey. The challenge to this type of translation is that it doesn't take into account that there are shifts in meaning in the receptor language. A new translation, ''Die Bybel: 'n Direkte Vertaling'' was released in November 2020. It is the first truly ecumenical translation of the Bible in Afrikaans as translators from various churches, including the
Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
and
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
Churches, were involved. Various commercial translations of the Bible in Afrikaans have also appeared since the 1990s, such as ''Die Boodskap'' and the ''Nuwe Lewende Vertaling''. Most of these translations were published by Christelike Uitgewersmaatskappy (CUM).


Classification

*
Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
** Germanic ***
West Germanic The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into t ...
****
Low Franconian Low Franconian, Low Frankish, NetherlandicSarah Grey Thomason, Terrence Kaufman: ''Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics'', University of California Press, 1991, p. 321. (Calling it "Low Frankish (or Netherlandish)".)Scott Shay ...
*****
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
****** Afrikaans, Dutch-based creoles Afrikaans descended from Dutch dialects in the 17th century. It belongs to a
West Germanic The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into t ...
sub-group, the
Low Franconian languages Low Franconian, Low Frankish, NetherlandicSarah Grey Thomason, Terrence Kaufman: ''Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics'', University of California Press, 1991, p. 321. (Calling it "Low Frankish (or Netherlandish)".)Scott Shay ...
. Other West Germanic languages related to Afrikaans are
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
,
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
, the
Frisian languages The Frisian (, ) languages are a closely related group of West Germanic languages, spoken by about 500,000 Frisian people, who live on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. The Frisian languages are the closest li ...
, and the unstandardised languages
Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle L ...
and
Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
.


Geographic distribution


Statistics


Sociolinguistics

Some state that instead of ''Afrikaners'', which refers to an ethnic group, the terms ' or ' (lit. Afrikaans speakers) should be used for people of any ethnic origin who speak Afrikaans. Linguistic identity has not yet established which terms shall prevail, and all three are used in common parlance. Afrikaans is also widely spoken in Namibia. Before independence, Afrikaans had equal status with German as an official language. Since independence in 1990, Afrikaans has had constitutional recognition as a national, but not official, language. There is a much smaller number of Afrikaans speakers among Zimbabwe's white minority, as most have left the country since 1980. Afrikaans was also a medium of instruction for schools in
Bophuthatswana Bophuthatswana (, meaning "gathering of the Tswana people"), officially the Republic of Bophuthatswana ( tn, Riphaboliki ya Bophuthatswana; af, Republiek van Bophuthatswana), was a Bantustan (also known as "Homeland"; an area set aside for mem ...
, an Apartheid-era
Bantustan A Bantustan (also known as Bantu homeland, black homeland, black state or simply homeland; ) was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa (now N ...
.
Eldoret Eldoret is a principal town in the Rift Valley region of Kenya and serves as the capital of Uasin Gishu County. The town was referred to by white settlers as Farm 64, 64 and colloquially by locals as 'Sisibo'. As per the 2019 Kenya Population ...
in Kenya was founded by Afrikaners. Many South Africans living and working in
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
, the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
,
Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, Canada, the United States, the
UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
and
Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
are also Afrikaans-speaking. They have access to Afrikaans websites, news sites such as Netwerk24.com and Sake24, and radio broadcasts over the web, such as those from
Radio Sonder Grense Radio Sonder Grense (RSG), i.e. Radio Without Borders, is an Afrikaans-language radio service run by the South African Broadcasting Corporation for the whole of South Africa. Since Afrikaans is one of South Africa's 11 official languages, the SAB ...
, Bokradio and
Radio Pretoria Pretoria FM, formerly ''Radio Pretoria'' is an Afrikaans community-based radio station in Pretoria, South Africa. It broadcasts 24 hours a day in stereo on 104.2 FM in the greater Pretoria area. Various other transmitters (with their own freque ...
. There are also many artists that tour to bring Afrikaans to the emigrants. Afrikaans has been influential in the development of
South African English South African English (SAfrE, SAfrEng, SAE, en-ZA) is the set of English language dialects native to South Africans. History British settlers first arrived in the South African region in 1795, when they established a military holding op ...
. Many Afrikaans loanwords have found their way into South African English, such as ' ("pickup truck"), ' ("barbecue"), ' ("tangerine"), ' (American "sneakers", British "trainers", Canadian "runners"). A few words in
standard English In an English-speaking country, Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that has undergone substantial regularisation and is associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and official print publications, such as public service a ...
are derived from Afrikaans, such as ''
aardvark The aardvark ( ; ''Orycteropus afer'') is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species and genera of Tubulidentata are known. Unlike ...
'' (lit. "earth pig"), '' trek'' ("pioneering journey", in Afrikaans lit. "pull" but used also for "migrate"), ''spoor'' ("animal track"), ' ("Southern African grassland" in Afrikaans, lit. "field"), ''
commando Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin">40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured A commando is a combatant, or operativ ...
'' from Afrikaans ' meaning small fighting unit, ' ("tree snake") and ' ("segregation"; more accurately "apartness" or "the state or condition of being apart"). In 1976, secondary-school pupils in
Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...
began a rebellion in response to the government's decision that Afrikaans be used as the language of instruction for half the subjects taught in non-White schools (with English continuing for the other half). Although
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
is the
mother tongue A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...
of only 8.2% of the population, it is the language most widely understood, and the
second language A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a fo ...
of a majority of South Africans. Afrikaans is more widely spoken than English in the Northern and Western Cape provinces, several hundred kilometres from Soweto.Black Linguistics: Language, Society and Politics in Africa and the Americas, by Sinfree Makoni, p. 120S. The Black community's opposition to Afrikaans and preference for continuing English instruction was underlined when the government rescinded the policy one month after the uprising: 96% of Black schools chose English (over Afrikaans or native languages) as the language of instruction. Afrikaans-medium schools were also accused of using language policy to deter black African parents. Some of these parents, in part supported by provincial departments of education, initiated litigation which enabled enrolment with English as language of instruction. By 2006 there were 300 single-medium Afrikaans schools, compared to 2,500 in 1994, after most converted to dual-medium education. Due to Afrikaans being viewed as the "language of the white oppressor" by some, pressure has been increased to remove Afrikaans as a teaching language in South African universities, resulting in bloody student protests in 2015. Under South Africa's Constitution of 1996, Afrikaans remains an
official language An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...
, and has equal status to English and nine other languages. The new policy means that the use of Afrikaans is now often reduced in favour of English, or to accommodate the other official languages. In 1996, for example, the
South African Broadcasting Corporation The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's state ...
reduced the amount of television airtime in Afrikaans, while
South African Airways South African Airways (SAA) is the flag carrier airline of South Africa. Founded in 1934, the airline is headquartered in Airways Park at O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and operated a hub-and-spoke network, serving ten destin ...
dropped its Afrikaans name ' from its
livery A livery is an identifying design, such as a uniform, ornament, symbol or insignia that designates ownership or affiliation, often found on an individual or vehicle. Livery will often have elements of the heraldry relating to the individual or ...
. Similarly, South Africa's
diplomatic mission A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...
s overseas now display the name of the country only in English and their host country's language, and not in Afrikaans. Meanwhile, the
constitution of the Western Cape The Constitution of the Western Cape is, subject to the Constitution of South Africa, the highest law regulating the structure and powers of the government of the Western Cape province of South Africa. It was enacted by the Western Cape Provincial ...
, which went into effect in 1998, declares Afrikaans to be an official language of the province alongside
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
and
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
. In spite of these moves, the language has remained strong, and Afrikaans newspapers and magazines continue to have large circulation figures. Indeed, the Afrikaans-language general-interest family magazine ' has the largest readership of any magazine in the country. In addition, a pay-TV channel in Afrikaans called KykNet was launched in 1999, and an Afrikaans music channel, MK (') (lit. 'Music Channel'), in 2005. A large number of Afrikaans books are still published every year, mainly by the publishers Human & Rousseau, , , and . The Afrikaans film trilogy ' (first released in 2008) caused a reawakening of the Afrikaans film industry (which had been moribund since the mid to late 1990s ) and Belgian-born singer
Karen Zoid Karen Zoid (born Karen Louise Greeff on 10 August 1978) is a South African Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, guitarist, composer and talk show host. Her work in both English and Afrikaans has gathered critical acclaim, and she has been dubbed ...
's debut single "" (released 2001) caused a resurgence in the Afrikaans music industry, as well as giving rise to the Afrikaans Rock genre. Afrikaans has two monuments erected in its honour. The first was erected in , South Africa, in 1893, and the second, nowadays better-known
Afrikaans Language Monument The Afrikaans Language Monument ( af, Afrikaanse Taalmonument) is located on a hill overlooking Paarl, Western Cape Province, South Africa. Officially opened on 10 October 1975, it commemorates the semicentenary of Afrikaans being declared an ...
('), was built in
Paarl Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...
, South Africa, in 1975. When the British design magazine ''
Wallpaper Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" (so t ...
'' described Afrikaans as "one of the world's ugliest languages" in its September 2005 article about the
monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...
, South African billionaire Johann Rupert (chairman of the Richemont, Richemont Group), responded by withdrawing advertising for brands such as Cartier SA, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Montblanc (pens), Montblanc and Alfred Dunhill from the magazine. The author of the article, Bronwyn Davies, was an
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
-speaking South African.


Mutual intelligibility with Dutch

An estimated 90 to 95% of the Afrikaans lexicon is ultimately of Dutch origin, and there are few lexical differences between the two languages. Afrikaans has a considerably more regular morphology, grammar, and spelling. There is a high degree of
mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
between the two languages, particularly in written form. Afrikaans acquired some lexical and syntactical borrowings from other languages such as
Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...
,
Khoisan languages The Khoisan languages (; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a group of African languages originally classified together by Joseph Greenberg. Khoisan languages share click consonants and do not belong to other African language families. For much of th ...
, Portuguese language, Portuguese, and Bantu languages, and Afrikaans has also been significantly influenced by
South African English South African English (SAfrE, SAfrEng, SAE, en-ZA) is the set of English language dialects native to South Africans. History British settlers first arrived in the South African region in 1795, when they established a military holding op ...
. Dutch speakers are confronted with fewer non-cognates when listening to Afrikaans than the other way round. Mutual intelligibility thus tends to be asymmetrical, as it is easier for Dutch speakers to understand Afrikaans than for Afrikaans speakers to understand Dutch. In general, mutual intelligibility between Dutch and Afrikaans is far better than between Dutch and West Frisian language, Frisian or North Germanic languages#Mutual intelligibility, between Danish language, Danish and Swedish language, Swedish. The South African poet writer Breyten Breytenbach, attempting to visualise the language distance for English-speaking world, Anglophones once remarked that the differences between (Standard) Dutch and Afrikaans are comparable to those between the Received Pronunciation and Southern American English.


Current status

Post-apartheid South Africa has seen a loss of preferential treatment by the government for Afrikaans, in terms of education, social events, Mass media in South Africa, media (TV and radio), and general status throughout the country, given that it now shares its place as official language with ten other languages. Nevertheless, Afrikaans remains more prevalent in the media – radio, newspapers and television – than any of the other official languages, except English. More than 300 book titles in Afrikaans are published annually. South African census figures suggest a growing number of speakers in all nine provinces, a total of 6.85 million in 2011 compared to 5.98 million a decade earlier. The South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) projects that a growing majority will be Coloured Afrikaans speakers. Afrikaans speakers experience higher employment rates than other South African language groups, though as of 2012 half a million remain unemployed. Despite the challenges of demotion and emigration that it faces in South Africa, the Afrikaans vernacular remains competitive, being popular in DSTV pay channels and several internet sites, while generating high newspaper and music CD sales. A resurgence in Afrikaans popular music since the late 1990s has invigorated the language, especially among a younger generation of South Africans. A recent trend is the increased availability of pre-school educational CDs and DVDs. Such media also prove popular with the extensive Afrikaans-speaking emigrant communities who seek to retain language proficiency in a household context. After years of slumber, Afrikaans language cinema is showing signs of new vigour. The 2007 film ', the first full-length Afrikaans movie since ''Paljas'' in 1998, is seen as the dawn of a new era in Afrikaans cinema. Several short films have been created and more feature-length movies, such as ' and ' (both in 2008) have been produced, besides the 2011 Afrikaans-language film ', which was the first Afrikaans film to screen at the Cannes Film Festival. The film ' was also released in 2011. The Afrikaans Film industry started gaining international recognition via the likes of big Afrikaans Hollywood film stars, like Charlize Theron (''Monster (2003 film), Monster'') and Sharlto Copley (''District 9'') promoting their mother tongue. Afrikaans seems to be returning to the SABC. SABC 3, SABC3 announced early in 2009 that it would increase Afrikaans programming due to the "growing Afrikaans-language market and [their] need for working capital as Afrikaans advertising is the only advertising that sells in the current Television in South Africa, South African television market". In April 2009, SABC3 started screening several Afrikaans-language programmes. Further latent support for the language derives from its de-politicised image in the eyes of younger-generation South Africans, who less and less often view it as "the language of the oppressor". Indeed, there is a groundswell movement within Afrikaans to be inclusive, and to promote itself along with the other indigenous official languages. In Namibia, the percentage of Afrikaans speakers declined from 11.4% (2001 Census) to 10.4% (2011 Census). The major concentrations are in Hardap Region, Hardap (41.0%), ǁKaras Region, ǁKaras (36.1%), Erongo Region, Erongo (20.5%), Khomas Region, Khomas (18.5%), Omaheke Region, Omaheke (10.0%), Otjozondjupa Region, Otjozondjupa (9.4%), Kunene Region, Kunene (4.2%), and Oshikoto Region, Oshikoto (2.3%). Many native speakers of Bantu languages and
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
also speak Afrikaans as a second language. It is widely taught in South African schools, with about 10.3 million second-language students. Even in KwaZulu-Natal (where there are relatively few Afrikaans home-speakers), the majority of pupils opt for Afrikaans as their first additional language because it is regarded as easier than Zulu. Afrikaans is offered at many universities outside South Africa, for example in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Russia, and the United States.


Grammar

In Afrikaans grammar, there is no distinction between the infinitive and present forms of verbs, with the exception of the verbs 'to be' and 'to have': In addition, verbs do not grammatical conjugation, conjugate differently depending on the subject. For example, Only a handful of Afrikaans verbs have a preterite, namely the auxiliary ' ("to be"), the modal verbs, and the verb ' ("to think"). The preterite of ' ("may") is rare in contemporary Afrikaans. All other verbs use the perfect tense, het + past participle (ge-), for the past. Therefore, there is no distinction in Afrikaans between ''I drank'' and ''I have drunk''. (In colloquial German, the past tense is also often replaced with the perfect.) When telling a longer story, Afrikaans speakers usually avoid the perfect and simply use the present tense, or historical present tense instead (as is possible, but less common, in English as well). A particular feature of Afrikaans is its use of the double negative; it is classified in Afrikaans as ' and is something that is absent from the other West Germanic standard languages. For example, : af, Hy kan nie Afrikaans praat nie, lit=He can not Afrikaans speak not, links=no : nl, Hij spreekt geen Afrikaans., links=no : English: He can ''not'' speak Afrikaans. / He ''can't'' speak Afrikaans. Both French and San origins have been suggested for double negation in Afrikaans. While double negation is still found in Low Franconian, Low Franconian dialects in West Flanders and in some "isolated" villages in the centre of the Netherlands (such as Garderen), it takes a different form, which is not found in Afrikaans. The following is an example: : af, Ek wil nie dit doen nie., links=no* (''lit.'' I want not this do not.) : nl, Ik wil dit niet doen., links=no : English: I do not want to do this. * Compare with ', which changes the meaning to "I want not to do this." Whereas ' emphasizes a lack of desire to act, ' emphasizes the act itself. The ' was the Middle Dutch way to negate but it has been suggested that since ' became highly non-voiced, ' or ' was needed to complement the '. With time the ' disappeared in most Dutch dialects. The double negative construction has been fully grammaticalised in standard Afrikaans and its proper use follows a set of fairly complex rules as the examples below show: A notable exception to this is the use of the negating grammar form that coincides with negating the English present participle. In this case there is only a single negation. : af, Hy is in die hospitaal, maar hy eet nie., links=no : nl, Hij is in het ziekenhuis, maar hij eet niet., links=no : English: He is in [the] hospital, though he eats not. Certain words in Afrikaans arise due to grammar. For example, ', which literally means "must not", usually becomes '; although one does not have to write or say it like this, virtually all Afrikaans speakers will change the two words to ' in the same way as ''do not'' shifts to ''don't'' in English. The Dutch word ' ("it" in English) does not correspond to ' in Afrikaans. The Dutch words corresponding to Afrikaans ' are ', ', ' and '.


Phonology


Vowels

* As phonemes, and occur only in the words ' 'mirror' and ' 'bullet', which used to be pronounced with sequences and , respectively. In other cases, and occur as allophones of, respectively, and before . * is phonetically long before . * is always stressed and occurs only in the word ' 'wedges'. * The closest unrounded counterparts of are central , rather than front . * occur only in a few words. * occurs as an allophone of before , though this occurs primarily dialectally, most commonly in the former Transvaal Province, Transvaal and Free State (South African province), Free State provinces.


Diphthongs

* occur mainly in loanwords.


Consonants

* All obstruents at the ends of words are final-obstruent devoicing, devoiced, so that e.g. a final is realized as . * occur only in loanwords. is also an allophone of in some environments. * is most often uvular . Only this source mentions the trilled realization. Velar occurs only in some speakers. * is usually an alveolar trill or tap . In some parts of the former Cape Province, it is realized uvularly, either as a trill or a fricative .


Dialects

Following early dialectal studies of Afrikaans, it was theorised that three main historical dialects probably existed after the Great Trek in the 1830s. These dialects are the Northern Cape, Western Cape, and Eastern Cape dialects. Northern Cape dialect may have resulted from contact between Dutch settlers and the Khoi-Khoi people between the Great Karoo and the Kunene, and Eastern Cape dialect between the Dutch and the Xhosa. Remnants of these dialects still remain in present-day Afrikaans, although the standardising effect of Standard Afrikaans has contributed to a great levelling of differences in modern times. There is also a prison cant (language), cant, known as Sabela, which is based on Afrikaans, yet heavily influenced by Zulu. This language is used as a secret language in prison and is taught to initiates.


The term ''Kaaps, Kaapse Afrikaans'' ("Cape Afrikaans") is sometimes erroneously used to refer to the entire Western Cape dialect; it is more commonly used for a particular sociolect spoken in the Cape Peninsula of South Africa. was once spoken by all population groups. However, it became increasingly restricted to the Cape Coloured ethnic group in Cape Town and environs. Kaapse Afrikaans is still understood by the large majority of native Afrikaans speakers in South Africa. preserves some features more similar to Dutch than to Afrikaans. * The 1st person singular pronoun ' as in Dutch as opposed to Afrikaans ' * The diminutive endings ', pronounced as in Dutch and not as as in Afrikaans. * The use of the form ' (compare Dutch ') as opposed to Afrikaans ' has some other features not typically found in Afrikaans. * The pronunciation of ', normally as in Dutch is often a . This is the strongest feature of . * The insertion of after , and when followed by , e.g. ' as opposed to Standard Afrikaans '. is also characterised by much code-switching between
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
and Afrikaans, especially in the inner-city and lower socio-economic status areas of Cape Town. An example of characteristic : : nl, En ik zeg (tegen) jullie: wat zoeken jullie hier bij mij? Ik zoek jullie niet! Nee, ga nu weg! : : : af, En ek sê vir julle, wat soek julle hier by my? Ek soek julle nie! Nee, gaan nou weg! : English (literal): And I say to you, what seek you here by me? I seek you not! No, go now away! : English: And I'm telling you, what are you looking for here? I'm not looking for you! No, go away now!


'

The term ' ("Afrikaans of the Orange River") is sometimes erroneously used to refer to the Northern Cape dialect; it is more commonly used for the regional peculiarities of standard Afrikaans spoken in the Upington/Orange River wine district of South Africa. Some of the characteristics of are the plural form ' (''Ma-'', '), variant pronunciation such as in ' ("Church") and ' ("money") and the ending ', which indicates possession.


Patagonian Afrikaans dialect

A distinct dialect of Afrikaans is spoken by the 650-strong South African Argentines, South African community of Argentina, in the region of Patagonia.


Influences on Afrikaans from other languages


Malay

Due to the early settlement of a Cape Malay community in Cape Town, who are now known as Coloureds, numerous History of the Malay language#Classical Malay, Classical Malay words were brought into Afrikaans. Some of these words entered Dutch via people arriving from, what is now known as
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
as part of their colonial heritage. Malay words in Afrikaans include: *, which means 'very'/'much'/'many' (from ') is a very commonly used Afrikaans word, different from its Dutch equivalent ' or '. *, Afrikaans for jacket (from ', ultimately from Persian language, Persian), used where Dutch would use ' or '. The word ' in Dutch is now considered archaic and only used in written, literary texts. *''bobotie'', a traditional Cape-Malay dish, made from spiced ground meat, minced meat baked with an egg-based topping. *, which means banana. This is different from the common Dutch word '. The Indonesian word ' is also used in Dutch, though usage is more common. *, which means saucer (from ', also from Persian).


Portuguese

Some words originally came from Portuguese such as ' ("umbrella") from the Portuguese ', ' ("pen/cattle enclosure") from the Portuguese ', and ' ("corn", from '). Also from Portuguese are the names Paul, Fernando and Ignatius as well as the popular surname Ferreira. These words have become common in South Africa to an extent of being used in many other Languages of South Africa, South African languages. Some of these words also exist in Dutch, like ' "parasol", though usage is less common and meanings can slightly differ.


Khoisan languages

* , meaning cannabis * , meaning lizard, diminutive adapted from Khoekhoe word * , meaning insect, from the Khoisan languages, Khoisan ''xo-xo'' * , blanket of animal hides * , walking stick from Khoekhoe Some of these words also exist in Dutch, though with a more specific meaning: ' for example means "South-African tribal javelin" and ' means "South-African tribal blanket of animal hides".


Bantu languages

Loanwords from Bantu languages in Afrikaans include the names of indigenous birds, such as ' and ', and indigenous plants, such as ' and '. * , from the Zulu word ' meaning "scholar" or "student", but used to mean someone who is a student of/expert on a certain subject, i.e. ''He is a language ''. * , meaning bride price, from (and referring to) ''lobolo'' of the Nguni languages * , the grey crowned crane, known in Latin as ''Balearica regulorum'' * , medium-sized dioecy, dioecious tree known in Latin as ''Sclerocarya birrea'' * , species of thatching grass known as ''Hyparrhenia'' * , deciduous tree also known by its Latin name, ''Spirostachys africana'' * / , an adaption of the word ', meaning "to go home" or "to knock off (from work)".


French

The revoking of the Edict of Nantes on 22 October 1685 was a milestone in the history of
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, for it marked the beginning of the great Huguenots, Huguenot exodus from France. It is estimated that between 250,000 and 300,000 Protestants left France between 1685 and 1700; out of these, according to François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, Louvois, 100,000 had received military training. A measure of the calibre of these immigrants and of their acceptance by host countries (in particular South Africa) is given by H. V. Morton in his book: ''In Search of South Africa'' (London, 1948). The Huguenots were responsible for a great linguistic contribution to Afrikaans, particularly in terms of military terminology as many of them fought on the battlefields during the wars of the Great Trek. Most of the words in this list are descendants from Dutch borrowings from French, Old French or Latin, and are not direct influences from French on Afrikaans.


Orthography

The Afrikaans writing system is based on
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
, using the 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet, plus 16 additional vowels with diacritics. The hyphen (e.g. in a compound like ''see-eend'' 'sea duck'), apostrophe (e.g. ''ma's'' 'mothers'), and a whitespace character (e.g. in multi-word units like ''Dooie See'' 'Dead Sea') is part of the
orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...
of words, while the indefinite article ''ʼn'' is a Ligature (writing), ligature. All the alphabet letters, including those with diacritics, have capital letters as allographs; the ''ʼn'' does not have a capital letter allograph. This means that Afrikaans has 88 graphemes with allographs in total. In Afrikaans, many consonants are dropped from the earlier Dutch spelling. For example, ' ('only') in Dutch becomes ' in Afrikaans. Also, Afrikaans and some Dutch dialects make no distinction between and , having merged the latter into the former; while the word for "south" is written ' in Dutch, it is spelled ' in Afrikaans (as well as dialectal Dutch writings) to represent this merger. Similarly, the Dutch digraph ', normally pronounced as , corresponds to Afrikaans ', except where it replaces the Dutch affix, suffix ' which is pronounced as , as in '' > ''. Another difference is the indefinite article, ' in Afrikaans and in Dutch. "A book" is ' in Afrikaans, whereas it is either ' or ' in Dutch. This ' is usually pronounced as just a weak vowel, . The diminutive suffix in Afrikaans is ', ' or ', whereas in Dutch it is ' or ', hence a "bit" is ʼn in Afrikaans and in Dutch. The letters ''c'', ''q'', ''x'', and ''z'' occur almost exclusively in borrowings from French, English, Greek language, Greek and Latin language, Latin. This is usually because words that had ''c'' and ''ch'' in the original Dutch are spelled with ''k'' and ''g'', respectively, in Afrikaans. Similarly original ''qu'' and ''x'' are most often spelt ''kw'' and ''ks'', respectively. For example, ' instead of ''equatoriaal'', and ' instead of ''excuus''. The vowels with diacritics in non-loanword Afrikaans are: ''á'', ''ä'', ''é'', ''è'', ''ê'', ''ë'', ''í'', ''î'', ''ï'', ''ó'', ''ô'', ''ö'', ''ú'', ''û'', ''ü'', ''ý''. Diacritics are ignored when alphabetising, though they are still important, even when typing the diacritic forms may be difficult. For example, ' ("ate") instead of the 3 e's alongside each other: ''*'', which can never occur in Afrikaans, or ', which translates to "say", whereas ' is a possessive form. The acute's (''á'', ''é'', ''í'', ''ó'', ''ú, ý)'' primary function is to place emphasis on a word (i.e. for emphatic reasons), by adding it to the emphasised syllable of the word. For example, ''sál'' ("will" (verb)), ''néé'' ('no'), ''móét'' ("must"), ''hý'' ("he"), ''gewéét'' ("knew"). The acute is only placed on the ''i'' if it is the only vowel in the emphasised word: ''wil'' ('want' (verb)) becomes ''wíl'', but ''lui'' ('lazy') becomes ''lúi.'' Only a few non-loan words is spelled with acutes, e.g. ''dié'' ('this'), ''ná'' ('after'), ''óf ... óf'' ('either ... or'), ''nóg ... nóg'' ('neither ... nor'), etc. Only four non-loan words are spelled with the grave: ' ('yes?', 'right?', 'eh?'), ' ('here, take this!' or '[this is] yours!'), ''hè'' ('huh?', 'what?', 'eh?'), and ''appèl'' ('(formal) appeal' (noun)).


Initial apostrophes

A few short words in Afrikaans take initial apostrophes. In modern Afrikaans, these words are always written in lower case (except if the entire line is uppercase), and if they occur at the beginning of a sentence, the next word is capitalised. Three examples of such apostrophed words are '. The last (the indefinite article) is the only apostrophed word that is common in modern written Afrikaans, since the other examples are shortened versions of other words (' and ', respectively) and are rarely found outside of a poetic context. Here are a few examples: The apostrophe and the following letter are regarded as two separate characters, and are never written using a single glyph, although a single character variant of the indefinite article appears in Unicode, .


Table of characters

For more on the pronunciation of the letters below, see ''Help:IPA/Afrikaans''.


Afrikaans phrases

Although there are many different dialects and accents, the transcription would be fairly standard. In the Dutch language the word ' means African, in the general sense. Consequently, Afrikaans is commonly denoted as '. This ambiguity also exists in Afrikaans itself and is resolved either in the context of its usage, or by using ' in the adjective sense (e.g. ''Afrika-olifant'' for African elephant). A handful of Afrikaans words are exactly the same as in English. The following Afrikaans sentences, for example, are exactly the same in the two languages, in terms of both their meaning and spelling; only their pronunciation differs. * () * ()


Sample text

Psalm 23 1983 translation: Die Here is my Herder, ek kom niks kort nie. Hy laat my rus in groen weivelde. Hy bring my by waters waar daar vrede is. Hy gee my nuwe krag. Hy lei my op die regte paaie tot eer van Sy naam. Selfs al gaan ek deur donker dieptes, sal ek nie bang wees nie, want U is by my. In U hande is ek veilig. Psalm 23 1953 translation: Die Here is my Herder, niks sal my ontbreek nie. Hy laat my neerlê in groen weivelde; na waters waar rus is, lei Hy my heen. Hy verkwik my siel; Hy lei my in die spore van geregtigheid, om sy Naam ontwil. Al gaan ek ook in 'n dal van doodskaduwee, ek sal geen onheil vrees nie; want U is met my: u stok en u staf die vertroos my. Lord's Prayer (Afrikaans New Living translation) Ons Vader in die hemel, laat U Naam geheilig word. Laat U koningsheerskappy spoedig kom. Laat U wil hier op aarde uitgevoer word soos in die hemel. Gee ons die porsie brood wat ons vir vandag nodig het. En vergeef ons ons sondeskuld soos ons ook óns skuldenaars vergewe het. Bewaar ons sodat ons nie aan verleiding sal toegee nie; en bevry ons van die greep van die bose. Want van U is die koninkryk, en die krag, en die heerlikheid, tot in ewigheid. Amen Lord's Prayer (Original translation): Onse Vader wat in die hemel is, laat U Naam geheilig word; laat U koninkryk kom; laat U wil geskied op die aarde, net soos in die hemel. Gee ons vandag ons daaglikse brood; en vergeef ons ons skulde soos ons ons skuldenaars vergewe en laat ons nie in die versoeking nie maar verlos ons van die bose Want aan U behoort die koninkryk en die krag en die heerlikheid tot in ewigheid. Amen


See also

* ' Arts Festival * Afrikaans literature * Afrikaans speaking population in South Africa *
Arabic Afrikaans Arabic Afrikaans (, ) or Lisan-e-Afrikaans () was a form of Afrikaans written in Arabic script. It began in the 1830s in the madrasa in Cape Town. Beside a 16th-century manuscript in the German language written with Arabic script, it is the on ...
* ' (Afrikaans Dictionary) * Differences between Afrikaans and Dutch * Help:IPA/Afrikaans, IPA/Afrikaans * ' (Arts Festival) * Languages of South Africa * Languages of Zimbabwe#Afrikaans * List of Afrikaans language poets * List of Afrikaans singers * List of English words of Afrikaans origin * South African Translators' Institute *


Notes


References


Citations


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* Grieshaber, Nicky. 2011. ''Diacs and Quirks in a Nutshell – Afrikaans spelling explained''. Pietermaritzburg. ; e-. * *


External links


afrikaans.com

Afrikaans English Online Dictionary at Hablaa
(archived 4 June 2012)
Afrikaans-English Online Dictionary at majstro.com

Learn Afrikaans Online
(Open Learning Environment)
Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge (FAK)
– Federation of Afrikaans Cultural Associations
''Dutch Writers from South Africa: A Cultural-Historical Study, Part I''
from the World Digital Library
''Afrikaans Literature and Language'' Web dossier African Studies Centre, Leiden (2011)
{{Authority control Afrikaans, Analytic languages Articles containing video clips Languages of Botswana Languages of Namibia Languages of South Africa Languages of Eswatini Low Franconian languages Stress-timed languages Subject–object–verb languages Verb-second languages