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Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony 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, ...
) 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 coun ...
,
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, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, 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. 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 **Ge ...
and the Khoisan languages of Southern Africa. Differences with Dutch include a more
analytic Generally speaking, analytic (from el, ἀναλυτικός, ''analytikos'') refers to the "having the ability to analyze" or "division into elements or principles". Analytic or analytical can also have the following meanings: Chemistry * ...
-type morphology 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 ...
between the two languages, especially in written 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. 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 and Western Cape—and the first language of 75.8% of ''Coloured'' South Africans (4.8 million people), 60.8% of White South Africans (2.7 million people), 1.5% of
Black South Africans Racial groups in South Africa have a variety of origins. The racial categories introduced by Apartheid remain ingrained in South African society with South Africans and the South African government continuing to classify themselves, and each o ...
(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 ...
(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, 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 ...
", 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 ...
, a direct transplantation of European Dutch to Southern Africa, and * 'Hottentot Dutch', a pidgin 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 pow ...
. 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 Afrikaners 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 cultu ...
), with up to one-sixth of the community of French Huguenot 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 betwee ...
. 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 C ...
children of European settlers and Khoikhoi women, and slaves contributed to the development of Afrikaans. The slave population was made up of people from East Africa, West Africa,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
, Madagascar, and the Dutch East Indies (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 Gui ...
). A number were also indigenous Khoisan 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 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 coun ...
, written with the Arabic alphabet: see Arabic Afrikaans. 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 ...
, 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, alongside Standard Dutch, which it eventually replaced as an official language. Before the Boer wars, "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 So ...
ended, the Official Languages of the Union Act 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 A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony adm ...
and the Senate, 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 is located on a hill overlooking Paarl in the Western Cape Province. Officially opened on 10 October 1975, it was erected on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Society of Real Afrikaners, 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 duri ...
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 of Afrikaans is the ', compiled by .


The Afrikaans Bible

The Afrikaners primarily were Protestants, of the Dutch Reformed Church 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 Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...
into Afrikaans. While significant advances had been made in the textual criticism of the Bible, especially the Greek New Testament, the 1933 translation followed the Textus Receptus 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 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 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, 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. 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 C ...
Afrikaans religious community that previously had been sceptical of a Bible translation 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's theory of dynamic equivalence 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 let ...
and Anglican 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, D ...
** Germanic *** West Germanic **** Low Franconian ***** Dutch ****** Afrikaans, Dutch-based creoles Afrikaans descended from Dutch dialects in the 17th century. It belongs to a West Germanic sub-group, the Low Franconian languages. 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 **Ge ...
,
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 ...
, the Frisian languages, and the unstandardised languages Low German and Yiddish.


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 (n ...
. Eldoret 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 ...
, 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 ...
,
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. ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
,
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 coun ...
, Canada, the United States, the UAE and Kuwait 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, 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. 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 are derived from Afrikaans, such as '' aardvark'' (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'' 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 ...
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 ...
is the mother tongue 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 ...
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, 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 reduced the amount of television airtime in Afrikaans, while South African Airways dropped its Afrikaans name ' from its livery. Similarly, South Africa's diplomatic missions 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 ...
and Xhosa. 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'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 ('), was built in Paarl, South Africa, in 1975. When the British design magazine '' Wallpaper'' described Afrikaans as "one of the world's ugliest languages" in its September 2005 article about the monument, South African billionaire Johann Rupert (chairman of the
Richemont Group Compagnie Financière Richemont S.A., commonly known as Richemont, is a Switzerland-based luxury goods holding company founded in 1988 by South African businessman Johann Rupert. Through its various subsidiaries, Richemont produces and sells je ...
), responded by withdrawing advertising for brands such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, 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 ...
-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 ...
between the two languages, particularly in written form. Afrikaans acquired some lexical and syntactical borrowings from other languages such as Malay, Khoisan languages, Portuguese, and Bantu languages, and Afrikaans has also been significantly influenced by South African English. 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 Frisian or between Danish and Swedish. The South African poet writer Breyten Breytenbach, attempting to visualise the language distance for
Anglophones Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...
once remarked that the differences between (Standard) Dutch and Afrikaans are comparable to those between the
Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been argument over such questions as the definition of RP, whether it is geo ...
and
Southern American English Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily b ...
.


Current status

Post-apartheid South Africa has seen a loss of preferential treatment by the government for Afrikaans, in terms of education, social events, 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 Established in 1929,http://www.sairr.org.za/profile/ the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) is a research and policy organisation in South Africa. The institute is "one of the oldest liberal institutions in the country". The i ...
(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 Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...
. 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'') and Sharlto Copley (''
District 9 ''District 9'' is a 2009 science fiction mockumentary film directed by Neill Blomkamp in his feature film debut, written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. It is a co-production of New ...
'') promoting their mother tongue. Afrikaans seems to be returning to the SABC.
SABC3 SABC 3 (stylised as S3) is a South African free-to-air public television network owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). It carries programming in English and, few in other South African languages. It has a number of its own re ...
announced early in 2009 that it would increase Afrikaans programming due to the "growing Afrikaans-language market and heirneed for working capital as Afrikaans advertising is the only advertising that sells in the current
South African television Television in South Africa was introduced in 1976. South Africa was relatively late in introducing television broadcasting to its population. History Opposition to introduction The first proposal to introduce television in South Africa was ma ...
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 (41.0%), ǁKaras (36.1%), Erongo (20.5%), Khomas (18.5%), Omaheke (10.0%), Otjozondjupa (9.4%), Kunene (4.2%), and
Oshikoto Oshikoto is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, named after Lake Otjikoto. Its capital is Omuthiya. The city of Tsumeb, Otjikoto's capital until 2008, and the towns of Omuthiya and Oniipa are also situated in this region. , Oshikoto had 112,1 ...
(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 ...
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 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 A modal verb is a type of verb that contextually indicates a modality such as a ''likelihood'', ''ability'', ''permission'', ''request'', ''capacity'', ''suggestion'', ''order'', ''obligation'', or ''advice''. Modal verbs generally accompany the b ...
, 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 dialects in
West Flanders West Flanders ( nl, West-Vlaanderen ; vls, West Vloandern; french: (Province de) Flandre-Occidentale ; german: Westflandern ) is the westernmost province of the Flemish Region, in Belgium. It is the only coastal Belgian province, facing the No ...
and in some "isolated" villages in the centre of the Netherlands (such as
Garderen Garderen is a village in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is located in the municipality of Barneveld, in the forests of the Veluwe. The village has 1,994 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2008). Garderen was a separate municipality until 1818, ...
), 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 linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived fro ...
. 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 hehospital, 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 and Free State provinces.


Diphthongs

* occur mainly in loanwords.


Consonants

* All obstruents at the ends of words are 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 Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also '' Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. ...
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, 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 '' 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 The Cape Peninsula ( af, Kaapse Skiereiland) is a generally mountainous peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Ca ...
of South Africa. was once spoken by all population groups. However, it became increasingly restricted to the
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 C ...
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 ...
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 Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...
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 community of
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...
, 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 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 Gui ...
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), 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 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 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 ''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 Lobolo or lobola in Zulu, Swazi, Xhosa, Silozi, Shona and northern and southern Ndebele (''mahadi'' in Sesotho, ''magadi'' in Setswana, ''lovola'' in Xitsonga), and ''mamalo'' in Tshivenda language, sometimes referred to as " bride wealth" o ...
'' of the Nguni languages * , the grey crowned crane, known in Latin as ''Balearica regulorum'' * , medium-sized dioecious tree known in Latin as ''
Sclerocarya birrea ''Sclerocarya birrea'' ( grc, σκληρός , "hard", and , "nut", in reference to the stone inside the fleshy fruit), commonly known as the marula, is a medium-sized deciduous fruit-bearing tree, indigenous to the miombo woodlands of S ...
'' * , species of thatching grass known as ''
Hyparrhenia ''Hyparrhenia'' is a genus of grasses. Many species are known commonly as thatching grass. They are mostly native to tropical Africa; some can be found in warmer areas in temperate Eurasia, Australia, and Latin America. These are annual and per ...
'' * , deciduous tree also known by its
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
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 coun ...
, for it marked the beginning of the great Huguenot exodus from
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. It is estimated that between 250,000 and 300,000 Protestants left France between 1685 and 1700; out of these, according to 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 Henry Canova Vollam Morton (known as H. V. Morton), (26 July 1892 – 18 June 1979) was a journalist and pioneering travel writer from Lancashire, England. He was best known for his many books on London, Great Britain and the Holy Land. He f ...
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, using the 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet, plus 16 additional vowels with
diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...
s. 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 of words, while the indefinite article '' ʼn'' is a 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
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carr ...
' 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 In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. That emphasis is typically caused by such properties as i ...
, . 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 and
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
. 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 ' his isyours!'), ''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 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'' ...
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 The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...
(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 The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...
(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 * ' (Afrikaans Dictionary) * Differences between Afrikaans and Dutch * IPA/Afrikaans * ' (Arts Festival) * Languages of South Africa * Languages of Zimbabwe#Afrikaans * List of Afrikaans language poets *
List of Afrikaans singers This is a list of notable singers who have performed in the Afrikaans language. Solo artists are alphabetised by their stage name or surname—whichever is more common. Choirs that sing in Afrikaans are also included in the list, but other musi ...
*
List of English words of Afrikaans origin Words of Afrikaans origin have entered other languages. British English has absorbed Afrikaans words primarily via British soldiers who served in the Boer Wars. Many more words have entered common usage in South African English due to the parall ...
* 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 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