The Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners (

Afrikaans 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) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

for "Society of True Afrikaners") was formed on 14 August 1875 in the town of Paarl by a group of

speakers from the current

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 ...

region. From 15 January 1876 the society published a journal in Afrikaans called '' Die Afrikaanse Patriot'' ("The Afrikaans Patriot") as well as a number of books, including grammars, dictionaries, religious material and histories. ''Die Afrikaanse Patriot'' was succeeded in 1905 by today's Paarl newspaper. Arnoldus Pannevis, a teacher, is generally considered to be the spiritual father of the society. He had observed that most of the South Africans from Dutch descent could not speak the "pure" form of their original mother tongue anymore. In the course of its (then) 200-year-old history, the language of the immigrants from 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 ...

had been thoroughly changed by the influence of other

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an immigrants, indigenous tribes such as the Khoikhoi, and especially the

Cape Malays 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 ...

. In 1874 Pannevis expressed these views in the journal '' de Zuid-Afrikaan'' under the title "''Is die Afferkaans wesenlijk een taal?''" The eight founding members were Gideon Malherbe, the Dutch immigrant CP Hoogenhout, DF du Toit^AF (nicknamed ''Dokter'', i.e. "Doctor"), a journalist coincidentally named Daniel Francois du Toit^AF (nicknamed ''Oom Lokomotief'', i.e. "Uncle Locomotive"), his brother Rev SJ du Toit, August Ahrbeck, Petrus Malherbe and SG du Toit. Everybody except Hoogenhout and Ahrbeck were related. Many of them were of

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 ...

descent. On 14 August 1975 the ''Afrikaans Language Museum'' was opened in the former house of Gideon Malherbe in Paarl, the building in which the Society was founded. The Afrikaans Language Monument was also opened in Paarl in 1975, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Society.

References

External links

Afrikaans Museum and Monument
* 1875 establishments in the British Empire Afrikaans Afrikaner organizations Afrikaans words and phrases History of South Africa Organizations established in 1875 {{SouthAfrica-org-stub