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Afrikaans

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Languages

   Afrikaans
   Spoken in: South Africa and Namibia
   Region: Southern Africa
   Total speakers: 16 million +
   Language family: Indo-European
     Germanic
      West Germanic
       Low Franconian
       Afrikaans
   Official status
   Official language of: South Africa
   Regulated by: Die Taalkommissie
   (The Language Commission of the South African Academy for Science and
   Arts)
   Language codes
   ISO 639-1: af
   ISO 639-2: afr
   ISO/FDIS 639-3: afr
   Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA
   chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

   Afrikaans is a Low Franconian language mainly spoken in South Africa
   and Namibia with smaller numbers of speakers in Botswana, Lesotho,
   Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Due to the emigration of many
   Afrikaners, there are an additional estimated 300,000
   Afrikaans-speakers in the United Kingdom, with other substantial
   communities found in Brussels, Belgium; Amsterdam, the Netherlands;
   Perth, Australia; Toronto, Canada; and Auckland, New Zealand. It is the
   primary language used by two related ethnic groups: the Afrikaners and
   the Coloureds or kleurlinge/bruinmense (including Basters, Cape Malays
   and Griqua). These two groups are collectively known as Afrikaanses,
   roughly meaning "the language community of Afrikaans-speakers". It is
   also spoken as a first language by many Tswana people in South Africa's
   North West Province.

   Geographically, the Afrikaans language is the majority language of the
   western one-third of South Africa ( Northern and Western Cape, spoken
   at home by 69% and 58%, respectively). It is also the largest first
   language in the adjacent southern one-third of Namibia ( Hardap and
   Karas, where it is the first language of 43% and 41%, respectively). It
   is the most widely used second language throughout both of these
   countries for the population as a whole, although the younger
   generation has better proficiency in English.

   The name Afrikaans is simply the Dutch word for African, i.e. the
   African form of the Dutch language. The dialect became known as " Cape
   Dutch". Later, Afrikaans was sometimes also referred to as "African
   Dutch" or "Kitchen Dutch", although some now consider these terms
   pejorative. Afrikaans was considered a Dutch dialect until the late
   19th century, when it began to be recognised as a distinct language,
   and it gained equal status with Dutch and English as an official
   language in South Africa in 1925. Dutch remained an official language
   until the new 1961 constitution finally stipulated the two official
   languages in South Africa to be Afrikaans and English (although,
   curiously, the 1961 constitution still had a sub-clause stipulating
   that the word "Afrikaans" was also meant to be referring to the Dutch
   language). The 1925 decision led Dutch to enter disuse and be replaced
   by Afrikaans for all purposes.

   There are basically three dialects, of which the northeastern variant
   (which developed into a literary language in the Transvaal) forms the
   basis of the written standard. Within the Dutch-speaking zones of the
   Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname, there is greater divergence among
   the dialects than there is between standard Dutch and standard
   Afrikaans. Although Afrikaans knows some typical Hollandic tones, there
   particularly exist striking similarities between Afrikaans and Zeeuws
   (the dialect of the Zeeland province of the Netherlands which has also
   similarities with West Flemish). Zeeland is a coastal province of the
   Netherlands and most of the Dutch spoken in former Dutch colonies is
   very much influenced by Zeeuws/the Zeeland dialect as many people from
   Zeeland were involved in The Netherlands' emperial/colonial expansion.

   It was originally the dialect that developed among the Afrikaner
   Protestant settlers and the indentured or slave workforce brought to
   the Cape area in southwestern South Africa by the Dutch East India
   Company (Dutch: Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie — VOC, Afrikaans:
   Nederlandse Oos-Indiese Kompanjie - NOIK) between 1652 and 1705. A
   relative majority of these first settlers were from the United
   Provinces (now Netherlands), though there were also many from Germany,
   a considerable number from France, and some from Norway, Portugal,
   Scotland, and various other countries. The indentured workers and
   slaves were South Indians, Malays, and Malagasy in addition to the
   indigenous Khoi and Bushmen.

History

   Afrikaans is linguistically closely related to 17th and 18th century
   Dutch dialects spoken in North and South Holland and, by extension, to
   modern Dutch. Today, speakers of each language can make themselves
   understood fairly easily by speakers of the other.

   Afrikaans grammar and spelling is simpler than that of Dutch, in the
   same sense and to approximately the same degree that English grammar is
   simpler than German grammar. Afrikaans also has a more diverse
   vocabulary, including words of English, Indian, Malay, Malagasy, Khoi,
   San and Bantu origins. Other closely related languages include Low
   German spoken in northern Germany and the Netherlands, German, and
   English. Cape Dutch vocabulary diverged from the Dutch vocabulary
   spoken in the Netherlands over time as Cape Dutch absorbed words from
   other European settlers, slaves from East India and Indonesia's Malay,
   and native African languages. Research by J. A. Heese indicates that as
   of 1807, 36.8% of the ancestors of the White Afrikaans speaking
   population were of Dutch ancestry, 35% were German, 14.6% were French
   and 7.2% non-white (of African and/or Asian origins). Heese's figures
   are questioned by other researchers, however, and the non-white
   component, in particular, quoted by Heese is very doubtful.

Standardization of Afrikaans

   The linguist Paul Roberge suggests that the earliest "truly Afrikaans"
   texts are doggerel verse from 1795 and a dialogue transcribed by a
   Dutch traveller in 1825. Printed material among the Afrikaners at first
   used only proper European Dutch. By the mid-19th century, more and more
   were appearing in Afrikaans, which was very much still regarded as a
   set of spoken regional dialects.

   In 1861, LH Meurant published his Zamenspraak tusschen Klaas Waarzegger
   en Jan Twyfelaar, which is considered by some to be the first
   authoritative Afrikaans text. Abu Bakr Effendi also compiled his Arabic
   Afrikaans Islamic instruction book between 1862 and 1869, although this
   was only published and printed in 1877. The first Afrikaans grammars
   and dictionaries were published in 1875 by the Genootskap vir Regte
   Afrikaners ("Society for Real Afrikaners") in Cape Town.

   The Boer Wars further strengthened the position of the new Dutch-like
   language. The official languages of the Union of South Africa were
   English and Dutch until Afrikaans was subsumed under Dutch on 5 May
   1925.

   The main Afrikaans dictionary is the Verklarende Handwoordeboek van die
   Afrikaanse Taal.

Difference between Dutch and Afrikaans

   Besides vocabulary, the most striking difference between Dutch and
   Afrikaans is its much more regular grammar, which is likely the result
   of extensive contact with one or more creole languages based on the
   Dutch language spoken by the relatively large number of non-Dutch
   speakers ( Khoikhoi, German, French, Cape Malay, and speakers of
   different African languages) during the formation period of the
   language in the second half of the 17th century. In 1710, slaves
   outnumbered free settlers, and the language was developing among
   speakers who had little occasion to write or analyse their new dialect.

   There are many different theories about how Afrikaans came to be. The
   Afrikaans School has long seen Afrikaans as a natural development from
   the South-Hollandic Dutch dialect, but has also only considered the
   Afrikaans as spoken by the Whites. The Afrikaans School has also
   rejected all alternative ideas.

   Most linguistics scholars today are certain that Afrikaans has been
   influenced by creole based on the South-Holland Dutch dialect. It is
   hard to trace this influence as there is no material written in
   Dutch-based creole languages besides a few sentences found in unrelated
   books often written by non-speakers.

   Although much of the vocabulary of Afrikaans reflects its origins in
   17th century South Hollandic Dutch, it also contains words borrowed
   from Asian Malay (one of the oldest known Afrikaans texts used Arabic
   script; see Arabic Afrikaans), Malagasy, Portuguese, French, Khoi and
   San dialects, English, Xhosa and many other languages. Consequently,
   many words in Afrikaans are very different from Dutch, as demonstrated
   by the names of different fruits:
    Afrikaans      Dutch     English
   piesang*     banaan      banana
   pynappel     ananas      pineapple
   lemoen       sinaasappel orange
   suurlemoen** citroen     lemon

   * from Malay pisang (via Dutch East Indies history), Piesang is also
   used in The Netherlands and Indonesia.
   ** suur = sour (which is essentially the same as the Dutch word
   'zuur'). Lemoen or limoen is also used in standard Dutch.
   Provinces of South Africa in which a majority of the population are
   Afrikaans native speakers. Other provinces also have significant
   numbers of speakers.
   Enlarge
   Provinces of South Africa in which a majority of the population are
   Afrikaans native speakers. Other provinces also have significant
   numbers of speakers.

Grammar

Orthography

   Written Afrikaans differs from Dutch in that the spelling reflects a
   phonetically simplified language, and so many consonants are dropped
   (see also the grammar section for a description of how consonant
   dropping affects the morphology of Afrikaans adjectives and nouns). The
   spelling is also considerably more phonetic than the Dutch counterpart.
   A notable feature is the indefinite article, which, as noted in the
   grammar section, is "'n", not "een" as in Dutch. "A book" is "'n Boek",
   whereas in Dutch it would be "een boek". (Note that "'n" is still
   allowed in Dutch; Afrikaans uses only "'n" where Dutch uses it next to
   "een". When letters are dropped an apostrophe is mandatory. Note that
   this "'n" is usually pronounced as a weak vowel (like the Afrikaans
   "i") and is not as a consonant.

   Other features include the use of 's' instead of 'z', and therefore,
   'South Africa' in Afrikaans is written as Suid-Afrika, whereas in Dutch
   it is Zuid-Afrika. (This accounts for .za being used as South Africa's
   internet top level domain.) The Dutch letter 'IJ' is written as 'Y',
   except where it replaces the Dutch suffix —lijk, as in waarschijnlijk =
   waarskynlik. Interesting to note that the use of the hard "k" is
   analogous to the pronunciation in parts of Flanders, which was once
   part of the United Provinces, and whence many an Afrikaner came. Also
   surprising for many Dutch is the double negative, which could possibly
   be attributed to the French origins of many Afrikaners: Moenie rook nie
   ("Do not smoke not") — Do not smoke; compare to the French "Ne fumez
   pas".

Comparison with Dutch, German and English

   Afrikaans Dutch German English
   ag(t) acht acht eight
   aksie actie/aktie Aktion action
   asseblief alstublieft/alsjeblieft
   (lit. "als het u/je belieft) bitte
   (Afrikaans lit. trans. = "wenn es dir beliebt") please
   (lit. "if it pleases you" - compare archaic " lief")
   bed bed Bett bed
   dankie dank je/dank u danke thank you
   eggenoot echtgenoot Ehegatte (lit. "Ehegenosse") spouse (Latin root)
   goeienaand goedenavond
   goeienavond guten Abend good evening
   lughawe luchthaven
   vliegveld Flughafen airport (Latinate root)
   my mij/mijn mein my
   maak maak machen make
   nege negen neun nine
   oes oogst Ernte (Herbst=autumn) harvest
   oop open offen open
   oormôre overmorgen übermorgen the day after tomorrow (lit.
   "overmorrow")
   reën regen regen rain
   saam tesamen/samen zusammen together (compare "same")
   ses zes sechs six
   sewe zeven sieben seven
   skool school Schule school
   sleg slecht schlecht bad (compare "slight")
   vir voor für for
   voël vogel Vogel bird, fowl
   vry vrij frei free
   vyf vijf fünf five
   waarskynlik waarschijnlijk wahrscheinlich likely (alternate root),
   probably (Latin root)
   winter winter Winter winter
   ys ijs Eis ice

Sociolinguistics

   Afrikaans is the first language of approximately 60% of South Africa's
   Whites, and over 90% of the " Coloured" (mixed-race) population. Large
   numbers of black South Africans, Indians, and English-speaking whites (
   Anglo-Africans) also speak it as a second language.

   It is also widely spoken in Namibia, where it has had constitutional
   recognition as a national, not official, language since independence in
   1990. Prior to independence, Afrikaans, along with German, had equal
   status as an official language. There is a much smaller number of
   Afrikaans speakers among Zimbabwe's white minority, as most left the
   country in 1980.

   Many South Africans living and working in Belgium, The Netherlands,
   Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States and the United
   Kingdom are also Afrikaans speakers.

   Afrikaans has been influential in the development of South African
   English. Many Afrikaans loanwords have found their way into South
   African English, such as "bakkie" ("pickup truck"), " braai"
   ("barbecue"), "takkies" ("sneakers", in Afrikaans tekkies). A few words
   in standard English are derived from Afrikaans, such as " trek"
   ("pioneering journey", in Afrikaans lit."pull" but used also for
   "migrate"), "spoor" ("animal track"), "veld" ("Southern African
   grassland" in Afrikaans lit. "field"), "boomslang" ("tree snake") and
   apartheid ("apartness").

   In 1976, high school students in Soweto began a rebellion that
   contributed to the end of apartheid and the whites-only government of
   South Africa. This has been credited to that government's decision that
   Afrikaans rather than English be used as the language of instruction in
   non-White schools. However, many historians argue that the language
   issue was a catalyst for the rebellion rather than a major underlying
   cause (which was racial oppression). Afrikaans is more widely spoken
   than English (and is, in fact, spoken by a majority of residents in two
   of South Africa's nine provinces), so children may not have objected to
   the use of Afrikaans, per se. Some argue that it was the further
   directive, within the instructional language directive, that non-White
   (i.e., Black, Coloured and Indian) South African children be denied
   instruction in all but the most basic topics of mathematics, sciences,
   fine arts etc., on the theory they would never need to know those
   subjects because they would never have the occasion to use such an
   education; see History of South Africa.

   Under South Africa's democratic Constitution of 1996, Afrikaans remains
   an official language, and in addition to English, there are nine other
   official languages with which it now has equal status. The new
   dispensation means that Afrikaans is often downgraded 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 Suid-Afrikaanse Lugdiens from its livery. Similarly,
   South Africa's diplomatic missions overseas now only display the name
   of the country in English and their host country's language, and not in
   Afrikaans.

   In spite of these moves (which have upset many Afrikaans speakers), the
   language has remained strong, with Afrikaans newspapers and magazines
   continuing to have large circulation figures. Indeed the Huisgenoot, an
   Afrikaans language general interest family magazine, is the magazine
   with the largest readership in the country. In addition, a pay-TV
   channel in Afrikaans called KykNet was launched in 1999 and an
   Afrikaans music channel, MK89, in 2005. A large number of Afrikaans
   books also continue to be published every year.

   Although Afrikaans has diverged from Dutch over the past three
   centuries, it still shares approximately 85 per cent of its vocabulary
   with that language, and Afrikaans speakers are able to learn Dutch
   within a comparatively short period of time. Native Dutch speakers pick
   up Afrikaans even more quickly, due to its simplified grammar. This has
   enabled Dutch companies to outsource their call centre operations to
   South Africa, thereby taking advantage of lower labour costs.

International view of Afrikaans

   Outside of South Africa, there is a growing interest in the Afrikaans
   language, and it is currently taught at universities in Germany,
   Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia
   and Uzbekistan.

   Nevertheless, the language is sometimes regarded with contempt. When
   the British design magazine Wallpaper* described Afrikaans as "the
   ugliest language in the world" (with reference to the Afrikaans
   Language Monument), South African billionaire Johann Rupert (chairman
   of the Richemont group), responded by withdrawing advertising for
   brands such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Montblanc and Alfred
   Dunhill from the magazine .

   In 2061: Odyssey Three, Arthur C. Clarke states that Afrikaans is the
   world's best language to curse in, and that even relatively innocent
   conversation is "damaging to innocent bystanders."

Afrikaans phrases

   Afrikaans is a very centralised language, meaning that most of the
   vowels are pronounced in a very centralised (i.e. very schwa-like) way.
   There are many different dialects and different pronunciations — but
   the transcription should be fairly standard.
     * Hallo! Hoe gaan dit? [ɦaləu ɦu xaˑn dət] Hello! How are you?
     * Baie goed, dankie. [bajə xuˑt danki] Very well, thanks.
     * Praat jy Afrikaans? [prɑˑt jəi afrikɑˑns] Do you speak Afrikaans?
     * Praat jy Engels? [prɑˑt jəi ɛŋəls] Do you speak English?
     * Ja. [jɑˑ] Yes.
     * Nee. [neˑə] No.
     * 'n Bietjie. [ə biki] A little.
     * Wat is jou naam? [vat əs jəu nɑˑm] What is your name?
     * Die kinders praat Afrikaans. [di kənərs prɑˑt afrikɑˑns] The
       children speak Afrikaans.

   An interesting sentence having the same meaning and written (but not
   pronounced) identically in Afrikaans and English is:
     * My pen was in my hand. ([məi pɛn vas ən məi hɑnt])

   Similarly the sentence:
     * My hand is in warm water. ([məi hɑnt əs ən varəm vɑˑtər])

   has almost identical meaning in Afrikaans and English although the
   Afrikaans warm corresponds more closely in meaning to English hot and
   Dutch heet (Dutch warm corresponds to English warm, but is closer to
   Afrikaans in pronunciation).

Additional information

     * Afrikaans has a monument erected in its honour. The Afrikaans
       Language Monument (Afrikaanse Taalmonument) is located near the
       Western Cape Province town of Paarl.
     * The letters c, q and x are rarely seen in Afrikaans, and words
       containing them are almost exclusively borrowings from French,
       English, Greek or Latin. This is usually because words which had c
       and ch in the original Dutch are spelt with k and g repectively in
       Afrikaans (in many dialects of Dutch (including the Hollandic
       ones), a ch is spoken as a g, which explains the use of the g in
       Afrikaans language). Similarly original qu and x are spelt kw and
       ks respectively. For example ekwatoriaal instead of "equatoriaal"
       and ekskuus instead of "excuus".
     * Afrikaans uses 26 letters, just like English, although it makes use
       of various punctuation marks to modify a letter: è, é, ê, ë, î, ï,
       ô, û, these should not however be regarded as special characters in
       addition to the 26 normal letters. ŉ is also regarded as two
       separate characters, and the "n" in 'n may never be written in
       upper case. When used at the beginning of a sentence, the second
       word's first letter should be capitalized. ŉ is the Afrikaans
       equivalent of the English "a" eg: Ek het ŉ hond (I have a dog).

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaans"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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