Afrikaans facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Afrikaans
Native to	South Africa, Namibia
Native speakers	6.86 million (South Africa)  (2011 Census) Total: 15–23 million
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Low Franconian Dutch Afrikaans
Official status
Official language in	South Africa
Recognised minority language in	Namibia
Regulated by	Die Taalkommissie
Linguasphere	52-ACB-ba
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Afrikaans ( af-RIH-kahnss ahf---,_---kahnz) 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 people enslaved by them. An estimated 90% to 95% of the vocabulary is of Dutch origin, with adopted words from other languages, including German and the Khoisan languages of Southern Africa.

Now spoken in South Africa, Namibia and (to a lesser extent) Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, estimates c. 2010 of the total number of Afrikaans speakers range between 15 and 23 million. 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 is offered at many universities outside South Africa, including in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Russia and the United States.

Etymology

The name of the language comes directly from the Dutch word Afrikaansch (now spelled Afrikaans) 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.

Den Besten theorises that modern Standard Afrikaans derives from two sources:

• Cape Dutch, 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.

Thus in his view Afrikaans is neither a creole nor a direct descendant of Dutch, but a fusion of two transmission pathways.

Development

Standard Dutch used in a 1916 South African newspaper before Afrikaans replaced it for use in media

Most of the first settlers whose descendants today are the Afrikaners were from the United Provinces (now Netherlands), with up to one-sixth of the community of French Huguenot origin, and a seventh from Germany.

African and Asian workers, Cape Coloured 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, Madagascar, and the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia). A number were also indigenous Khoisan people, who were valued as interpreters, domestic servants, and labourers. Many free and enslaved women married or cohabited with 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 schools in South Africa, written with the Arabic alphabet: see Arabic Afrikaans. Later, Afrikaans, now written with the Latin script, 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 Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaaners ("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', suitable for communication mainly between the Boers and their servants."

Recognition

"Dit is ons erns" ("This is our passion"), at the Afrikaans Language Monument

In 1925, Afrikaans was recognised by the South African government as a distinct language, rather than simply a vernacular of Dutch. On 8 May 1925, twenty-three years after the Second Boer War ended, the Official Languages of the Union Act of 1925 was passed—mostly due to the efforts of the Afrikaans-language movement—at a joint sitting of the House of Assembly 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.

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 wees ("to be"), the modal verbs, and the verb dink ("to think"). The preterite of mag ("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 ontkennende vorm and is something that is absent from the other West Germanic standard languages. For example,

Afrikaans: Hy kan nie Afrikaans praat nie, lit. 'He can not Afrikaans speak not'

Dutch: Hij spreekt geen Afrikaans.

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 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:

Afrikaans: Ek wil nie dit doen nie.^* (lit. I want not this do not.)

Dutch: Ik wil dit niet doen.

English: I do not want to do this.

^* Compare with Ek wil dit nie doen nie, which changes the meaning to "I want not to do this." Whereas Ek wil nie dit doen nie emphasizes a lack of desire to act, Ek wil dit nie doen nie emphasizes the act itself.

The -ne was the Middle Dutch way to negate but it has been suggested that since -ne became highly non-voiced, nie or niet was needed to complement the -ne. With time the -ne 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.

Afrikaans: Hy is in die hospitaal, maar hy eet nie.

Dutch: Hij is in het ziekenhuis, maar hij eet niet.

English: He is in [the] hospital, though he eats not.

Certain words in Afrikaans would be contracted. For example, moet nie, which literally means "must not", usually becomes moenie; although one does not have to write or say it like this, virtually all Afrikaans speakers will change the two words to moenie in the same way as do not is contracted to don't in English.

The Dutch word het ("it" in English) does not correspond to het in Afrikaans. The Dutch words corresponding to Afrikaans het are heb, hebt, heeft and hebben.

Dialects

A warning sign in Afrikaans: Gevaar Slagysters or "Danger, Traps".

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 Khoekhoe 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.

Kaapse Afrikaans

The term Kaapse Afrikaans (transl. 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. Kaapse Afrikaans was once spoken by all population groups. However, it became increasingly restricted to the Cape Coloured ethnic group in Cape Town and surrounds. Kaapse Afrikaans is still understood by the large majority of native Afrikaans speakers in South Africa.

Kaapse Afrikaans preserves some features more similar to Dutch than to Afrikaans.

• The first-person singular pronoun ik as in Dutch as opposed to Afrikaans ek.
• The diminutive endings -tje, pronounced as in Dutch and not as as in Afrikaans.
• The use of the form seg (compare Dutch zegt) as opposed to Afrikaans sê.

Kaapse Afrikaans has some other features not typically found in Afrikaans.

• The pronunciation of j, normally as in Dutch is often a. This is the strongest feature of Kaapse Afrikaans.
• The insertion of after and when followed by e.g. kjen as opposed to Standard Afrikaans ken.

Kaapse Afrikaans is also characterised by much code-switching between South African English and Afrikaans, especially in the inner-city and areas in Cape Town with lower socio-economic status.

An example of characteristic Kaapse Afrikaans:

Dutch: En ik zeg (tegen) jullie: wat zoeken jullie hier bij mij? Ik zoek jullie niet! Nee, ga nu weg!

Kaapse Afrikaans: En ik seg ve' djille, wat soek djille hie' by my? Ik soek'ie ve' djille nie! Nei, gaat nou weg!

Afrikaans: 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 don't want you! No, go away now!

Oranjerivierafrikaans

The term Oranjerivierafrikaans ("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 Oranjerivierafrikaans are the plural form -goed (Ma-goed, meneergoed), variant pronunciation such as in kjerk ("Church") and gjeld ("money") and the ending -se, which indicates possession.

Patagonian Afrikaans dialect

A distinct dialect of Afrikaans is spoken by the 650-strong 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 Classical Malay words were brought into Afrikaans. Some of these words entered Dutch via people arriving from what is now known as Indonesia as part of their colonial heritage. Malay words in Afrikaans include:

• baie, which means 'very'/'much'/'many' (from banyak) is a very commonly used Afrikaans word, different from its Dutch equivalent veel or erg.
• baadjie, Afrikaans for jacket (from baju, ultimately from Persian), used where Dutch would use jas or vest. The word baadje 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.
• piesang, which means banana. This is different from the common Dutch word banaan. The Indonesian word pisang is also used in Dutch, though usage is more common.
• piering, which means saucer (from piring, also from Persian).

Portuguese

Some words originally came from Portuguese such as sambreel ("umbrella") from the Portuguese sombreiro, kraal ("pen/cattle enclosure") from the Portuguese curral and mielie ("corn", from milho). Some of these words also exist in Dutch, like sambreel "parasol", though usage is less common and meanings can slightly differ.

Khoisan languages

• geitjie, meaning lizard, diminutive adapted from a Khoekhoe word
• gogga, meaning insect, from the Khoisan xo-xo
• karos, blanket of animal hides
• kierie, walking stick from Khoekhoe

Some of these words also exist in Dutch, though with a more specific meaning: assegaai for example means "South-African tribal javelin" and karos means "South-African tribal blanket of animal hides".

Bantu languages

Loanwords from Bantu languages in Afrikaans include the names of indigenous birds, such as mahem and sakaboela, and indigenous plants, such as maroela and tamboekie(gras).

• fundi, from the Zulu word umfundi 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 fundi.
• lobola, meaning bride price, from (and referring to) lobolo of the Nguni languages
• mahem, the grey crowned crane, known in Latin as Balearica regulorum
• maroela, medium-sized dioecious tree known in Latin as Sclerocarya birrea
• tamboekiegras, species of thatching grass known as Hyparrhenia
• tambotie, deciduous tree also known by its Latin name, Spirostachys africana
• tjaila / tjailatyd, an adaption of the word chaile, 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, for it marked the beginning of the great 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 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, 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 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, slechts ('only') in Dutch becomes slegs 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 zuid in Dutch, it is spelled suid in Afrikaans (as well as dialectal Dutch writings) to represent this merger. Similarly, the Dutch digraph ij, normally pronounced as corresponds to Afrikaans y, except where it replaces the Dutch suffix –lijk which is pronounced as as in waarschijnlijk > waarskynlik.

Another difference is the indefinite article, 'n in Afrikaans and een in Dutch. "A book" is 'n boek in Afrikaans, whereas it is either een boek or 'n boek in Dutch. This 'n is usually pronounced as just a weak vowel just like English "a".

The diminutive suffix in Afrikaans is -tjie, -djie or -ie, whereas in Dutch it is -tje or dje, hence a "bit" is ʼn bietjie in Afrikaans and beetje in Dutch.

The letters c, q, x, and z occur almost exclusively in borrowings from French, English, Greek and 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, ekwatoriaal instead of equatoriaal, and ekskuus 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, geëet ("ate") instead of the 3 e's alongside each other: *geeet, which can never occur in Afrikaans, or sê, which translates to "say", whereas se 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 are 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: nè ('yes?', 'right?', 'eh?'), dè ('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 'k, 't, 'n. 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 (ek and het, 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, ʼn.

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 Afrikaans means African, in the general sense. Consequently, Afrikaans is commonly denoted as Zuid-Afrikaans. This ambiguity also exists in Afrikaans itself and is resolved either in the context of its usage, or by using Afrika- 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.

• My pen was in my hand.
• My hand is in warm water.

Sample text

Psalm 23 1983 translation:

Psalm 23 1953 translation:

Lord's Prayer (Afrikaans New Living translation)

Lord's Prayer (Original translation):

Related pages

• Afrikaans Language Monument
• Elisabeth Eybers

See also

In Spanish: Afrikáans para niños