Afrikaans

Introduction

Afrikaans (also called Cape Dutch) is a West Germanic language spoken in South Africa and Namibia. The name Afrikaans comes from the Dutch word for "African." It was originally used by the Dutch settlers and indentured workers brought to the Cape area in southwestern South Africa by the Dutch East India Company between 1652 and 1705. Most of the settlers were from the Netherlands, but there were also settlers from Germany, France, Scotland, and other countries. The indentured workers and slaves were Malays and the indigenous workers were Khoi and San. Afrikaans was considered a Dutch dialect until the early 20th century. In 1925, it was officially proclaimed to be a distinct language from Dutch.

South Africa
Afrikaans is an official language of South Africa where it is spoken by 6.2 million people as a first and by over 10 million people as a second language (Ethnologue). It is taught in primary and secondary schools, and used in electronic and print media.

trees Before 1925, when Afrikaans was proclaimed to be a language separate from Dutch, the official languages of the Union of South Africa were English and Dutch. Dutch was replaced as an official language by Afrikaans. Today, it is once again being marginalized, this time by Bantu languages spoken by a large percentage of the population.

Namibia
Afrikaans is 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.

Afrikaans is also spoken in Australia, Botswana, Canada, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, New Zealand, Zambia, Zimbabwe (Ethnologue).

Dialects

Woman and Child Standard Afrikaans is based on the Cape variety. Afrikaans has several geographical variations that include both grammar and lexicon. For instance, Northwestern Afrikaans has a significant number of Khoikhoi words, while Southwestern Afrikaans has a larger number of Malay, English, and Portuguese vocabulary items.

Structure

Sound System

Afrikaans phonology is similar to that of Dutch. Like Dutch, it has a large vowel inventory, and a relatively simple consonant system.

Vowels	Consonants
Most Afrikaans vowels can be either short or long. Vowel length makes a difference in word meaning. Like Dutch, Afrikaans has a large number of diphongs.	Afrikaans has twenty-two consonants. Like Dutch, Afrikaans devoices all paired consonants at the end of words, e.g., baard "beard" is pronounced as /baart/. Many consonant clusters present in Dutch are simplified in Afrikaans.

Stress
Long vowels and diphthongs are typically stressed.

Click here to listen to the pronunciation of some common phrases in Afrikaans.

Grammar

Grammar
Afrikaans grammar is closely related to the grammar of modern Dutch. However, it has several features that distinguish it from Dutch spoken in the Netherlands.

Nouns	Verbs
There are no cases. Nouns are not marked for gender. There is only one definite article die for all nouns in the singular and plural. Possession is expressed by the particle se, e.g., Desmond se huis "Desmond's house."	Verbs do not conjugate depending on the subject. Negation is expressed by using the particle nie which is repeated after the verb, e.g., hy het niks gedoen nie (literally, "he did nothing do not," i.e., "he didn't do anything"). Compound tenses are formed by using auxiliary verbs het, is, sal, and word.

Word order
The normal word order in Afrikaans is Subject-Verb-Object in the main clause, and Subject-Object-Verb in the subordinate clause if it follows the main clause. If the subordinate clause precedes the main clause, the word order for the main clause is Verb-Subject-Object.

Vocabulary

child drinking soda

child

children smiling

children

Although Afrikaans has diverged from Dutch over the past three centuries, it still shares approximately over three-quarters of its vocabulary with Dutch. Over a period of time, Afrikaans has borrowed words from the languages of other European settlers, East Indian slaves, and native African languages. Here is an example:

Dutch	Afrikaans	English
banaan	piesang from Malay pisang	banana

Below is a list of common phrases and words in Afrikaans

Hallo	Hello
Totsiens	Goodbye
Asseblief	Please
Dankie	Thank you
Jammer	Sorry
Ja	Yes
Nee	No
Mens	Man
Vrou	Woman

Click here to listen to sample dialogues in Afrikaans.

The numerals 1-10 in Afrikaans are given below.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
een	twee	drie	vier	vyf	ses	sewe	agt	nege	tien

Writing

unicorn

Writing system
Afrikaans is written with the Latin alphabet consisting of 26 letters.

c, q, x, and z are used almost excusively in foreign words.
Long vowels are represented by double letters, e.g., nee "no."
The letter g represents a velar fricative /x/ as in Bach or Loch.
'n represents the indefinite article (equivalent to Dutch "een").

Below is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Afrikaans to give you a sense of Afrikaans vocabulary..

Universele Verklaring van Menseregte
Artikel 1
Alle menslike wesens word vry, met gelyke waardigheid en regte, gebore. Hulle het rede en gewete en behoort in die gees van broederskap teenoor mekaar op te tree.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Did you know that these words were borrowed into English from Afrikaans?

aardvark	literally, "earth-pig," from Afrikaans aard "earth" + vark "pig." The animal burrows.
apartheid	literally, "separateness," from Afrikaans apart "separate" + suffix -heid, " -hood."
commandeer	from Afrikaans, kommandeeren "to command"
commando	from Afrikaans, "a troop under a commander," during the Boer wars
trek	from Afrikaans trek, from Dutch trekken "to march, journey"
veld (veldt)	South African grassland, from Afrikaans veld, from Dutch veld "field;" related to English field
wildebeest	from Afrikaans wildebees, literally, "wild beast," plural wildebeest, from Dutch wild "wild" + bees "beast, ox"

Resources

Click here to find out where Afrikaans is taught in the United States.
Click here to find learning materials for studying Afrikaans.

Online resources for the study of Afrikaans language and culture
Learn Afrikaans online
Online English-Afrikaans dictionary
Wikipedia article on Afrikaans
Ethnologue entry for Afrikaans
UCLA Language Profile for Afrikaans
Languages on the Net: Afrikaans Language Links
Yamada Language Center: Afrikaans Links
BBC Country Profile: South Africa
Omniglot: Afrikaans Alphabet