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Afrikaans

Afrikaans is an Indo-European language, derived from 17th century Dutch language|Dutch and classified as Low Franconian languages|Low Franconian Germanic languages|Germanic, mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia, with smaller numbers of speakers in Botswana, Angola, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia and Argentina.http://www.vandenberg.co.za/southafricansinpategonia1.htm, http://www.vandenberg.co.za/southafricansinpategonia.htm, this website shows that there is a community of afrikaans speakers in the Patagonia, but they are a small group Due to emigration and migrant labour, there are possibly over 100,000 Afrikaans speakers in the United Kingdom,Figure for 2001, up 106% from 1991 http://www.tourismtrade.org.uk/Images/Profile_SouthAfrica_tcm12-22701.pdf with other substantial communities found in Brussels, Amsterdam, Perth, Western Australia|Perth, Mount Isa, Toronto and Auckland. It is the primary language used by two related ethnic groups in South Africa: the Afrikaners and the Coloureds or ''kleurlinge'' or ''bruinmense'' (including Basters, Cape Malays and Griqua). Geographically, the Afrikaans language is the majority language of the western one-third of South Africa (Northern Cape|Northern and Western Cape, spoken at home by 69% and 58%, respectively). It is also the largest first language in the adjacent southern third of Namibia (Hardap Region|Hardap and Karas Region|Karas, where it is the first language of 44% and 40%, respectively). Afrikaans originated from the 17th century Dutch language. The dialect became known as 'Cape Dutch'. Later, Afrikaans was sometimes also referred to as 'African Dutch' or 'Kitchen Dutch', although these terms were mainly pejorative. Afrikaans was considered a Dutch dialect until the late 19th century, when it began to be recognised as a distinct language, and replaced Dutch as an official language of South Africa, alongside English, in 1925. It is the only Indo-European languages|Indo-European language of significance that underwent distinct development on the African continent. Afrikaans and Dutch are largely mutually intelligible.

History

Afrikaans was originally the dialect that developed among the Dutch speaking Protestant settlers, and the indentured servant|indentured or slave workforce of the Cape Colony|Cape area in southwestern South Africa that was established by the Dutch East India Company (, ) between 1652 and 1705. A relative majority of these first settlers were from the Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands|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 Asian people|Asians, Malay race|Malays, Malagasy people|Malagasy in addition to the indigenous Khoi and Bushmen. 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. Some believe that Afrikaans was originally spoken by the Khoisan people solely after using words they heard from the Dutch. Though this 'theory' would imply the improbability of a language systematically developing out of a grammatology. Furthermore, this theory would fail to explain the systematic process of simplification from dialectical 17th century Dutch to Afrikaans, its geographically widespread and cohesive nature and also the persistent structural similarities between Afrikaans and other regional Franconic dialects including West Flemish and Zeelandic. Afrikaans also remains akin to other West-Germanic languages (except English) in that it remains a V2 word order|V2 language which features verb final structures in subordinate clauses, just like Dutch and German.

Dialects

There is evidence to support the existence of a few strongly defined dialects as is also found in the Dutch language area. Following early dialectical studies of Afrikaans it was theorised that three main historical dialects probably existed before the Great Trek in the 1830s. These dialects are defined as the Afrikaans (Northern Cape dialect)|Northern Cape, Afrikaans (Western Cape dialect)|Western Cape and Afrikaans (Eastern Cape dialect)|Eastern Cape dialects. 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. Modern-day Standard Afrikaans itself is said to have developed from the Eastern Cape dialect (as this is where the Great Trek started and from where the rest of South Africa was initially taken by the Dutch). Modern day Afrikaans could be said to include the following dialects:- - Transvaal-Free State Afrikaans (being the most similar to Standard Afrikaans.) - Malmesbury dialect (characterised by the uvular trill /ʀ/, similar to French language|French) - Cape Peninsula dialect spoken by the elderly these days and more similar to the so-called Cape Coloured dialects. - Maleier Afrikaans (A Cape dialect heavily influenced by Arabic and Malay owing to the ethnicity of the speakers, see Cape Malays.) - Kaapse Afrikaans - Kalahari Afrikaans - Griekwa Afrikaans - Kharkhams Afrikaans - Baster Afrikaans spoken in Namibia by the Basters of Rehoboth. - Oorlans|Oorlams Afrikaans There is also a prison cant known as soebela, or sombela which is based on Afrikaans yet heavily influenced by Zulu. This language is used a secret language in prison and is taught to initiates. Owing to the mass emigration of mainly white South Africans post-1994 they may be up to a million Afrikaans speakers outside Southern Africa. There is at least one Afrikaans language newspaper in London, Die Stem. and Sydney has radio broadcasts in Afrikaans. This has given rise to the somewhat humorous idea of a dialect of "Buitelands" Afrikaans or "Sout-mielie" Afrikaans- usually influenced by English language|English because most South Africans have emigrated to Anglophone countries. Afrikaans has become to many South Africans what Yiddish once was to the Jewish Community.

Standardisation

The linguist Paul Roberge suggests that the earliest 'truly Afrikaans' texts are doggerel|doggerel verse from 1795 and a dialogue transcribed by a Dutch traveller in 1825. Printed material among the Afrikaners at first used only standard European Dutch. By the mid-19th century, more and more were appearing in Afrikaans, which was very much still regarded as a set of regional dialects. In 1861, L.H. Meurant published his '','' 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 '''' ('Society for Real Afrikaners') in Cape Town. The First Boer War|First and Second Boer War|Second Boer Wars further strengthened the position of Afrikaans. The official languages of the Union of South Africa were English language|English and Dutch until Afrikaans was subsumed under Dutch on 5 May 1925. The main Afrikaans dictionary is the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT), which is as yet incomplete due to the scale of the project, but the one-volume dictionary in household use is the Verklarende Handwoordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (HAT). The official orthography of Afrikaans is the ''Afrikaanse Woordelys en Spelreëls'', compiled by the Taalkommissie.

The Afrikaans Bible

A major landmark in the development of Afrikaans was the full translation of the Bible into the language. Prior to this most Cape Dutch-Afrikaans speakers had to rely on the Dutch language|Dutch Statenbijbel. The aforementioned Statenvertaling had its origins with the Synod of Dordrecht 1637 and was thus in an archaic form of Dutch language|Dutch. This rendered understanding difficult at best to Dutch language|Dutch and Cape Dutch speakers moreover increasingly unintelligible to Afrikaans speakers. C.P. Hoogehout, A.Pannevis and S.J. 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 Evangelie volgens Markus (Mark), however this translation was never published. The manuscript is to be found in the Nasionale Biblioteek van Suid-Afrika or South African National Library, Cape Town. The first official Bible translation of the entire Bible into Afrikaans was in 1933 by Prof. J.D. du Toit, Prof. E.E. van Rooyen, Prof. J.D. Kestell, Dr. H.C.M. Fourie en Prof. B.B. Keet. This monumental work established Afrikaans as a "suiwer" and "oordentlike taal", i.e. a ''pure'' and ''suitable'' language for religious purposes, especially amongst the deeply Calvinist Afrikaans religious community that had hitherto been somewhat sceptical of a Bible translation out of the original Dutch language to which they were accustomed. In 1983 there was a fresh translation in order to mark the 50th anniversary of the original 1933 translation and provide much needed revision. The final editing of this edition was done by E.P. Groenewald, Prof. A.H. Van Zyl, Prof. P. A. Verhoef, Prof. J.L. Helberg and Prof. W. Kempen. '''Afrikaans Version of the Lord's Prayer. Onse Vader.'''Onse Vader : Afrikaans

Onse Vader wat in die hemele is, laat U naam geheilig word. Laat U koninkryk kom, laat U wil geskied, soos in die hemel net so ook op die aarde. Gee ons vandag ons daaglikse brood, en vergeef ons ons skulde, soos ons ook ons skuldenaars vergewe. En lei ons nie in versoeking nie, maar verlos ons van die bose. Want aan U behoort die Koninkryk en die krag en die heerlikheid, tot in ewigheid. Amen.

'''Classic Dutch Protestant version of the Lord's Prayer.
Onze Vader''' Onze Vader

Onze Vader die in de hemelen zijt, Uw Naam worde geheiligd; Uw koninkrijk kome; Uw wil geschiede, gelijk in de hemel alzo ook op de aarde. Geef ons heden ons dagelijks brood; en vergeef ons onze schulden, gelijk ook wij vergeven onze schuldenaren; en leid ons niet in verzoeking, maar verlos ons van de boze. Want van U is het koninkrijk en de kracht en de heerlijkheid tot in eeuwigheid. Amen.

Grammar

Comparison with Dutch, German and English

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. Although there are many different dialects and accents, the transcription should be fairly standard.
- '''''' Hello! How are you? (more closely 'How goes it?') Closely in Dutch: ''Hallo! Hoe gaat het?''
- '''''' Very well, thanks. Closely in Dutch: ''Vrij goed, dankje.''
- '''''' Do you speak Afrikaans? Closely in Dutch: ''Praat jij Afrikaans?''
- '''''' Do you speak English? Closely in Dutch: ''Praat jij Engels?''
- '''''' Yes.
- '''''' No.
- '''''' A little. Closely in Dutch: ''Een beetje.''
- '''''' What is your name?
- '''''' The children are speaking Afrikaans. Closely in Dutch: ''De kinderen praten Afrikaans.''
- '''''' (English: I love you. More closely 'I You love') ( German: Ich liebe dich) Note:- The word Afrikaans means African (in the general sense) in the Dutch language. Although considered wrong, to avoid confusion the word ''Zuid-Afrikaans'', lit. "South African", is sometimes used when referring to the Afrikaans language specifically. This problem also occurs in Afrikaans itself, resolved by using the words Afrika and Afrikaan to distuingish from Afrikaans(e) and Afrikaner respectively. An interesting sentence having the same meaning and written (but not pronounced as it sounds more closely to Dutch) identically in Afrikaans and English is:
- '''My pen was in my hand.''' () Closely in Dutch: ''Mijn pen was in mijn hand.'' Similarly the sentence:
- '''My hand is in warm water.''' () Closely in Dutch: ''Mijn hand is in warm water'' 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).

Sample text in Afrikaans

Psalm 23. 1983 Translation 1. Die Here is my Herder, ek kom niks kort nie. 2. Hy laat my in groen weivelde rus. Hy bring my by waters waar daar vrede is. 3. Hy gee my nuwe krag. Hy lei my op die regte paaie tot eer van Sy naam. 4. Selfs al gaan ek deur donker dieptes, sal ek nie bang wees nie, want U is by my. In U hande is ek veilig. ''The Lord is my shepherd I shall not be in want: He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters: He restores my soul. he guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.'' Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me ; your rod and staff they comfort me''''

Sociolinguistics

Afrikaans is the first language of approximately 60% of South Africa's Whites, and over 80% of the Coloured (mixed-race) population. The race with the highest number of Afrikaans speakers are the Coloureds(3 million), followed closely by whites (2.6 million). Some 200,000 black South Africans speak it as their home language.Toespraak Large numbers of Bantu-speaking and Anglo-African|English-speaking South Africans also speak it as their second language. Some state that the term '''''Afrikaanses''''' should be used as a term for all people who speak Afrikaans, irrespective of ethnic origin, instead of 'Afrikaners', which refers to an ethnic group, or 'Afrikaanssprekendes' (lit. people that speak Afrikaans). Linguistic identity has not yet established that one term be favoured above another and all three are used in common parlance.Die dilemma van ‘n gedeelde Afrikaanse identiteit: Kan wit en bruin mekaar vind? It is also widely spoken in Namibia, where it has had constitutional recognition as a national, but 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 have left the country since 1980. Afrikaans was also a medium of instruction for schools in Bophuthatswana Bantustan Armoria patriæ - Republic of Bophuthatswana. 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; and there is now an Afrikaans newspaper in London, called ''Die Stem''. New Zealand has an Afrikaans club which is based in Auckland and which organises Afrikaans dances and meetings (http://www.afrikaans.org.nz/). 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'), 'tekkies' ('sneakers'). 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'), 'veld' ('Southern African grassland' in Afrikaans lit. 'field'), 'boomslang' ('tree snake') and apartheid ('segregation'; more accurately 'apartness' or 'the state or condition of being apart'). In 1976, high school students in Soweto began a Soweto riots|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 is the mother tongue of only 8.2 per cent of the population, it is the language most widely understood, and the second language of the majority of South Africans. Govt info available online in all official languages - South Africa - The Good News Afrikaans is more widely spoken than English in the Northern and Western Cape provinces, several hundred kilometers from Soweto. The Black community's opposition to Afrikaans and preference for continuing English instruction was underscored 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.Black Linguistics: Language, Society and Politics in Africa and the Americas, by Sinfree Makoni, p. 120S Many historians argue that the language issue was a catalyst for the uprising rather than a major underlying cause (which was racial oppression). Others argue that the primary cause of the uprising was one specific aspect of the government's language instruction decision: 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. The government justified this policy by claiming that non-White South Africans would never have an occasion to use such knowledge; ''see History of South Africa.'' Under South Africa's democratic Constitution of South Africa|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 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 Afrikaans language general interest family magazine Huisgenoot, 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 (channel)|MK, in 2005. A large number of Afrikaans books are still published every year, mainly by the publishers Human & Rousseau, Tafelberg Uitgewers, Struik, and Protea Boekhuis. Afrikaans music is also flourishing, from retro pop artist like Nicholis Louw, Eden, and Shine 4 to more forceful/avant garde outfits (Kobus!, Fokofpolisiekar, Buckfever Underground etc.) singing in the language. Modern Dutch and Afrikaans share 85 plus per cent of their vocabulary. Afrikaans speakers are able to learn Dutch within a comparatively short period of time. Native Dutch speakers pick up written Afrikaans even more quickly, due to its simplified grammar, whereas understanding spoken Afrikaans might need more effort. Afrikaans speakers can learn a Dutch accent with little training. This has enabled Dutch and Belgian companies to Outsourcing|outsource their call centre operations to South Africa SA holds its own in global call centre industry - eProp Commercial Property News in South Africa - Commercial Properties For Sale / To Let / To Rent in South Africa. Afrikaans has two monuments erected in its honour. The first was erected in Burgersdorp, South Africa, in 1893, and the second, better-known Afrikaans Language Monument ('''') was built in Paarl, South Africa, in 1975.

Future for Afrikaans

Post-apartheid South Africa has seen a loss of government support for Afrikaans, in terms of education, social events, media (TV and Radio), and general status throughout the country, seeing as how it now shares its place as official language with ten other languages. Nevertheless, Afrikaans remains more prevalent in the media - radio, newspapers and televisionOranje FM, Radio Sonder Grense, Jacaranda FM, Rapport, Beeld, Die Burger, Die Son, Afrikaans news is run everyday, on pay channels it is provided as second language on all sports, Kyknet - than all the other official languages, except for English. More than 300 titles in Afrikaans are published per year Hannes van Zyl http://www.oulitnet.co.za/taaldebat/multilin.asp. Further, some legal advertising is still provided in the Government Gazette bilinguallySearch a Regional Gazette for 'eiendom'(property). http://www.gics.co.za/, in English and Afrikaans. Afrikaans is still viewed negatively by some. Through all the problems of depreciation and migration that Afrikaans faces today, the language still competes well, with Afrikaans DSTV channels (pay channels) and high newspapers and CD sales as well as popular internet sites.

Afrikaans Music

Afrikaans language music has a long history in South Africa, probably originating with the first songs that Dutch East India Company or V.O.C. sailors sang by the slopes of Table Mountain. The 19th century is probably when most of the tunes known to this day finally assumed their more or less modern forms. This was the period of the Great Trek, the Zulu Wars, The Boer Wars and the gold rush on the Witwatersrand, all factors that contributed to the formation of a South African, and chiefly, Afrikaans identity. This was of course reflected in the songs of the white and coloured South African peoples. There is also a growing Afrikaans language Hip-Hop scene with a number of groups, mostly Cape Coloured in origin. Interestingly, these groups have had some success in The Netherlands where, owing to intelligibility between Afrikaans and Dutch language|Dutch, Kaapse Hip-Hop has become quite popular.

Notes

References

- Roberge, P. T., 2002. ''Afrikaans - considering origins'', in ''Language in South Africa'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom. ISBN 0-521-53383-X
- South African Afrikaans: History Slang

External links

General

- The Ethnologue: Afrikaans
- Wordgumbo: Afrikaans
- Afrikaans sample at Language Museum
- An introduction to Afrikaans
- Learn Afrikaans Online at www.afrikaans.us
- Largest supplier of Afrikaans language learning material on the web

Portals and links lists

- Litnet - Literature, culture and debate
- Die Knoop - A very large list of links to Afrikaans websites
- Woes.co.za - A popular multi-user blog
- The New South African - Afrikaans - More about South Africa's official languages.
- Kuier.co.za - A popular multi-user blog
- afrikaners.org.za - An Afrikaans portal containing links to other Afrikaans related site
- Uitsaaines.co.za - An International Afrikaans Music Radio Station on the Internet..click Luister

Organisations

- Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge (FAK) - Federation of Afrikaans Cultural Associations
- Afrikaanse Taal- en Kultuurvereniging (ATKV) - Afrikaans Language and Cultural Association
- Vriende van Afrikaans - Friends of Afrikaans
- http://www.afrikaans.com/ - Stigting vir Bemagtiging deur Afrikaans

Spell checkers

- Spel.co.za - Commercial spell checker for Microsoft Office
- WSpel - Free spell checker for Microsoft Office
- Translate.org.za - Open source spell checker for OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird

Dictionaries

- Afrikaans Dictionary - with definitions (approx 8763 words)
- Afrikaans to English - from Wordgumbo.com (5129 words)
- English to Afrikaans - from Wordgumbo.com (6397 words)
- Afrikaans-English-Afrikaans Online Dictionary - sometimes using Esperanto as intermezzo (7975 Afrikaans words)
- Afrikaans at Dict.info - Afrikaans into 57 languages (roughly 2300 words each) and Afrikaans-English (10 127 words)
- Elektroblok - Crossword Puzzle Solver and Thesaurus Dictionary (4 Million Afrikaans and English words, synonyms and hints) Category:Dutch-based pidgins and creoles Category:Afrikaans| Category:Languages of South Africa Category:Low Franconian languages Category:Afrikaner people Category:Language comparison nds-nl:Afrikaans simple:Afrikaans bat-smg:Afrėkanu kalba

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