AFRIKAANS

Afrikaans is a relatively young language, yet it is very old. With its roots in Medieval Dutch (17 th Century), Afrikaans and modern Dutch are roughly equidistant from Old Franconian and similar medieval  Rhine valley dialects. Afrikaans vocabulary remained closer to the medieval languages than Dutch, but Dutch Grammar stayed closer to the common language of centuries ago. You could say that Afrikaans had its start when the Dutch settled the Cape in 1652, and soon the local language was known as Cape Dutch .

Below is a map where Afrikaans is the dominant language. The dark blue represents areas where Afrikaans is the main language. This includes large areas of the Western and Northern Cape .

Around 6 million people speak Afrikaans on a daily basis, and about double that amount can speak the language. In South Afrikca, Zulu is the language with the largest number of mother-tongue speakers, followed by Xhosa and then followed by Afrikaans in the third place. In the early days, because of the large percentage of non-native speakers that also used the language, Afrikaans speakers did wonders to simplify grammar :-) . For example, German has three gender distinctions ( die , der and das ), Dutch has two ( het and de ) and Afrikaans, like English, eliminated the gender distinction of nouns and uses only one, ( die ). The language is known for the double negative. For example, Die kat drink melk . > Die kat drink nie melk nie .

Afrikaans does not conjugate verbs. Below is the evidence of the no-verb-conjugation situation :

Afrikaans and Dutch share between 95% - 99% the same vocabulary. There are some consistent spelling differences between the languages. As an Afrikaans speaker, I can immediately understand Dutch, yet I have found, the Dutch need a few weeks to be up to speed with Afrikaans.

Thus, if you are a scholar of European languages, Afrikaans would be a superb entrance to the Germanic world.

But that is certainly not all. Afrikaans is obviously also an African language. If you have an interest in things African, this is an exciting venture into an exotic part of the world. Much historical and anthropological research is available in Afrikaans. It is an academic language as well and should provide you with superb resources.

Afrikaans is taught at Universities in Russia , Poland , the Czech Republic , Austria , Australia , New Zealand , Belgium , the Netherlands , the UK , and the USA . If you want to learn the language online, go to www.afrikaans.us .

But, then there is the social aspect, the braaivleis (BBQ) African style, the humor, and access to the rich diversity of the peoples that speak the language. In 1922, the Handboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (HAT) was started. There are either many more words than anticipated, or these guys need to move a little faster, because in 2005 they finished up to the letter Q :-). I sure hope it will be available online. If you think the Encyclopedia Britannica fills up serious shelf space, try the HAT.

Circulation of popular daily, weekly, or monthly Afrikaans publications: (Source)

A few resources about Afrikaans:

(learn Afrikaans online) http://www.afrikaans.us
http://www.cyberserv.co.za/users/~jako/lang/afr.htm
http://www.places.co.za/html/afrikaans.html
http://afrikaans.be/
http://www.bybel.co.za/
http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/guides/afrikaans.html

Laaste aanwins - Junie 2006