91-472: The Breede River ( Afrikaans : Breederivier ), also known as Breë River , is a river in the Western Cape Province of South Africa . Travelling inland north from the city of Cape Town , the river runs in a west to east direction. The surrounding western mountains formed the first continental divide experienced by European settlers in the 18th century. The Titus River and Dwars River become
182-559: A Dutch word, in its Afrikaans equivalent, it is replaced by ⟨ sj ⟩ ; compare machine with masjien . This also applies to word endings; compare Dutch Jiddisch (" Yiddish ") with Afrikaans Jiddisj , although the latter is also encountered in Dutch. In Dutch, hasjiesj ("hashish") is always written with ⟨ sj ⟩ similar to hasjisj in Afrikaans. The Dutch word cheque , in which ⟨ ch ⟩
273-455: A decreasing number of first language Afrikaans speakers in South Africa from 13.5% in 2011 to 10.6% in 2022. The South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) projects that a growing majority of Afrikaans speakers will be Coloured . Afrikaans speakers experience higher employment rates than other South African language groups, though as of 2012 half a million were unemployed. Despite
364-510: A lesser extent Low German , Dutch speakers are confronted with fewer non- cognates when listening to Afrikaans than the other way around. In Afrikaans, het is the inflection of the verb hê ("to have" from Dutch hebben ) although sy (cognate with zijn ) is used as the subjunctive of "to be", while we in Dutch is cognate with "we" in English, a language widely understood by Afrikaans speakers. Conversely, wees , meaning "to be" in Afrikaans,
455-558: A national, but not 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 , an Apartheid-era Bantustan . Eldoret in Kenya was founded by Afrikaners. There are also around 30.000 South-Africans in the Netherlands , of which
546-481: A result of Afrikaans merging Dutch consonants ⟨z⟩ and ⟨s⟩ to a single sound [s] , spelt ⟨s⟩ , the use of ⟨z⟩ in Afrikaans is confined to words of non-Dutch origin, such as Zoeloe ("Zulu") and zero , or country names like Zambië ("Zambia"), while use of ⟨z⟩ is preserved only in Dutch place names in South Africa like Zonnebloem and Zeerust . However, although Suid-Afrika ("South Africa")
637-608: A second language. It is widely taught in South African schools, with about 10.3 million second-language students. Afrikaans is offered at many universities outside South Africa, including in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Russia and the United States. 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
728-417: A single negation. 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. Differences between Afrikaans and Dutch Afrikaans
819-499: A single spelling ⟨ou⟩ , (contrastingly pronounced /œu/ ); vrouw ("woman") and dauw ("dew") in Dutch become vrou and dou in Afrikaans respectively. Similarly, some Dutch words beginning with ⟨au⟩ , such as autonomie are written with ⟨ou⟩ , hence outonomie . The Dutch cluster ⟨tion⟩ became ⟨sion⟩ in Afrikaans. Compare nationaal ("national") with nasionaal . In Dutch,
910-665: A single spelling ⟨sie⟩ . Apart from ⟨tie⟩ , generally pronounced as [tsi] in the Netherlands, there is no difference in pronunciation; compare Dutch provincie ("province") and politie ("police") with Afrikaans provinsie and polisie . However, words ending in ⟨tie⟩ in Dutch are often pronounced as [si] particularly in Flanders . Afrikaans merged Dutch digraphs and trigraphs ⟨ou⟩ , ⟨ouw⟩ , ⟨au⟩ , and ⟨auw⟩ (pronounced identically as /ɑʊ/ by many Dutch speakers) to
1001-416: A soft ⟨c⟩ ( [s] ) and Afrikaans using ⟨k⟩ , hence communiceren and provoceren ("to communicate" and "to provoke") in Dutch become kommunikeer and provokeer in Afrikaans, although kommuniseren was also used in 18th century Dutch. The word kommuniseer was also previously used in Afrikaans to mean kommunisties maak or "to make communist". However, provoseer
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#17328517375981092-487: 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". The Afrikaans language arose in the Dutch Cape Colony , through a gradual divergence from European Dutch dialects , during the course of the 18th century. As early as the mid-18th century and as recently as the mid-20th century, Afrikaans
1183-417: Is prijs (price), which is spelt prys in Afrikaans. Dutch words ending in ⟨lijk⟩ , however, end in ⟨lik⟩ in Afrikaans, not ⟨lyk⟩ , for example lelijk (ugly) in Dutch becomes lelik in Afrikaans. In both languages, this suffix is pronounced [lək] , with a schwa . In Dutch, in which ⟨ ij ⟩ is treated as a separate letter of
1274-441: Is school in Dutch but skool in Afrikaans, but Dutch misschien ("maybe") is written with ⟨ss⟩ , while Afrikaans miskien is written with ⟨s⟩ . Between two vowels, the Dutch ⟨g⟩ is omitted in Afrikaans; hence Dutch uses hoger ("higher"), pronounced [ˈɦoːɣər] and "regen" ("rain"), pronounced [ˈreː.ɣə(n)] while Afrikaans uses hoër ( [ˈɦuə̯r] ) and reën ( [ˈrɪə̯n] ), in which
1365-463: Is "a pure and proper language" for religious purposes, especially among the deeply Calvinist Afrikaans religious community that previously had been sceptical of a Bible translation that varied from the Dutch version that they were used to. In 1983 a fresh translation marked the 50th anniversary of the 1933 version. The final editing of this edition was done by E. P. Groenewald, A. H. van Zyl, P. A. Verhoef, J. L. Helberg and W. Kempen. This translation
1456-550: Is "aanvaar", cognate with Dutch " aanvaarden "). Similarly, Afrikaans uses ⟨s⟩ for the Dutch soft ⟨c⟩ , both pronounced [ s ] ; compare Dutch centraal ("central") and ceremonie ("ceremony") with Afrikaans sentraal and seremonie . Afrikaans also uses ⟨s⟩ instead of ⟨c⟩ in words like spesiaal ("special") and spesifiek ("specific") which in Dutch would be speciaal and specifiek . Most Afrikaans words using ⟨c⟩ begin with
1547-523: Is a daughter language of Dutch mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia ; it is a separate standard language rather than a national variety , unlike Netherlands Dutch, Belgian Dutch and Surinamese Dutch . An estimated 90 to 95% of Afrikaans vocabulary is ultimately of Dutch origin, so there are few lexical differences between the two languages, however Afrikaans has considerably more regular morphology , grammar, and spelling. There
1638-549: Is a groundswell movement within Afrikaans to be inclusive, and to promote itself along with the indigenous official languages. In Namibia, the percentage of Afrikaans speakers declined from 11.4% (2001 Census) to 10.4% (2011 Census). The major concentrations are in Hardap (41.0%), ǁKaras (36.1%), Erongo (20.5%), Khomas (18.5%), Omaheke (10.0%), Otjozondjupa (9.4%), Kunene (4.2%), and Oshikoto (2.3%). Some native speakers of Bantu languages and English also speak Afrikaans as
1729-596: Is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, particularly in written form. Research suggests that mutual intelligibility between Dutch and Afrikaans is better than between Dutch and Frisian or between Danish and Swedish . Mutual intelligibility tends to be asymmetrical, as it is easier for Dutch speakers to understand Afrikaans than for Afrikaans speakers to understand Dutch. Although Afrikaans borrows some lexical and syntactical structures from other languages, including Malay , Portuguese , Khoisan languages , Bantu languages , and to
1820-512: Is absent from the other West Germanic standard languages. For example: 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
1911-529: Is accepted as a synonym for provokeer . Similarly, the verb kompliseer , similar to Dutch compliceren , is used to mean "to complicate", both using the [s] sound. By contrast, related nouns in both languages contain the [k] sound, hence communicatie and provocatie in Dutch and kommunikasie and provokasie in Afrikaans. The Dutch digraph ⟨ ij ⟩ corresponds to ⟨y⟩ in Afrikaans, in line with older Dutch spelling norms, although pronunciation remains [ɛi] . An example
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#17328517375982002-469: Is an example: 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
2093-508: Is based on the old Dutch word for iron, yzer . It was also previously written as Ijsterfontein. The modern Afrikaans word for iron is yster , while in Dutch it is ijzer . In modern Dutch, ⟨y⟩ is now typically used in words of Greek origin like cyclus ("cycle") replaced by ⟨i⟩ in its Afrikaans equivalent siklus , although both are pronounced as [i] . Afrikaans merged Dutch trigraphs ⟨tie⟩ , ⟨cie⟩ and ⟨sie⟩ to
2184-435: Is correct in both languages. At the end of words, the Dutch cluster ⟨cht⟩ was reduced in Afrikaans to ⟨g⟩ , with lucht ("air", pronounced [lʏxt] ) in Dutch becoming lug ( [ləχ] ) in Afrikaans, lugt being an older spelling in Dutch. Similarly, ⟨st⟩ dienst (service, pronounced [dinst] ) was reduced to diens ( [dins] ) in Afrikaans. Between two vowels, ⟨cht⟩
2275-595: Is er , using the unmarked forms, which do not exist in Afrikaans. Afrikaans uses purisms or calques where Dutch would use loans from French , Latin or English . Owing to the exposure of Afrikaans speakers to English, Dutch words like computer , lift and appartement are more readily understood by them than Afrikaans equivalents like rekenaar , hysbak and woonstel are by Dutch speakers. Similarly, Dutch words such as favoriet ("favourite"), film , and station are intelligible to Afrikaans speakers on account of their resemblance to their English equivalents, whereas
2366-555: Is neither a creole nor a direct descendant of Dutch, but a fusion of two transmission pathways. 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
2457-439: Is often deleted after a schwa, but the occurrence and frequency of this phenomenon varies between speakers, and it is not recognised in spelling. Afrikaans has frequently simplified consonant clusters in final position that are still present in Dutch, although they are used in inflected forms of adjectives, for example, bes ("best") in Afrikaans is still inflected as beste , as in Dutch, hence beste man ooit ( best man ever )
2548-529: Is omitted in Afrikaans; compare Dutch avond ("evening"), pronounced [ˈaː.vɔnt] and over ("over"), pronounced [ˈoːvər] , with Afrikaans aand ( [ɑːnt] ) and oor ( [ʊər] ), with ⟨aa⟩ and ⟨oo⟩ being [ɑː] and [ʊə] respectively. In Afrikaans, as in Dutch, oor also means "ear". Where ⟨ov⟩ precedes final ⟨en⟩ in Dutch, as in boven ("above") pronounced [boːvən] and geloven ("believe") pronounced [ɣəˈloːvə(n)] , in Afrikaans they merge to form
2639-485: Is pronounced as [ tʃ ] , is written in Afrikaans as tjek , while the Italian -derived word cello is written as tjello . Both languages also use ⟨tsj⟩ (also pronounced as [ tʃ ] ) in some geographical names, despite other differences in spelling; compare Dutch Tsjaad (" Chad ") with Afrikaans Tsjad . Another difference between the two languages concerns verbs derived from Latin or French, with Dutch using
2730-535: Is replaced with ⟨gg⟩ ; compare Dutch echtgenoot ("husband") with Afrikaans eggenoot . Similarly, whereas Dutch words like technologie ("technology") and monarchie ("monarchy") contain ⟨ch⟩ (in this case pronounced as [χ] ) their Afrikaans equivalents use ⟨g⟩ , hence tegnologie and monargie . In other cases, ⟨ch⟩ is replaced with ⟨gg⟩ , compare Tsjechische Republiek ("Czech Republic") in Dutch with Tsjeggiese Republiek in Afrikaans. At
2821-528: Is seen as the dawn of a new era in Afrikaans cinema. Several short films have been created and more feature-length movies, such as Poena Is Koning and Bakgat (both in 2008) have been produced, besides the 2011 Afrikaans-language film Skoonheid , which was the first Afrikaans film to screen at the Cannes Film Festival . The film Platteland was also released in 2011. The Afrikaans film industry started gaining international recognition via
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2912-414: Is used as the imperative in Dutch, although it is used as the imperative in religious contexts in Afrikaans (e.g. wees genadig , meaning "be merciful" or "have mercy"). The simplification of verbs in Afrikaans, with almost all verbs being regular and the near absence of the simple past tense, means that while the phrase ek het gehelp ("I have helped" or "I helped") would be recognisable by Dutch speakers,
3003-411: Is used for all meanings of "accommodation" except "a place to stay"; for that meaning, the most accepted word is "verblyf", cognate with Dutch " verblijf "). Those in which ⟨cc⟩ is pronounced as ⟨ks⟩ , such as Dutch accent and accepteren , become aksent and aksepteer in Afrikaans ("aksepteer" is very rare, and typically rejected; the accepted translation of "accept"
3094-482: Is used in Afrikaans as well as Dutch. The Dutch word amper ("almost" or "nearly") is unrelated to the Afrikaans word amper ("scarcely" or "sour"), being derived from the Malay hampir , but the Dutch word bijna , also meaning "almost" or "nearly", is cognate with byna in Afrikaans. Orthographic differences between Dutch and Afrikaans are mainly due to phonetic evolutions and spelling simplifications in Afrikaans, and
3185-519: Is used in Afrikaans rather than Zuid-Afrika as in Dutch, South Africa adopted "ZA" as its international vehicle registration code in 1936, which later became the country's ISO country code , with .za becoming the country's internet domain . In the middle of words, Afrikaans merged Dutch ⟨v⟩ and ⟨w⟩ to a single sound [v] and consequently to a single spelling, ⟨w⟩ . Compare Dutch haven (port) with Afrikaans hawe , both pronounced [ɦɑːvə] . Meanwhile, at
3276-405: 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
3367-588: The Evangelie volgens Markus ( Gospel of Mark , lit. 'Gospel according to Mark'); however, this translation was never published. The manuscript is to be found in the South African National Library, Cape Town. The first official translation of the entire Bible into Afrikaans was in 1933 by J. D. du Toit , E. E. van Rooyen, J. D. Kestell, H. C. M. Fourie, and BB Keet . This monumental work established Afrikaans as 'n suiwer en ordentlike taal , that
3458-678: 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
3549-749: The Du Toitskloof and Stettyn mountain ranges. The Hex River with its catchment area in the Hex River Mountains also joins the Breede River from the north-east. Further downstream the Slang River and Buffeljags River drain the southern slopes of the Langeberg mountains before depositing their water in the Breede River. Near Swellendam the river is joined by the Riviersonderend, with its catchment area in
3640-716: The Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches, were involved. Afrikaans descended from Dutch dialects in the 17th century. It belongs to a West Germanic sub-group, the Low Franconian languages . Other West Germanic languages related to Afrikaans are German, English, the Frisian languages , Yiddish , and the unstandardised language Low German . Afrikaans is also widely spoken in Namibia. Before independence, Afrikaans had equal status with German as an official language. Since independence in 1990, Afrikaans has had constitutional recognition as
3731-513: 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 on a hill overlooking Paarl in the Western Cape Province . Officially opened on 10 October 1975, it
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3822-528: The Synod of Dordrecht of 1618 and was thus in an archaic form of Dutch. This was hard for Dutch speakers to understand, and increasingly unintelligible for Afrikaans speakers. C. P. Hoogehout, Arnoldus Pannevis [ af ] , and Stephanus Jacobus 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
3913-553: The constitution of the Western Cape , which went into effect in 1998, declares Afrikaans to be an official language of the province alongside English and Xhosa . The Afrikaans-language general-interest family magazine Huisgenoot has the largest readership of any magazine in the country. When the British design magazine Wallpaper described Afrikaans as "one of the world's ugliest languages" in its September 2005 article about
4004-487: The diphthong [ʊə] , resulting in bo ( [bʊə] ) and glo ( [χlʊə] ). Similarly, open and samen ("together") in Dutch become oop ( [ʊəp] ), and saam ( [sɑːm] ) in Afrikaans. At the end of words, Dutch ⟨g⟩ is sometimes omitted in Afrikaans, which opens up the preceding vowel (usually a short ⟨e⟩ ) now written with a circumflex . For example, the Dutch verb form zeg ("say", pronounced [zɛx] ) became sê ( [sɛː] ) in Afrikaans, as did
4095-519: The 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. The author of the article, Bronwyn Davies, was an English -speaking South African. An estimated 90 to 95 percent of the Afrikaans lexicon is ultimately of Dutch origin, and there are few lexical differences between
4186-474: The predominantly Dutch settlers and enslaved population of the Dutch Cape Colony , where it gradually began to develop distinguishing characteristics in the 17th and 18th centuries. Although Afrikaans has adopted words from other languages, including German and the Khoisan languages , an estimated 90 to 95% of the vocabulary of Afrikaans is of Dutch origin. Differences between Afrikaans and Dutch often lie in
4277-452: The "language of the white oppressor" by some, pressure has been increased to remove Afrikaans as a teaching language in South African universities, resulting in bloody student protests in 2015. Under South Africa's 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
4368-484: The 19th century. Other simplifications in Afrikaans had earlier been proposed for Dutch by R.A Kollewijn, but were either not adopted until 1934, such as changing ⟨sch⟩ to ⟨s⟩ (hence Nederlandsch to Nederlands ), or rejected, such as changing ⟨isch⟩ to ⟨ies⟩ (hence logisch to logies ) and ⟨ijk⟩ to ⟨ik⟩ (hence moeilijk to moeilik ). Afrikaans uses ⟨k⟩ for
4459-579: The Afrikaans gunsteling , rolprent , and stasie (cognate with Dutch statie ), while intelligible to Dutch speakers, would be considered old-fashioned. In addition, while Afrikaans may use words of non-Dutch origin unintelligible to Dutch speakers (such as those derived from Malay , like baie ), their Dutch equivalents, or cognates, are also used in Afrikaans, and would therefore be more intelligible to Dutch speakers. For example, although Afrikaans baie ("very", "many" or "much"), from banyak has no cognate in Dutch, heel as in heel goed ("very good")
4550-661: The Arabic script. In 1861, L.H. Meurant published his Zamenspraak tusschen Klaas Waarzegger en Jan Twyfelaar ( Conversation between Nicholas Truthsayer and John Doubter ), which is considered to be the first book published in Afrikaans. The first grammar book was published in 1876; a bilingual dictionary was later published in 1902. The main modern Afrikaans dictionary in use is the Verklarende Handwoordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (HAT). A new authoritative dictionary, called Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT),
4641-730: The Boers and their servants." 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, that is 23 years after the Second Boer War ended, the Official Languages of the Union Act, 1925 was passed—mostly due to the efforts of the Afrikaans-language movement —at a joint sitting of the House of Assembly and
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#17328517375984732-771: The Breë River. The first catchment area of the river is in the Skurweberg mountain range close to Ceres . The head waters then runs through the modern day Mitchells Pass before plaining out on its middle course in the Worcester area. The river mouth is in an estuary at Port Beaufort on the Indian Ocean . On its course through the Breede River Valley , it is joined by the Holsloot and Smalblaar Rivers, from their catchment areas,
4823-507: 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
4914-653: The Dutch hard ⟨c⟩ , both pronounced [ k ] ; compare Dutch cultuur ("culture") with Afrikaans kultuur . Before the 1990s major spelling reform, the latter spelling was also accepted in Dutch, although other Dutch words such as commissie ("commission") were already spelt with ⟨c⟩ , which in Afrikaans would be kommissie . Words in Dutch with the letter combination ⟨cc⟩ , when pronounced as [ kk ] are transliterated in Afrikaans using ⟨kk⟩ , for example, acclimatiseren and accommodatie in Dutch become Afrikaans akklimatiseer and akkommodasie ("akkommodasie"
5005-568: The Dutch phrases ik heb geholpen and ik hielp would not be as readily understood by speakers of Afrikaans. Similarly, the resemblance of Afrikaans verbs like lees ("to read", Dutch lezen ) to the first person singular and verbs like gaan ("to go") to infinitive forms in Dutch means that julle lees ("you [plural] read") or ek gaan ("I go") would be understood by Dutch speakers more readily than jullie lezen or ik ga would be by Afrikaans speakers. As Afrikaans no longer has unmarked and marked forms of words, instead using words derived from
5096-932: The Dutch words China and Chinees (inflected as Chinese ) are transliterated in Afrikaans using ⟨ sj ⟩ as Sjina , Sjinees , and Sjinese respectively, the Dutch spellings are also used, particularly in the media. In some Afrikaans dictionaries, China is standard, while Sjinees is listed as an alternative spelling to Chinees . French loanwords in Dutch beginning in ⟨ ch ⟩ (pronounced [ ʃ ] ), are transliterated in Afrikaans using ⟨ sj ⟩ ; compare Dutch champagne and chic with Afrikaans sjampanje and sjiek . Afrikaans also changes ⟨gn⟩ , encountered in French loanwords in Dutch like campagne and compagnie to ⟨nj⟩ , hence kampanje and kompanjie , and "sjampanje", in which both these changes are seen. When ⟨ ch ⟩ (pronounced [ ʃ ] ) appears within
5187-426: The absence of crocodiles, hippos and mosquitoes make this a popular weekend destination. Several tour operators launch about 20 km south of Swellendam in two-man blow-up boats. The river is navigable for about 28 km, from the mouth at Witsand. Frequently, bull sharks enter the estuary and dwell in the waters of the Breede River, having been recorded as much as 5 km upriver. These sharks were featured on
5278-469: The alphabet , IJ often features in place names in the Netherlands like IJsselmeer , or in the Dutch name for Iceland , IJsland . Afrikaans similarly uses Ysland , which was also used in 18th century Dutch. However, few place names in South Africa of Dutch origin begin with Y , with the exception of Yzerfontein in the Western Cape . The spelling of the name of the town, which means iron fountain ,
5369-459: The area. Afrikaans language Afrikaans ( / ˌ æ f r ɪ ˈ k ɑː n s / AF -rih- KAHNSS , / ˌ ɑː f -, - ˈ k ɑː n z / AHF -, - KAHNZ ) is a West Germanic language , spoken in South Africa , Namibia and (to a lesser extent) Botswana , Zambia and Zimbabwe . It evolved from the Dutch vernacular of South Holland ( Hollandic dialect ) spoken by
5460-467: The beginning of words, ⟨v⟩ became devoiced to /f/ in Afrikaans (except in words of Latin origin, like visueel ). Afrikaans merged Dutch fricatives ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨g⟩ to a single sound [χ] , spelt ⟨g⟩ , except when preceded by ⟨s⟩ , in which case ⟨sk⟩ (pronounced as spelt) is used where Dutch uses ⟨sch⟩ (pronounced [sx] , [sχ] or [sç] ; hence "school"
5551-447: The challenges of demotion and emigration that it faces in South Africa, the Afrikaans vernacular remains competitive, being popular in DSTV pay channels and several internet sites, while generating high newspaper and music CD sales. A resurgence in Afrikaans popular music since the late 1990s has invigorated the language, especially among a younger generation of South Africans. A recent trend is
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#17328517375985642-504: The development of Afrikaans. The slave population was made up of people from East Africa, West Africa, Mughal 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
5733-430: The digraph ⟨ ch ⟩ , pronounced [ x ] , such as Christelik ("Christian") or chemie ("chemistry") with some exceptions like confetti , although Afrikaans dictionaries may also list more phonetic alternative spellings using ⟨k⟩ or ⟨sj⟩ , such as kronies for chronies ("chronic", similar to Dutch chronisch ) and sjirurg for chirurg ("surgeon"). However, although
5824-455: 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' or 'a bastard jargon', suitable for communication mainly between
5915-421: The end of words, Dutch cluster ⟨ct⟩ was reduced to ⟨k⟩ in Afrikaans, hence Dutch contact and perfect with Afrikaans kontak and perfek . Similarly, ⟨ctie⟩ in Dutch (pronounced [ktsi] ) is replaced by ⟨ksie⟩ (pronounced [ksi] ); compare reactie ("reaction") and connectie ("connection") in Dutch with reaksie and konneksie in Afrikaans. As
6006-473: The government for Afrikaans, in terms of education, social events, media (TV and radio), and general status throughout the country, given that it now shares its place as official language with ten other languages. Nevertheless, Afrikaans remains more prevalent in the media – radio, newspapers and television – than any of the other official languages, except English. More than 300 book titles in Afrikaans are published annually. South African census figures suggest
6097-406: The increased availability of pre-school educational CDs and DVDs. Such media also prove popular with the extensive Afrikaans-speaking emigrant communities who seek to retain language proficiency in a household context. Afrikaans-language cinema showed signs of new vigour in the early 21st century. The 2007 film Ouma se slim kind , the first full-length Afrikaans movie since Paljas in 1998,
6188-403: The infinitive zeggen , pronounced [ˈzɛɣə(n)] . Another example is the Dutch leggen ("to lay", pronounced [lɛɣə(n)] ), which becomes lê ( [lɛː] ) in Afrikaans. Alternatively, Dutch verb form vraag ("ask", pronounced [ˈvraːɣ] ) became vra ( [ˈfrɑː] ) in Afrikaans, which is also the equivalent of the Dutch verb vragen , "to ask". Unlike Dutch, vraag in Afrikaans, pronounced [ˈfrɑːχ] ,
6279-529: The language distance for Anglophones once remarked that the differences between (Standard) Dutch and Afrikaans are comparable to those between the Received Pronunciation and Southern American English . Afrikaans is an official language of the Republic of South Africa and a recognised national language of the Republic of Namibia. Post-apartheid South Africa has seen a loss of preferential treatment by
6370-576: 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% of the population, it is the language most widely understood, and the second language of a majority of South Africans. Afrikaans is more widely spoken than English in the Northern and Western Cape provinces, several hundred kilometres from Soweto. The Black community's opposition to Afrikaans and preference for continuing English instruction
6461-513: The likes of big Afrikaans Hollywood film stars, like Charlize Theron ( Monster ) and Sharlto Copley ( District 9 ) promoting their mother tongue. SABC 3 announced early in 2009 that it would increase Afrikaans programming due to the "growing Afrikaans-language market and [their] need for working capital as Afrikaans advertising is the only advertising that sells in the current South African television market". In April 2009, SABC3 started screening several Afrikaans-language programmes. There
6552-530: The majority are of Afrikaans-speaking Afrikaner and Coloured South-African descent. A much smaller and unknown number of speakers also reside in the Dutch Caribbean . Contrary to popular belief, the majority of Afrikaans speakers today are not Afrikaners or Boers , but Coloureds . In 1976, secondary-school pupils in Soweto began a rebellion in response to the government's decision that Afrikaans be used as
6643-449: The marked forms in Dutch, the Afrikaans words for "there" and "now", daar and nou , are more intelligible to speakers of Dutch than the unmarked Dutch forms er and nu are to Afrikaans speakers. For example, nou is daar , meaning "now there is" in Afrikaans, is sometimes encountered in Dutch although nou is used more colloquially for emphasis, in the sense of the English "well". In Dutch, "now there is" would be translated as nu
6734-415: The more analytic morphology and grammar of Afrikaans, and different spellings. There is a large degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, especially in written form . 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 or Kaap-Nederlands ),
6825-450: The more conservative character of and recent changes to modern Dutch orthography. However, some aspects of Afrikaans orthography also resemble those of older forms of Dutch, for example, whereas "God be with you" in modern Dutch would be God zij met u , the Afrikaans spelling God sy met u , was also used in 18th century Dutch. The current Dutch spelling, using ⟨z⟩ and the digraph ⟨ ij ⟩ , became prevalent from
6916-616: The mountains surrounding the Theewaterskloof Dam near Villiersdorp . The Greater Brandvlei Dam, completed in 1936 and fully extended by 1987, provides water to various irrigation schemes throughout the agricultural sector of the region. (also known as the Brandvlei Dam and the Kwaggaskloof Dam . In the catchment area are a few more dams: The Breede River is a popular location for river rafting tours. The gently flowing water and
7007-514: 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 display the name of the country only in English and their host country's language, and not in Afrikaans. Meanwhile,
7098-410: The other way round. Mutual intelligibility thus tends to be asymmetrical, as it is easier for Dutch speakers to understand Afrikaans than for Afrikaans speakers to understand Dutch. In general, mutual intelligibility between Dutch and Afrikaans is far better than between Dutch and Frisian or between Danish and Swedish . The South African poet writer Breyten Breytenbach , attempting to visualise
7189-411: 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
7280-487: The pronunciation [ʃj] is encountered in the Southern Netherlands . At the end of words, Afrikaans often dropped the ⟨n⟩ in the Dutch cluster ⟨en⟩ (pronounced as a schwa, [ə] ), mainly present in plural nouns and verb forms, to become ⟨e⟩ Compare Dutch leven (life) and mensen (people) to Afrikaans lewe and mense . Also in Dutch, final -n
7371-417: The pronunciation differs from region to region and include [tsiɔn] , [siɔn] , and [ʃon] . Conversely, the Afrikaans cluster ⟨si⟩ in words such as spesiaal ("special") and pensioen ("pension") is pronounced as [ʃi] with an extra syllable ⟨i⟩ , but in Dutch, both the ⟨ci⟩ in speciaal and ⟨si⟩ in pensioen are pronounced as [ʃ] , although
7462-407: The second season of the series River Monsters . As Jeremy Wade 's investigations indicate, the bull sharks of the Breede River are larger than average due to their unique habit of stealing fishermen's catches, allowing them to feed and gain weight without expending much energy. This and the healthy nature of the river's ecosystem in turn has led to a record of very few to no shark attacks on humans in
7553-475: The second vowel requires a trema to avoid confusion with the digraphs ⟨oe⟩ ( [u(ː)] ) and ⟨ee⟩ ( [ɪə] ). This also applies to Afrikaans nouns that, while ending in ⟨g⟩ as in Dutch, end with ⟨eë⟩ in the plural; while "railway" in both languages is spoorweg , "railways" is spoorwegen in Dutch ( [spoːrʋeːɣə(n)] ) but spoorweë ( [spʊərvɪə̯] ) in Afrikaans. Between two vowels, Dutch ⟨v⟩
7644-442: 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,
7735-537: The two languages. Afrikaans has a considerably more regular morphology, grammar, and spelling. There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, particularly in written form. Afrikaans acquired some lexical and syntactical borrowings from other languages such as Malay , Khoisan languages , Portuguese, and Bantu languages , and Afrikaans has also been significantly influenced by South African English . Dutch speakers are confronted with fewer non-cognates when listening to Afrikaans than
7826-574: 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. The earliest Afrikaans texts were some doggerel verse from 1795 and a dialogue transcribed by a Dutch traveller in 1825. Afrikaans used the Latin alphabet around this time, although the Cape Muslim community used
7917-559: Was influenced by Eugene Nida 's theory of dynamic equivalence which focused on finding the nearest equivalent in the receptor language to the idea that the Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic wanted to convey. A new translation, Die Bybel: 'n Direkte Vertaling was released in November 2020. It is the first truly ecumenical translation of the Bible in Afrikaans as translators from various churches, including
8008-693: Was known in standard Dutch as a 'kitchen language' (Dutch: kombuistaal ), lacking the prestige accorded, for example, even by the educational system in Africa, to languages spoken outside Africa. Other early epithets setting apart Kaaps Hollands (' Cape Dutch ', i.e. Afrikaans) as putatively beneath official Dutch standards included geradbraakt , gebroken and onbeschaafd Hollands ('mutilated, broken, or uncivilised Dutch'), as well as verkeerd Nederlands ('incorrect Dutch'). Historical linguist Hans den Besten theorises that modern Standard Afrikaans derives from two sources: So Afrikaans, in his view,
8099-649: Was the translation of the whole Bible into Afrikaans. While significant advances had been made in the textual criticism of the Bible, especially the Greek New Testament , the 1933 translation followed the Textus Receptus and was closely akin to the Statenbijbel . Before this, most Cape Dutch-Afrikaans speakers had to rely on the Dutch Statenbijbel . This Statenvertaling had its origins with
8190-531: Was under development As of 2018. The official orthography of Afrikaans is the Afrikaanse Woordelys en Spelreëls , compiled by Die Taalkommissie . The Afrikaners primarily were Protestants, of the Dutch Reformed Church of the 17th century. Their religious practices were later influenced in South Africa by British ministries during the 1800s. A landmark in the development of the language
8281-622: Was underlined 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. Afrikaans-medium schools were also accused of using language policy to deter Black African parents. Some of these parents, in part supported by provincial departments of education, initiated litigation which enabled enrolment with English as language of instruction. By 2006 there were 300 single-medium Afrikaans schools, compared to 2,500 in 1994, after most converted to dual-medium education. Due to Afrikaans being viewed as
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