Afrikaans is a Low Franconian language mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia with smaller numbers of speakers in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Due to the emigration of many Afrikaners, there are an additional estimated 300,000 Afrikaans-speakers in the United Kingdom^{[citation needed]}, with other substantial communities found in Perth, Australia; Toronto, Canada; and Auckland, New Zealand. It is the primary language used by two related ethnic groups: the Afrikaners and the Coloureds or kleurlinge / bruinmense (including Basters, Cape Malays and Griqua). These two groups are collectively known as Afrikaanses, roughly meaning "the language community of Afrikaans-speakers". It is also spoken as a first language by many Tswana people in South Africa's North West Province. Categories: Africa geography stubs | Southern Africa ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many in Southwest Asia, Central Asia and South Asia. ... The Germanic languages in Europe are divided into North (blue) and West Germanic (green and orange) Languages  Low Saxon-Low Franconian (Dutch)  High German (standard German, Schwyzerdütsch)  Insular Anglo-Frisian (English, Scots)  Continental Anglo-Frisian (Frisian)  East North Germanic (Danish, BokmÃ¥l Norwegian, Swedish)  West North Germanic (Nynorsk Norwegian... Low Franconian is any of several West Germanic languages spoken in The Netherlands, northern Belgium, and South Africa. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code Twenty-two of the languages have two three-letter codes: a code for bibliographic use (ISO 639-2/B) a code for terminological use (ISO 639-2/T). ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). ... Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Low Franconian is any of several West Germanic languages spoken in The Netherlands, northern Belgium, and South Africa. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Immigration. ... Afrikaners (sometimes known as Boers) are white South Africans, predominantly of Calvinist German, French Huguenot, Friesian and Walloons descent who speak Afrikaans. ... Perth is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Western Australia, and is the fourth largest city in Australia, with a population of approximately 1. ... The Auckland Metropolitan Area, or Greater Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest urban area in New Zealand. ... Afrikaners (sometimes known as Boers) are white South Africans, predominantly of Calvinist German, French Huguenot, Friesian and Walloons descent who speak Afrikaans. ... In the South African context, the term Coloured refers to various people of mixed Bantu, Khoisan, and European descent (with some Malay or Indian ancestry, especially in the Western Cape) together with some racially pure Khoisans. ... The Basters (also known as Baasters or Rehoboth Basters) are the descendents of liaisons between the Cape Colony Dutch and indigenous African women. ... The Cape Malay community is an ethnic group or community in South Africa, taking its name from what is now known as the Western Cape of South Africa and the Malay people who started this community in South Africa. ... The Griqua (Afrikaans Griekwa) are a subgroup of South Africas heterogeneous and multiracial Coloured people. ... Tswana (Motswana, plural Batswana) is the name of a Southern African people. ...

Some Afrikaans speakers do not consider themselves either Afrikaners or Coloureds, but simply Afrikaans-speaking South African.^{[citation needed]} Geographically, the Afrikaans language is the majority language of the western one-third of South Africa (Northern and Western Cape, spoken at home by 69% and 58%, respectively). It is also the largest first language in the adjacent southern one-third of Namibia (Hardap and Karas, where it is the first language of 43% and 41%, respectively). It is the most widely used second language throughout both of these countries for the population as a whole, although the younger generation has better proficiency in English. Northern Cape is a province of South Africa, created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. ... The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. ... Area: 109,888 km² (42,428 mi²) Population: 67,998 (2001), 66,495 (1991) Population density 1. ... Area: 161,325 km² (62,288 mi²) Population: 69,677 Population density 0. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

The name Afrikaans is simply the Dutch word for African, i.e. the African form of the Dutch language. The dialect became known as "Cape Dutch". Later, Afrikaans was sometimes also referred to as "African Dutch" or "Kitchen Dutch", although some now consider these terms pejorative. Afrikaans was considered a Dutch dialect until the late 19th century, when it began to be recognised as a distinct language, and it gained equal status with Dutch and English as an official language in South Africa in 1925. Dutch remained an official language until the new 1961 constitution finally stipulated the two official languages in South Africa to be Afrikaans and English (although, curiously, the 1961 constitution still had a sub-clause stipulating that the word "Afrikaans" was also meant to be referring to the Dutch language). The 1925 decision led Dutch to enter disuse and be replaced by Afrikaans for all purposes. The term Cape Dutch was used to describe the Dutch, French, German, and other European descended inhabitants of the Western Cape who from the 17th century into the 19th century who remained loyal subjects of European (first Dutch then later British) powers while their pastoralist trekking cousins: the Trekboers were... Look up pejorative in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

There are basically three dialects, of which the northeastern variant (which developed into a literary language in the Transvaal) forms the basis of the written standard. Within the Dutch-speaking zones of the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname, there is greater divergence among the dialects than there is between standard Dutch and standard Afrikaans. Although Afrikaans knows some typical Hollandic tones, there particularly exist striking similarities between Afrikaans and West Flemish. Oosgrens-Afrikaans is a dialect of Afrikaans, which is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia. ... Flag of Transvaal The Transvaal (lit. ... The orthography of a language is the set of symbols (glyphs and diacritics) used to write a language, as well as the set of rules describing how to write these glyphs correctly, including spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. ... West Flemish (in West Flemish, Vlaemsch) is a group of dialects, spoken in parts of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. ...

It was originally the dialect that developed among the Afrikaner Protestant settlers and the indentured or slave workforce brought to the Cape area in southwestern South Africa by the Dutch East India Company (Dutch: Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie — VOC, Afrikaans: Nederlandse Oos-Indiese Kompanjie - NOIK) between 1652 and 1705. A relative majority of these first settlers were from the 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 South Indians, Malays, and Malagasy in addition to the indigenous Khoi and Bushmen. Afrikaners (Afrikaans and Dutch: Africans) are an ethnically distinct group of descendants of European settlers, arriving in modern day South Africa on and after 16 April 1652. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... A family of Russian settlers in the Caucasus region, ca. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Official language English and Dutch1 Capital Cape Town Largest City Cape Town Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 1st 569,020 km² (1910) Negligible Population  - Total (1911)  - Density Ranked 1st 2,564,965 4. ... Dutch colonial possessions, with the Dutch East India Company possessions marked in a paler green, surrounding the Indian Ocean plus Saint Helena in the mid-Atlantic. ... // Events April 6 - Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp for the Dutch East India Company at the Cape of Good Hope, and founded Cape Town. ... // Events Construction begins on Blenheim Palace, in Oxfordshire, England. ... The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden/Provinciën; also Dutch Republic or United Provinces in short) was a European republic between 1581 and 1795, which is now known as the Netherlands. ... Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I 843  Area    - Total 78... South India is a geographic and linguistic-cultural region of India. ... Malays (Dutch, Malayo, ultimately from Malay: Melayu) are a diverse group of Austronesian peoples inhabiting the Malay archipelago and Malay peninsula in Southeast Asia. ... The Khoikhoi (men of men) or Khoi are a division of the Khoisan ethnic group of south-western Africa, closely related to the Bushmen (San). ... The Bushmen (also known as Khwe Khoe, Basarwa, or San) peoples of South Africa and neighbouring Botswana and Namibia, who live in the Kalahari, are part of the Khoisan group and are related to the Khoikhoi. ...

History

Afrikaans is linguistically closely related to 17th and 18th century Dutch dialects spoken in North and South Holland and, by extension, to modern Dutch. Today, speakers of each language can make themselves understood fairly easily by speakers of the other. Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Holland is a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands. ...

Afrikaans grammar and spelling is simpler than that of Dutch, in the same sense and to approximately the same degree that English grammar is simpler than German grammar. Afrikaans also has a more diverse vocabulary, including words of English, Indian, Malay, Malagasy, Khoi, San and Bantu origins. Other closely related languages include Low German spoken in northern Germany and the Netherlands, German, and English. Cape Dutch vocabulary diverged from the Dutch vocabulary spoken in the Netherlands over time as Cape Dutch absorbed words from other European settlers, slaves from East India and Indonesia's Malay, and native African languages. Research by J. A. Heese indicates that as of 1807, 36.8% of the ancestors of the White Afrikaans speaking population were of Dutch ancestry, 35% were German, 14.6% were French and 7.2% non-white (of African and/or Asian origins). Heese's figures are questioned by other researchers, however, and the non-white component, in particular, quoted by Heese is very doubtful. Low German (also called Plattdeutsch, Plattdüütsch or Low Saxon, Old Saxon) is a name for the regional language varieties of the Low Germanic languages spoken mainly in northern Germany, and eastern Netherlands. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A family of Russian settlers in the Caucasus region, ca. ... Malays (Dutch, Malayo, ultimately from Malay: Melayu) are a diverse group of Austronesian peoples inhabiting the Malay archipelago and Malay peninsula in Southeast Asia. ...

Standardization of Afrikaans

The linguist Paul Roberge suggests that the earliest 'truly "Afrikaans"' texts are doggerel verse from 1795 and a dialogue transcribed by a Dutch traveller in 1825. Printed material among the Afrikaners at first used only proper European Dutch. By the mid-19th century, more and more were appearing in Afrikaans, which was very much still regarded as a set of spoken regional dialects. 1795 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1825 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1861, LH Meurant published his Zamenspraak tusschen Klaas Waarzegger en Jan Twyfelaar, 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 Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaners ("Society for Real Afrikaners") in Cape Town. 1861 is a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Sheikh Abu Bakr Effendi (1835–1880) was a qadi who was sent to the Cape of Good Hope to teach the muslim community of the Cape Malays. ... Arabic Afrikaans was a form of Afrikaans that was written in Arabic script. ... For other uses, including people named Islam, see Islam (disambiguation). ... 1862 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1869 (MDCCCLXIX) is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... 1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaanders (Society for Real Afrikaners) was formed on Saturday August 14, 1875 in the town of Paarl by a group of Afrikaans speakers from the Western Cape region. ... , City motto: Spes Bona (Latin: Good Hope) Location of the City of Cape Town in Western Cape Province Province Western Cape Mayor Helen Zille Area  - % water 2,499 km² N/A Population  - Total (2004)  - Density Ranked 100th 2,893,251 1,158/km² Established 1652 Time zone SAST (UTC+2...

The Boer Wars further strengthened the position of the new Dutch-like language. The official languages of the Union of South Africa were English and Dutch until Afrikaans was subsumed under Dutch on 5 May 1925. Boer guerrillas during the Second Boer War There were two Boer wars, one in 1880-81 and the second from October 11, 1899-1902 both between the British and the settlers of Dutch origin (called Boere, Afrikaners or Voortrekkers) in South Africa that put an end to the two independent... An official language is a language that is given a privileged legal status in a state, or other legally-defined territory. ... National motto: Ex Unitate Vires (Latin: From Unity, strength} Official languages Afrikaans, Dutch and English. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... May 5 is the 125th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (126th in leap years). ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Difference between Dutch and Afrikaans

Besides vocabulary, the most striking difference between Dutch and Afrikaans is its much more regular grammar, which is likely the result of extensive contact with one or more creole languages based on the Dutch language spoken by the relatively large number of non-Dutch speakers (Khoikhoi, German, French, Cape Malay, and speakers of different African languages) during the formation period of the language in the second half of the 17th century. In 1710, slaves outnumbered free settlers, and the language was developing among speakers who had little occasion to write or analyse their new dialect. // A creole language, or just creole, is a well-defined and stable language that originated from a non-trivial combination of two or more languages, typically with many distinctive features that are not inherited from either parent. ... Khoikhoi is a language spoken in South Africa by a million people. ... The Cape Malay community is an ethnic group or community in South Africa, taking its name from what is now known as the Western Cape of South Africa and the Malay people who started this community in South Africa. ...

There are many different theories about how Afrikaans came to be. 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. The Afrikaans School has also rejected all alternative ideas.

Most linguistics scholars today are certain that Afrikaans has been influenced by creole languages based on the South-Holland Dutch dialect. It is very hard to find out how this influence took place, since there is almost no material written in the Dutch-based creole languages: only a few sentences found in unrelated books often written by non-speakers. // A creole language, or just creole, is a well-defined and stable language that originated from a non-trivial combination of two or more languages, typically with many distinctive features that are not inherited from either parent. ...

Although much of the vocabulary of Afrikaans reflects its origins in 17th century South-Hollandic Dutch, it also contains words borrowed from Asian Malay (one of the oldest known Afrikaans texts used Arabic script; see Arabic Afrikaans), Malagasy, Portuguese, French, Khoi and San dialects, English, Xhosa and many other languages. Consequently, many words in Afrikaans are very different from Dutch, as demonstrated by the names of different fruits: The Malay language, also known locally as Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia, is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who reside in the Malay Peninsula, southern Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau islands, and parts of the coast of Borneo. ... Arabic Afrikaans was a form of Afrikaans that was written in Arabic script. ... Map showing the distribution of the Khoi-San languages. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Xhosa (IPA: ) is one of the official languages of South Africa. ...

* from Malay pisang (via Dutch East Indies history), Piesang is also used in The Netherlands and Indonesia. ** suur = sour (which is essentially the same as the Dutch word 'zuur'). Lemoen or limoen is also used in standard Dutch. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Dutch East Indies, or Netherlands East Indies, (Dutch: Nederlands-Indië) was the name of the colonies set up by the Dutch East India Company, which came under administration of the Netherlands during the 19th century (see Indonesia). ...

Provinces of South Africa in which a majority of the population are Afrikaans native speakers. Other provinces also have significant numbers of speakers.

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1146x828, 14 KB) Licensing I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1146x828, 14 KB) Licensing I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. ... A map of the nine provinces of South Africa South Africa is currently divided into nine provinces. ...

Grammar

Main article: Afrikaans grammar

The grammar of Afrikaans is very analytic — indeed it may be said to be the most analytic of the Indo-European languages. ...

Orthography

Written Afrikaans differs from Dutch in that the spelling reflects a phonetically simplified language, and so many consonants are dropped (see also the grammar section for a description of how consonant dropping affects the morphology of Afrikaans adjectives and nouns). The spelling is also considerably more phonetical than the Dutch counterpart. A notable feature is the indefinite article, which, as noted in the grammar section, is "'n", not "een" as in Dutch. "A book" is "'n Boek", whereas in Dutch it would be "een boek". (Note that "'n" is still allowed in Dutch; Afrikaans uses only "'n" where Dutch uses it next to "een". When letters are dropped an apostrophe is mandatory. Note that this "'n" is usually pronounced as a weak vowel (like the Afrikaans "i") and is not as a consonant.

Other features include the use of 's' instead of 'z', hence South Africa in Afrikaans is written as Suid-Afrika, whereas in Dutch it is Zuid-Afrika. (This accounts for .za being used as South Africa's internet top level domain.) The Dutch letter 'IJ' is written as 'Y', except where it replaces the Dutch suffix —lijk, as in waarschijnlijk = waarskynlik. Interesting to note that the use of the hard "k" is analogous to the pronunciation in parts of Flanders, which was once part of the United Provinces, and from whence many an Afrikaner came. Also surprising for many Dutch is the double negative, which could possibly be attributed to the French origins of many Afrikaners: Moet nie rook nie — Do not smoke; compare to the French "Ne fumez pas". .za is the Internet country code top-level domain ( ccTLD) for South Africa. ... The following is a list of currently existing Internet Top-level domains (TLDs). ... Look up affix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Flanders (Dutch: Vlaanderen) has several main meanings: the social, cultural and linguistical, scientific and educational, economical and political community of the Flemings; some prefer to call this the Flemish community (others refer to this as the Flemish nation) which is, with over 6 million inhabitants, the majority of all Belgians... Map of Dutch Republic by Joannes Janssonius United Netherlands redirects here. ... Afrikaners (Afrikaans and Dutch: Africans) are an ethnically distinct group of descendants of European settlers, arriving in modern day South Africa on and after 16 April 1652. ...

Comparison with Dutch, German and English

The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Sociolinguistics

Afrikaans is the first language of approximately 60% of South Africa's Whites, and over 90% of the "Coloured" (mixed-race) population. Large numbers of black South Africans, Indians, and English-speaking whites (Anglo-Africans) also speak it as a second language. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... In the South African and Namibian context, the term Coloured (also known as Bruinmense, Kleurlinge or Bruine Afrikaners) refers to a rather heterogeneous group of people of mixed Khoisan, white European descent, Malay, Malagasy, Black (Bantu), and South Indian ancestry, especially in the Western Cape. ... Anglo Africans number about 4 million, and are predominantly of English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish and French Huguenot descent who speak English. ...

It is also 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. There is a much smaller number of Afrikaans speakers among Zimbabwe's white minority, as most left the country in 1980. This article is about the year. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ...

Many South Africans living and working in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom are also Afrikaans speakers.

Afrikaans has been influential in the development of South African English. Many Afrikaans loanwords have found their way into South African English, such as "veld" ("field" or "bush"), "braai" ("barbecue"), "boomslang" ("tree snake"), and "lekker" ("nice" / "tasty" / "fun" / "good"). A few words in standard English are derived from Afrikaans, such as "trek" ("move" or "pull"), "stoep" ("verandah"), "spoor" ("track"), and, of course, apartheid ("apart-ness"). South African English is a dialect of English spoken in South Africa and in neighbouring countries with a large number of Anglo-Africans living in them, such as Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. ... The braaivleis or braai (Afrikaans for roasted meat) is a social custom in South Africa. ... In South African history, the Great Trek was an eastward and north-eastward migration of the Boers, descendants primarily of immigrants from western mainland Europe. ... A segregated beach in South Africa, 1982. ...

In 1976, high school students in Soweto began a rebellion that contributed to the end of apartheid and the whites-only government of South Africa. This has been credited to that government's decision that Afrikaans rather than English be used as the language of instruction in non-White schools. However, many historians argue that the language issue was a catalyst for the rebellion rather than a major underlying cause (which was racial oppression). Afrikaans is more widely spoken than English (and is, in fact, spoken by a majority of residents in two of South Africa's nine provinces), so children may not have objected to the use of Afrikaans, per se. Some argue that it was the further directive, within the instructional language directive, 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., on the theory they would never need to know those subjects because they would never have the occasion to use such an education; see History of South Africa. Johannesburg, including Soweto, from the International Space Station Soweto is an urban area in Johannesburg, in Gauteng, South Africa. ... A segregated beach in South Africa, 1982. ... The history of South Africa encompasses over three million years. ...

Under South Africa's democratic Constitution of 1996, Afrikaans remains an official language, and in addition to English, there are nine other official languages with which it now has equal status. The new dispensation means that Afrikaans is often downgraded 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 Suid-Afrikaanse Lugdiens 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. 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... SABC logo The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the state owned broadcaster in South Africa, and was for many years the monopoly, controlled by the white minority National Party government. ... South African Airways (SAA), using South African on their aircraft livery, is South Africas largest domestic and international airline company. ... A livery is a uniform worn by a civilian person. ... Seal on the building of German Embassies. ...

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 Huisgenoot, an Afrikaans language general interest family magazine, is the magazine with the largest readership in the country. In addition, a pay-TV channel in Afrikaans called KykNet was launched in 1999 and an Afrikaans music channel, MK89, in 2005. A large number of Afrikaans books also continue to be published every year. Huisgenoot (Afrikaans for House Companion) is a weekly Afrikaans language general interest family magazine. ... KykNet is a South African television channel, which broadcasts in Afrikaans. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... MK89 is an Afrikaans music channel, launched in mid 2005, that is part of the DSTVbouquet of satellite channels owned by MultiChoice/M-Net, based in South Africa. ...

Although Afrikaans has diverged from Dutch over the past three centuries, it still shares approximately 85 per cent of its vocabulary with that language, and Afrikaans speakers are able to learn Dutch within a comparatively short period of time. Native Dutch speakers pick up Afrikaans even more quickly, due to its simplified grammar. This has enabled Dutch companies to outsource their call centre operations to South Africa, thereby taking advantage of lower labour costs. Outsourcing (or contracting out) is often defined as the delegation of non-core operations or jobs from internal production within a business to an external entity (such as a subcontractor) that specializes in that operation. ... A very large collections call center in Lakeland, FL. A call centre or call center (see spelling differences) is a centralized office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. ...

International view of Afrikaans

Outside of South Africa, the Afrikaans language is sometimes regarded with contempt. When the British design magazine Wallpaper* described Afrikaans as "the ugliest language in the world" (with reference to the Afrikaans Language 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 [1]. The author of the article, Bronwyn Davies, is an English-speaking South African, however. Wallpaper* is a magazine focusing on travel, design, entertainment, fashion and media. ... Obelisks of the Language Monument in Paarl, Western Cape, South Africa. ... A billionaire is a person who has a net worth or wealth of or more than one billion United States dollars or euros. ... Johann Peter Rupert (1 June 1950 - ) is the eldest son of the late Afrikaans South African business tycoon Anton Rupert and Huberte Rupert and is the chairman of the Swiss-based luxury-goods company Richemont as well as of the South Africa-based companies VenFin and Remgro. ... Compagnie Financière Richemont SA is a Swiss luxury goods company that was founded in 1988 by the South African billionaire businessman, Anton Rupert. ... Cartier SA is a jeweler and watch manufacturer that is a subsidiary of Compagnie Financière Richemont SA. Famed for its Panthère Collection, especially the infamous Bestiary - including the famous brooch of the 1940s made for Wallis Simpson and the first practical wristwatch the Santos. History The company Cartier... One of the most stylish jewellery dealers of the 20th Century. ... Montblanc International GmbH is a German manufacturer of fine pens, watches and accessories often identified by their famous White Star logo. ... Alfred Dunhill, Ltd. ...

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. There are a lot of different dialects and different pronunciations — but the transcription should be fairly standard. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Phonetic (pho-NET-ic) is a nationwide voicemail-to-text messaging service available for most digital mobile phones in which a subscriber is provided a custom voice mailbox for the purpose of receiving all incoming voice messages as actual transcribed text for reading via short messaging (also known as SMS... Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ...

• Hallo! Hoe gaan dit? [ɦaləu ɦu xaˑn dət] Hello! How are you?
• Baie goed, dankie. [bajə xuˑt danki] Very good, thanks.
• Praat jy Afrikaans? [prɑˑt jəi afrikɑˑns] Do you speak Afrikaans?
• Praat jy Engels? [prɑˑt jəi ɛŋəls] Do you speak English?
• Ja. [jɑˑ] Yes.
• Nee. [neˑə] No.
• 'n Bietjie. [ə biki] A little.
• Wat is jou naam? [vat əs jəu nɑˑm] What is your name?
• Die kinders praat Afrikaans. [di kənərs prɑˑt afrikɑˑns] The children speak Afrikaans.

An interesting sentence having the same meaning and written (but not pronounced) identically in Afrikaans and English is:

• My pen was in my hand. ([məi pɛn vas ən məi hɑnt])

Similarly the sentence:

• My hand is in warm water. ([məi hɑnt əs ən varəm vɑˑtər])

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).

Additional information

• Afrikaans has a monument erected in its honour. The Afrikaans Language Monument (Afrikaanse Taalmonument) is located near the Western Cape Province town of Paarl.
• The letters c, q and x are rarely seen in Afrikaans, and words containing them are almost exclusively borrowings from French, English, Greek or Latin. This is usually because words which had c and ch in the original Dutch are spelt with k and g repectively in Afrikaans (in many dialects of Dutch (including the Hollandic ones), a ch is spoken as a g, which explains the use of the g in Afrikaans language). Similarly original qu and x are spelt kw and ks respectively. For example ekwatoriaal instead of "equatoriaal" and ekskuus instead of "excuus".
• Special letters used are è, é, ê, ë, î, ï, ô, û. Sometimes ʼn is considered a single character.

Obelisks of the Language Monument in Paarl, Western Cape, South Africa. ... Paarl Rock Paarl (meaning Pearl in Dutch and Perel in Afrikaans) is the third oldest European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after Cape Town and Stellenbosch) and forms part of the Western Cape Province. ...

See also

• Aardklop Arts Festival
• Afrikaans grammar
• Afrikaans Language Monument
• Arabic Afrikaans
• List of Afrikaans language poets
• List of English words of Afrikaans origin
• Swadesh list of Afrikaans words

The tone of this article is inappropriate for an encyclopedia article. ... The grammar of Afrikaans is very analytic — indeed it may be said to be the most analytic of the Indo-European languages. ... Obelisks of the Language Monument in Paarl, Western Cape, South Africa. ... Arabic Afrikaans was a form of Afrikaans that was written in Arabic script. ... List of Afrikaans language poets. ... Several words from the Afrikaans language have been absorbed into English, primarily from British soldiers who served in the Boer Wars. ...

References

• Roberge, P. T., 2002. Afrikaans - considering origins, in Language in South Africa, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom. ISBN 0-521-53383-X

External links

Afrikaans edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Learn Afrikaans online - Includes background info on the language and culture
• Rapport - South Africa's largest Afrikaans Sunday Newspaper
• kykNET - an Afrikaans South African TV station
• List of free online resources for learners
• The Ethnologue: Afrikaans
• Afrikaans - English Dictionary: from Webster's Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition.
• Radio Sonder Grense (radio without borders) - Afrikaans radio online.
• Radio Pretoria - Afrikaans radio online.
• Kuier.co.za (online Magazine)
• Similarty between Afrikaans and various dialects of modern Dutch.
• Die Roepstem: "What is Afrikaans?" Afrikaans & Dutch web-site, with largest Afr.-Du. wordlist.
• Afrikaans Sample at Language Museum
• List of online Afrikaans-related resources
• Afrikaans Spelling Checker for Microsoft Office
• Afrikaans Spelling Checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla
• Afrikaans edition of OpenOffice.org
• Afrikaans edition of the Mozilla Firefox web-browser
• Project to translate Free and Open Source Software into Afrikaans
• Subject Group Afrikaans and Dutch, School of Languages, North-West University
• Free Afrikaans spelling checker for MS-Word available on the Web

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1058x1058, 477 KB) aa Wikipedia logo, version 1058px square, no text Wikipedia logo by Nohat (concept by Paullusmagnus); compare Wikipedia File links The following pages link to this file: Arabic language Talk:Anarcho-capitalism Talk:Algorithm Talk:Anno Domini Talk:The... Wikipedia (pronounced Wik-ey-pee-de-ah) (IPA: , or , else ) is a Web-based free-content multilingual encyclopedia project. ...

Dictionaries

Afrikaans edition of Wiktionary, the free dictionary/thesaurus

• Afrikaans Dictionary from Webster's Dictionary
• Afrikaans to English & English to Afrikaans from wordgumbo.com
• English to Afrikaans from xyzhomepage.com
• Afrikaans-English-Afrikaans Online Dictionary, www.majstro.com

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary is a Wikimedia Foundation project intended to be a free wiki dictionary (hence: Wiktionary) (including thesaurus and lexicon) in every language. ... The Germanic languages are a group of related languages constituting a branch of the Indo-European (IE) language family. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The West Frisian language (Frysk) is a language spoken mostly in the province of Fryslân in the north of the Netherlands. ... Luxembourgish, Luxemburgish, or Luxembourgian (Luxembourgish: Lëtzebuergesch, French: Luxembourgeois, German: Luxemburgisch, Walloon: Lussimbordjwès) is a West Germanic language spoken in Luxembourg. ... Yiddish (Yid. ...

Official languages of the Republic of South Africa
Afrikaans | English | isiNdebele | Sepedi | Sesotho Setswana | Siswati | Xitsonga | Tshivenda | isiXhosa | isiZulu