Afrikaans - Wikipedia Jump to content Main menu Main menu move to sidebar hide Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Special pages Search Search Appearance Donate Create account Log in Personal tools Donate Create account Log in Contents move to sidebar hide (Top) 1 Etymology 2 History Toggle History subsection 2.1 Origin 2.2 Development 2.3 Recognition 2.4 Standardisation 2.5 The Afrikaans Bible 2.6 Classification 3 Geographic distribution Toggle Geographic distribution subsection 3.1 Statistics 3.2 Sociolinguistics 3.3 Mutual intelligibility with Dutch 4 Current status 5 Grammar 6 Phonology Toggle Phonology subsection 6.1 Vowels 6.1.1 Diphthongs 6.2 Consonants 7 Dialects Toggle Dialects subsection 7.1 Patagonian Afrikaans 7.2 Namibian Afrikaans 8 Influences on Afrikaans from other languages Toggle Influences on Afrikaans from other languages subsection 8.1 Malay 8.2 Portuguese 8.3 Khoisan languages 8.4 Bantu languages 8.5 French 9 Orthography Toggle Orthography subsection 9.1 Initial apostrophes 9.2 Table of characters 10 Sample text 11 See also 12 Notes 13 References Toggle References subsection 13.1 Citations 13.2 Sources 14 Further reading 15 External links Toggle the table of contents Afrikaans 171 languages Afrikaans Alemannisch አማርኛ Aragonés Ænglisc अंगिका العربية ܐܪܡܝܐ مصرى Asturianu Azərbaycanca تۆرکجه Boarisch Žemaitėška Беларуская (тарашкевіца) Беларуская Betawi Български বাংলা Brezhoneg Буряад Català 閩東語 / Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄ Cebuano کوردی Čeština Чӑвашла Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Zazaki Ελληνικά Emiliàn e rumagnòl Esperanto Español Eesti Euskara فارسی Suomi Võro Føroyskt Français Nordfriisk Frysk Gaeilge Gàidhlig Galego Avañe'ẽ Hausa 客家語 / Hak-kâ-ngî עברית हिन्दी Fiji Hindi Hrvatski Hornjoserbsce Magyar Հայերեն Interlingua Jaku Iban Bahasa Indonesia Igbo Ilokano Ido Íslenska Italiano 日本語 Jawa ქართული Қазақша 한국어 Къарачай-малкъар کٲشُر Коми Kernowek Latina Ladino Lëtzebuergesch Лезги Lingua Franca Nova Limburgs Ligure Lombard Lingála Lietuvių Latviešu मैथिली Malagasy Minangkabau Македонски മലയാളം ꯃꯤꯇꯩ ꯂꯣꯟ मराठी Bahasa Melayu مازِرونی Nedersaksies Plattdüütsch नेपाली नेपाल भाषा Nederlands Norsk nynorsk Norsk bokmål Novial Nouormand Sesotho sa Leboa Occitan Livvinkarjala Ирон ਪੰਜਾਬੀ Kapampangan Papiamentu Deitsch Polski Piemontèis پنجابی پښتو Português Runa Simi Română Русский Русиньскый Ikinyarwanda ᱥᱟᱱᱛᱟᱲᱤ Sardu Sicilianu Scots Davvisámegiella Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Gagana Samoa ChiShona Soomaaliga Shqip Српски / srpski Sesotho Seeltersk Svenska Kiswahili Ślůnski தமிழ் Тоҷикӣ ไทย Tagalog Tolışi Setswana Toki pona Türkçe Xitsonga Татарча / tatarça ئۇيغۇرچە / Uyghurche Українська اردو Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча Tshivenda Vèneto Vepsän kel’ Tiếng Việt West-Vlams Volapük Walon Winaray 吴语 IsiXhosa მარგალური Yorùbá Zeêuws 閩南語 / Bân-lâm-gí 粵語 中文 IsiZulu Edit links Article Talk English Read Edit View history Tools Tools move to sidebar hide Actions Read Edit View history General What links here Related changes Upload file Permanent link Page information Cite this page Get shortened URL Switch to legacy parser Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikibooks Wikifunctions Wikiquote Wikiversity Wikivoyage Wikidata item Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia West Germanic language spoken in South Africa For white Afrikaans speakers, see Afrikaners. Not to be confused with Africans. 10.3 million L2 speakers in South Africa"},"date":{"wt":"2011"},"ref":{"wt":"e19"},"ethnicity":{"wt":"[[Afrikaners]]<br/> [[Coloureds]]"},"speakers2":{"wt":""},"familycolor":{"wt":"Indo-European"},"fam2":{"wt":"[[Germanic languages|Germanic]]"},"fam3":{"wt":"[[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]]"},"fam4":{"wt":"[[Weser–Rhine Germanic]]"},"fam5":{"wt":"[[Low Franconian languages|Low Franconian]]"},"fam6":{"wt":"[[Dutch language|Dutch]]"},"fam7":{"wt":"[[Central Dutch dialects|Central Dutch]]"},"fam8":{"wt":"[[Hollandic Dutch|Hollandic]]"},"ancestor":{"wt":"[[Frankish language|Frankish]]"},"ancestor2":{"wt":"[[Old Dutch]]"},"ancestor3":{"wt":"[[Middle Dutch]]"},"ancestor4":{"wt":"17th-century [[Hollandic Dutch|Hollandic]]"},"script":{"wt":"Latin script (Afrikaans alphabet), [[Arabic Afrikaans|Arabic script]]"},"sign":{"wt":"[[Signed Afrikaans]]<ref>Aarons & Reynolds, \"South African Sign Language\" in Monaghan (ed.), ''Many Ways to be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities'' (2003).</ref>"},"nation":{"wt":"[[South Africa]]"},"agency":{"wt":"[[Die Taalkommissie]]"},"minority":{"wt":"[[Namibia]]"},"iso1":{"wt":"af"},"iso2":{"wt":"afr"},"iso3":{"wt":"afr"},"glotto":{"wt":"afri1274"},"glottorefname":{"wt":"Afrikaans"},"lingua":{"wt":"52-ACB-ba"},"map":{"wt":"Idioma afrikáans.png"},"mapcaption":{"wt":"{{legend|#0081ff|&nbsp;spoken by a majority}}{{legend|#89c6ff|&nbsp;spoken by a minority}}"},"notice":{"wt":"IPA"},"dia1":{"wt":"[[Kaaps]]"},"dia2":{"wt":"[[Boeraans]]"},"dia3":{"wt":"[[Afrikaans (Eastern Cape dialect)|Eastern Cape]]"},"dia4":{"wt":"[[Afrikaans (Northern Cape dialect)|Northern Cape]]"},"dia5":{"wt":"[[Patagonian Afrikaans|Patagonian]]"},"dia6":{"wt":"[[Namibian Afrikaans|Namibian]]"}},"i":0}}]}'>Afrikaans Pronunciation [afriˈkɑːns] Native to South Africa Namibia Region Southern Africa Ethnicity Afrikaners Coloureds Native speakers 7.2 million (2016) 10.3 million L2 speakers in South Africa (2011)[1] Language family Indo-European GermanicWest GermanicWeser–Rhine GermanicLow FranconianDutchCentral DutchHollandicAfrikaans Early forms Frankish Old Dutch Middle Dutch 17th-century Hollandic Dialects Kaaps Boeraans Eastern Cape Northern Cape Patagonian Namibian Writing system Latin script (Afrikaans alphabet), Arabic script Signed forms Signed Afrikaans[2] Official status Official language in South Africa Recognised minority language in Namibia Regulated by Die Taalkommissie Language codes ISO 639-1 af ISO 639-2 afr ISO 639-3 afr Glottolog afri1274 Linguasphere 52-ACB-ba    spoken by a majority    spoken by a minority This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. Colin speaking Afrikaans Alaric speaking Afrikaans Rossouw speaking Afrikaans Afrikaans{{cite book |last = Wells |first = John C. |year = 2008 |title = Longman Pronunciation Dictionary |edition=3rd |publisher=Longman |isbn = 978-1-4058-8118-0 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Roach|first=Peter |url=https://archive.org/details/englishpronounci00dani|title=Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2011|isbn=978-0-521-15253-2 |edition=18th|url-access=registration}}</ref>"},"group":{"wt":"\"n\""}},"i":0}}]}'>[n 1] is a West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia, and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and also Argentina, where a group in Sarmiento speaks a Patagonian dialect. It emerged during the late 19th century as a fusion of Dutch dialects (mainly Hollandic and Zealandic) spoken by the Dutch settlers in South Africa since the 17th century and the Dutch-based creole languages spoken by the Khoisan, Nguni and Coloured peoples.[5][6][7][8][9] Obelisks of the Afrikaans Language Monument near Paarl Afrikaans is the third most spoken home language in South Africa, out of the country's 12 official languages.[10][11][12] In 1996 it was spoken by 14.5% of the population an estimated 5.9 million people, by 2022 that had fallen to 10.6%, 6,3 million people, with Afrikaans gaining roughly 480,000 speakers overall.[13][14][15] Although Afrikaans has adopted words from other languages, including German, Malay, and Khoisan languages, an estimated 90 to 95% of its vocabulary is of Dutch origin.[n 2] Differences between Afrikaans and Dutch often lie in the more analytic morphology and grammar of Afrikaans, and different spellings.[n 3] There is a large degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, especially in written form.[16] Etymology [edit] The language's name comes directly from the Dutch word Afrikaansch (now spelled Afrikaans){{Cite web |title=Wet voorschriften schrijfwijze Nederlandsche taal |url=https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0002027/1997-02-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205160501/https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0002027/1997-02-21 |archive-date=5 February 2021 |access-date=2023-03-10 |publisher=Royal Dutch [[Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations]] |date=21 February 1997 |language=nl }}</ref>"},"group":{"wt":"\"n\""}},"i":0}}]}'>[n 4] meaning 'African'.[18] It was previously called 'Cape Dutch' (Kaap-Hollands or Kaap-Nederlands), 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". History [edit] Origin [edit] For a long time, the so-called Eastern Border Hypothesis of the South African linguist Prof. Dr. Christo van Rensburg (1938–2018) was regarded as the scientific consensus explaining the development and standardization of Afrikaans. According to this hypothesis, the Dutch dialect spoken on the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony was to be seen as a direct and natural development of the Dutch dialects (particularly Hollandic and Zeelandic varieties) spoken by the Trekboers, while the two other major dialects, Kaaps and Orange River Afrikaans, were considered to have undergone substantial creolization. This was attributed to the fact that, in these regions, a significant proportion of speakers had acquired Dutch not as their first language but as a second language. According to Van Rensburg, Eastern Border Afrikaans developed around 1775 into a stable and comparatively homogeneous Dutch dialect form, which became increasingly standardized and written down during the 19th century; particularly in the period after 1806–1820, when European Dutch began being replaced by English as the official and administrative language.[19][20] More recent research, however, has concluded that the development of Afrikaans was considerably more complex than this[21][22] and Afrikaans appears to have developed considerably more gradually and diversely than originally assumed. Instead of a single more or less unified dialect developing into a standardized language over the course of the 19th century, South Africa was characterized by a highly diverse linguistic landscape until the early twentieth century, with language communities ranging from some in which Dutch was used in schools and at home, differring little, if at all, from contemporary Dutch in Europe, to communities (often consisting of black,mixed or non-Dutch European immigrants) for whom Dutch was a second or even third language. These speech communities were interconnected through highly complex patterns of linguistic and social interaction, with the choice and use of a particular varieties depending on language proficiency and sociolinguistic factors such as social class, ethnicity, and race.[20][23] In the late eighteenth century, a written tradition emerged that made conspicuous use of features associated with these highly diverse South African dialects and sociolects. The earliest deliberate im…