Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Afrikaans |
AfrikaansAdjective1. Belonging or relating to white people of South Africa whose ancestors were Dutch or to their language; "an Afrikaans couple"; "Afrikaner support". Noun1. An official language of the Republic of South Africa; closely related to Dutch and Flemish. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Synonym: AfrikaansSynonym: the Taal (n). (additional references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
| Afrikaans | ||||||||||
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| Language codes: afr(ISO 639-2) af(ISO 639-1) | ||||||||||
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| Language Spread | ||||||||||
| South Africa | ||||||||||
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language spoken in South Africa and Namibia. It was originally the dialect that developed among Calvinist settlers, brought to the Cape area in southwestern South Africa by the Dutch East India Company (nl: Neederlandse Oostindische Compagnie) mainly from the Netherlands between 1652 and 1705, even though a considerable number was from Germany, France and a few from various other countries. Research by J.A. Heese indicates that until 1807 36,8% of the forefathers of the "white" Afrikaans speaking population were Dutch, 35% were German, 14,6% were French and 7,2% "Non White". Their dialect became known as "Cape Dutch". Later, Afrikaans was sometimes also referred to as "African Dutch". Afrikaans was considered a Dutch dialect until the early 20th century, when it began to be widely recognized as a distinct language.
Afrikaans is linguistically closely related to 17th century Dutch, and to modern Dutch by extension. (Other less closely related languages include the Low Saxon spoken in northern Germany and the Netherlands, German, and English.) Cape Dutch vocabulary diverged from the Dutch vocabulary spoken in the Netherlands and Cape Dutch absorbed words from other European settlers, East Indian slaves, and native African languages. Printed material at first used proper Dutch, but by the mid-19th century, more and more appeared in Afrikaans, which was very much still regarded as a regional dialect. The first Afrikaans grammars and dictionaries were published in 1875 by the Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaanders (Society for Real Afrikaners) in Cape Town. Official government proclamation of Afrikaans as a distinct language from Dutch came in 1925.
Besides vocabulary, the most striking difference from Dutch is its much more regular grammar, which may be the result of mutual interference with a Creole language based on the Dutch language, spoken by the relative large mumber of non-Dutch speakers (Khoisan, German, French, Malay and different African languages) during the formation period of the language in the second half of the 17th century. In 1710 slaves outnumbered free Settlers.
Although much of the vocabulary of Afrikaans reflects its origins in 17th century Dutch, it also contains words loaned from Indonesian languages, Malay, Portuguese, French, Khoi and San dialects, English, isiXhosa and many other languages. Consequently, many words in Afrikaans are very different from Dutch, as demonstrated by the names of different fruits:
History
| ENGLISH | DUTCH | AFRIKAANS |
| orange | sinaasappel | lemoen |
| lemon | citroen | suurlemoen |
| banana | banaan | piesang |
| AFRIKAANS | DUTCH | ENGLISH | |
| vir | voor | for | |
| vry | vrij | free | |
| my | mijn | my | |
| lughawe | luchthaven | airport | |
| skool | school | school | |
| sleg | slecht | bad | |
| eggenoot | echtgenoot | husband | |
| saam | samen | together | |
| aksie | actie | action | |
| voël | vogel | bird | |
| asseblief | alstublieft | please | |
| goeienaand | goedenavond | good evening | |
| oop | open | open |
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, Indian, and English South Africans also speak it as a second language.
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", "braai", "boomslang", and "lekker". A few words in standard English are derived from Afrikaans, such as "trek", "spoor", and, of course, apartheid.
In 1976, rioting broke out in Soweto as the result of the apartheid government's requirement that Afrikaans rather than English be used as the medium of instruction in black schools. See History of South Africa.
An Afrikaans wikipedia has been started, but is in the very early stages of development: Die Afrikaanse Wikipedia.
Sociolinguistics
Afrikaans Phrases
Feel free to translate pronounciations to IPA
A phrase that is written the same in Afrikaans as in English is:External links
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Afrikaans language."
Crosswords: Afrikaans |
| English words defined with "Afrikaans": Afrikander, Afrikaner ♦ Boer. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "Afrikaans": banket. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Afrikaans" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Afrikaan (African, Afrikaans, Afrikaans language), Danish (Afrikaans), Dutch (African, Afrikaans), German (afrikaans), Hungarian (afrikaans), Italian (afrikaans), Portuguese (afrikaans), Swedish (afrikaans, cape dutch). |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Periodicals |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | South Africa | The white population speaks predominantly Afrikaans and English. (references) |
Namibia | About 60% of the whites speak Afrikaans (a variation of Dutch), 30% speak German, and 10% speak English. (references) | |
South Africa | The African (black) and Asian populations speak a variety of languages and many also use English and Afrikaans. (references) | |
Travel | South Africa | All documentation is presently printed in English and Afrikaans. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Afrikaans" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 60.71% of the time. "Afrikaans" is used about 28 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 60.71% | 17 | 85,106 |
| Noun (common) | 35.71% | 10 | 111,207 |
| Noun (proper) | 3.57% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 28 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "Afrikaans"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Afrikaan | afrikaans (African, Afrikaans language). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | африканс, бурски език. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 南非荷兰语. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | afrikánština. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | afrikaans, boer-sprog. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | Zuidafrikaans (South African), Afrikaans (African). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | afrikansa lingvo (Afrikaans language), afrikansa. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | d'Afrikanders. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | afrikanisch (african), Afrikander, afrikaans, Afrikaander, kapholländisch, Bure (Afrikaner, Boer). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | dél-afrikai holland nyelv. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | afrikaans. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | アフリカーンス語 , アフタ性口内炎 (aflatoxin, stomatitis aphthosa). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | アフリカーンス", アフリカーンス . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | afrikaansay afrikaans. (various references) африкаанс. (various references) afrikans. (various references) africaans. (various references) sí-Bhûnu. (various references) afrikaans (cape dutch). (various references) güney afrika hollanda lehçesi. (various references) африкаанс, бурська мова. (various references) người Nam phi, người H lan ở Kếp. (various references) iliBhunu (Afrikaner, Boer), iBhunu (Afrikaner, Boer). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Misspellings | |
"Afrikaans" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Africaan, africains, Airikyan. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-a-f-i-k-n-r-s" | |
-2 letters: farinas. | |
-3 letters: fakirs, farina, franks, kafirs, nairas, safari, sifaka. | |
-4 letters: afars, airns, araks, arias, asana, fairs, fakir, fiars, finks, firns, frank, frisk, infra, kafir, kaifs, kains, kanas, karns, kinas, kirns, knars, naifs, naira, naris, narks, raias, rains, rakis, ranis, ranks, rinks, saran, sarin, snark. | |
-5 letters: afar, ains, airn, airs, akin, anas, anis, ansa, arak, arfs, aria, arks, fain, fair, fans, fiar, fink, fins, firn, firs, inks, irks, kaas, kafs, kaif, kain, kana, karn, kifs, kina, kins, kirn, kirs, knar, kris, naif, nark, raia, rain, raki, rani, rank, rias, rifs, rink, rins, risk, sain, saki, sank, sari, sark, sink, skin. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)41 66 72 69 6B 61 61 6E 73 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).- ..-. .-. .. -.- .- .- -. ... |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000001 01100110 01110010 01101001 01101011 01100001 01100001 01101110 01110011 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)A f r i k a a n s |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0041 0066 0072 0069 006B 0061 0061 006E 0073 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)357284757767678085 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Non-fiction 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Derivations 10. Anagrams 11. Orthography 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
