Afrikaans

[Quid est Veritas?]

I am a native Afrikaans speaker. I love my native tongue, although I believe it will likely be swamped by English and go extinct in the next 100-200 years or so.

It is an Indo-European language in the West Germanic language family. It is therefore closely related to Dutch and fairly close to English, like cousins say.

It is derived from Dutch, French, German, Malay and Khoisan languages with a smattering of Nguni (Xhosa/Zulu) words and increasing English loanwords and Anglicisms. It arose when the first 5 of these groups tried to communicate with one another as a creole in the Cape, but was later systematically influenced by Dutch. It is quite emotive, and has a few peculiarities like a double negative that aren't very common in Germanic languages.

Feel free to ask me anything about it or to translate something. I'd be happy to help.

Andersins enigiemand wat ook Afrikaans sprekend is, kom ons kuier 'n hond uit 'n bos uit.

 

[AaronReed1962]

Begroetings van die VSA.
Hoe gaan dit?

I discovered Afrikaans about 35 years ago through the old Radio RSA shortwave service, and back then I had a great love for the taal despite the lack of available Afrikaans materials. It wasn't until about a couple of years ago that I found an excellent grammar resource as well as a full sized dictionary (I don't know why we don't say "wordbook" like most Germanic tongues).
I also found some online resources, including sound files, where I was surprised to hear how Afrikaans has changed even in 35 years. I had a record album back then where the language clearly sounded a lot like its Dutch ancestor. However, in most recent audio files, the languages sounds a whole lot more like English, which makes me think your assumption that Afrikaans may become extinct in a couple of hundred years is possible... Yet if a strong Afrikaaner community manages to survive, even if small, it will last, and certainly last until the time of the Lord's return.
Feel free to keep in touch!

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

Begroetings van die VSA.
Hoe gaan dit?

I discovered Afrikaans about 35 years ago through the old Radio RSA shortwave service, and back then I had a great love for the taal despite the lack of available Afrikaans materials. It wasn't until about a couple of years ago that I found an excellent grammar resource as well as a full sized dictionary (I don't know why we don't say "wordbook" like most Germanic tongues).
I also found some online resources, including sound files, where I was surprised to hear how Afrikaans has changed even in 35 years. I had a record album back then where the language clearly sounded a lot like its Dutch ancestor. However, in most recent audio files, the languages sounds a whole lot more like English, which makes me think your assumption that Afrikaans may become extinct in a couple of hundred years is possible... Yet if a strong Afrikaaner community manages to survive, even if small, it will last, and certainly last until the time of the Lord's return.
Feel free to keep in touch!

Dag sê, goed en self? Ek weet nie hoe goed jou Afrikaans is nie, so ek gaan maar verder in Engels praat. Dis goed om te weet dat daar hier en daar mense is wat bietjie geinteresseerd is in sulke goed.

I think the difference is the death of Formal Afrikaans. This tended to be far more Dutch based. As Apartheid ended, the Government has slowly converted many Afrikaans schools and institutions into English ones, and formal Afrikaans has suffered accordingly. Formal situations are mostly conducted in English nowadays, and tertiary Afrikaans education is dying.
So the common tongue is heavily influenced by English via TV and such, with code-switching, Anglicisms and English words being used. It is what the old people use to call Brabbel, but is sometimes called Mengels today (Meng as in mix and Engels for English).
It sounds more English because English is more commonly used, and formal Afrikaans that was decidedly different, is hard to come by. Even the dominant Afrikaans Bibles today are using simpler language, so that it is becoming almost impossible for younger generations to understand the Ou Vertaling of 1933. Often I have seen younger Afrikaans speakers opt to read English Bibles. The old paradigm and structures have passed away, and Afrikaner society Is far less parochial than it used to be.
The language is still going strong, with a vibrant music scene and some TV and print, but its character is eroding. Essentially a crisis point has been reached, and whatever language evolves from it, will be substantially altered.

All languages change though. If you try and keep them static, they die just as readily. Soos die Prediker sê: Alles kom tot niks, dis net 'n gejaag na wind." (Ecclesiastes, of Prediker in Afrikaans)

Why are you interested in Afrikaans though? Just out of love of language? What attracted you out of interest? Or do you have a personal connection?
I read about Ben Viljoen a few years ago, a Boer war general. He refused to live under British rule after the Second Anglo-Boer War. He and a few of his followers tried to set-up a Boer colony in New Mexico and Mexico proper, with the help of Teddy Rooseveldt. I read some of their descendants try and learn Afrikaans a few years ago, to such an extent that a Texas university had a course on it (In Houston, I think?)

 

[mothcorrupteth]

It's on my list of languages to learn. I've already studied a fair bit of Dutch and a crud-ton of German, so I can understand most of what you've written. But I've also studied the Boer Wars pretty extensively, I love Bok van Blerk's music, and I follow current events in South Africa enough to know how cruddy things are getting for Boers politically. I have to take an Intercultural Communication class for my Applied Linguistics degree, and it's heartbreaking how everyone in the field seems to turn a blind eye to how endangered Afrikaans is just because its speakers are "historical oppressors" or some nonsense like that. I'm for preserving every language, regardless of its history, and fighting racism with more racism is wrong.

 

[mozo41]

was kept back in standard 4 for failing it ...

 

[Paidiske]

One of the things I regret most about my childhood is that my parents, having left South Africa, and despite both speaking Afrikaans, saw no benefit to teaching it to their children. "Where would you ever use it?" was the attitude.

But now I feel like a piece of my cultural heritage is closed to me, and I can't easily recover it.

 

[mozo41]

One of the things I regret most about my childhood is that my parents, having left South Africa, and despite both speaking Afrikaans, saw no benefit to teaching it to their children. "Where would you ever use it?" was the attitude.

But now I feel like a piece of my cultural heritage is closed to me, and I can't easily recover it.

GOD has His own language ...

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

One of the things I regret most about my childhood is that my parents, having left South Africa, and despite both speaking Afrikaans, saw no benefit to teaching it to their children. "Where would you ever use it?" was the attitude.

But now I feel like a piece of my cultural heritage is closed to me, and I can't easily recover it.

My brother is the same. He went to Australia and is not even trying to teach it to his three children.

My wife's cousin grew up in Canada though, and they continued to speak it in the home. She went on to teach it to her best friend in Canada, so that they could gossip without others understanding them.

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

It's on my list of languages to learn. I've already studied a fair bit of Dutch and a crud-ton of German, so I can understand most of what you've written. But I've also studied the Boer Wars pretty extensively, I love Bok van Blerk's music, and I follow current events in South Africa enough to know how cruddy things are getting for Boers politically. I have to take an Intercultural Communication class for my Applied Linguistics degree, and it's heartbreaking how everyone in the field seems to turn a blind eye to how endangered Afrikaans is just because its speakers are "historical oppressors" or some nonsense like that. I'm for preserving every language, regardless of its history, and fighting racism with more racism is wrong.

Bok van Blerk made an Anglo-Boer war musical after the success of De la Rey. It was interesting, I thought. The problem is that such things are immediately thought to be politically suspect, nowadays.