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Afrikaans Profile | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Collaborative writing |  | |
| BelgoHead Senior Member Belgium Joined 6306 days ago 120 posts - 119 votes  Studies: French, English* Studies: Esperanto | Message 1 of 13 29 December 2007 at 10:24pm | IP Logged |
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I really feel this is a very unique and interesting language that very much resembles English in some ways.
I've seen quite a few really knowledgable language learners who speak Afrikaans on here. So lets try and make this happen ok? Let's not let this thread go cold! Contribute what you can. Note: I took some info from the wiki page that i felt was related to the this thread on Afrikaans. Feel free to modify/remove anything I added to the introduction. I just wanted to get us started on this! INTRODUCTION Afrikaans is an Indo-European language, derived from Dutch and classified as Low Franconian Germanic, mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia. Afrikaans originated from the Dutch language. The dialect became known as "Cape Dutch". Later, Afrikaans was sometimes also referred to as "African Dutch" or "Kitchen Dutch", although these terms were mainly pejorative. Afrikaans was considered a Dutch dialect until the late 19th century, when it began to be recognised as a distinct language. 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. Others believe that Afrikaans was originally spoken by the Khoisan people after using words they heard from the Dutch. USEFULNESS 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 third of Namibia (Hardap and Karas, where it is the first language of 44% and 40%, 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. Significant amounts of Afrikaan speakes reside in the UK (100 000) and other parts of Europe (Mainly Netherlands and Belgium) aswell. CHIC FACTOR No text yet. ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE No text yet TRAVEL OPPORTUNITIES If you want to travel with Afrikaans you're really limited to just Namimbia and South Africa and even then most people will have some sort of command over English. So you can get by with just English and not encounter many problems,Afrikaans is not an essential asset in this case. COUNTRIES Mainly Spoken in South Africa and Namimbia. More speakers in South Africa then Namimbia. SPEAKERS No text yet. VARIATIONS No text yet. CULTURE No text yet. DIFFICULTIES No text yet. GRAMMAR No text yet. PRONUNCIATION No text yet. VOCABULARY No text yet. TRANSPARENCY No text yet. SPELLING No text yet. TIME NEEDED No text yet. BOOKS No text yet. SCHOOLS No text yet. LINKS No text yet. Edited by BelgoHead on 30 December 2007 at 3:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| armando Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6281 days ago 44 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Italian | Message 2 of 13 30 December 2007 at 7:58am | IP Logged |
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Good idea, here goes:
CHIC FACTOR Can have a negative associations, due to its association with the apartheid government. The English spoken in South Africa has many Afrikaans words (as well as words form other indigenous languages). When traveling in South Africa it is very common for a conversation, or TV program, to be sprinkled with Afrikaans words and doing so will endear your to the locals. CULTURE Afrikaans the language is spoken by diverse population groups in South Africa, and if you are lucky you will be invited to a 'braai' (bbq). There is a distinct Afrikaans speaking culture, the Cape Coloureds, that has its own accent, and unique and distinctive foods, celebrations and way of life. The traditional boer, or Afrikaans speaking farmers and their relations also form a distinct culture with traditional foods, festivals etc. These Afrikaners consider themselves Africans, not Europeans. LINKS afrikaans.us (now temporarily links to http://www.sois.uwm.edu/afrikaans/ because it was hacked?)- prime resource to learn Afrikaans online for free EasyAfrikaans Easy Afrikaans will help you to start to learn the Afrikaans language. It is aimed at beginner level language learners and anyone who plans to visit South Africa ATKV The ATKV is a cultural organisation through which the Afrikaans culture as a whole is experienced, promoted, enhanced and expanded, so as to make an indispensable contribution in Southern Africa. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| armando Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6281 days ago 44 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Italian | Message 3 of 13 31 December 2007 at 5:14am | IP Logged |
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I just thought of a few more things to add on.....
SCHOOLS Taught at many schools and universities in South Africa. It used to be taught at every school (against many peoples wishes) and the backlash by the current government is to try and eradicate it from all schools and universities. Outside of South Africa though I dont thinks its taught anywhere????? The Univeristy of South Africa offers distance education courses from begginer up to Masters level in Afrikaans. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| armando Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6281 days ago 44 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Italian | Message 4 of 13 31 December 2007 at 5:27am | IP Logged |
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BOOKS
Specialist or South African online booksellers will have an extensive selection of Afrikaans books, CDs and DVDs. See for example the Afrikaans language sections of www.africabookcentre.com and kalahari.net. The harry Potter series has been translated if you are using the magical method. "Harry Potter en die Towenaar se Steen" There should be loads of text books available from preschool up to university level... perhaps someone living in South Africa could go to a bookstore and look up the publishers websites? How would you get these outside of South Africa? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| BelgoHead Senior Member Belgium Joined 6306 days ago 120 posts - 119 votes Studies: French, English* Studies: Esperanto | Message 5 of 13 03 January 2008 at 9:21pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you very much for all that stuff you contributed armando!!!
I will lump everything we wrote together so we can see this work in progress!! Again anyone who wants to, feel free to add/correct anything you want here! INTRODUCTION Afrikaans is an Indo-European language, derived from Dutch and classified as Low Franconian Germanic, mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia. Afrikaans originated from the Dutch language. The dialect became known as "Cape Dutch". Later, Afrikaans was sometimes also referred to as "African Dutch" or "Kitchen Dutch", although these terms were mainly pejorative. Afrikaans was considered a Dutch dialect until the late 19th century, when it began to be recognised as a distinct language. 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. Others believe that Afrikaans was originally spoken by the Khoisan people after using words they heard from the Dutch. USEFULNESS 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 third of Namibia (Hardap and Karas, where it is the first language of 44% and 40%, 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. Significant amounts of Afrikaan speakes reside in the UK (100 000) and other parts of Europe (Mainly Netherlands and Belgium) aswell. CHIC FACTOR Can have a negative associations, due to its association with the apartheid government. The English spoken in South Africa has many Afrikaans words (as well as words form other indigenous languages). When traveling in South Africa it is very common for a conversation, or TV program, to be sprinkled with Afrikaans words and doing so will endear your to the locals. ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE No text yet TRAVEL OPPORTUNITIES If you want to travel with Afrikaans you're really limited to just Namimbia and South Africa and even then most people will have some sort of command over English. So you can get by with just English and not encounter many problems,Afrikaans is not an essential asset in this case. COUNTRIES Mainly Spoken in Namimbia and South Africa. Spoken mostly in the latter SPEAKERS There are 6.44 million With Afrikaans as a native language (home language) 6.75 million others are fluent in Afrikkans (second or third language) 12 to 16 million have some sort of (basic) knowledge of the language VARIATIONS No text yet. CULTURE Afrikaans the language is spoken by diverse population groups in South Africa, and if you are lucky you will be invited to a 'braai' (bbq). There is a distinct Afrikaans speaking culture, the Cape Coloureds, that has its own accent, and unique and distinctive foods, celebrations and way of life. The traditional boer, or Afrikaans speaking farmers and their relations also form a distinct culture with traditional foods, festivals etc. These Afrikaners consider themselves Africans, not Europeans. DIFFICULTIES No text yet. GRAMMAR No text yet. PRONUNCIATION No text yet. VOCABULARY No text yet. TRANSPARENCY Some basic vocabulary of Afrikaans is/seems related to English in someways but about 75%-80% of Afrikaans vocabulary comes from dutch. So Dutch and Afrikaans are mutually intellegible to some extent although Afrikaans has strayed considerably from Dutch. Also Afrikaans has quite a few loan words from languages like (and not limited to)Malay,which is "living" proof of Afrikaans varied and diverse past. See this chart to see comparisons between Afrikaans,Dutch and English http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaans#Comparison_with_Dutch _and_English SPELLING Spelling is quite similar to Dutch TIME NEEDED No text yet. BOOKS Specialist or South African online booksellers will have an extensive selection of Afrikaans books, CDs and DVDs. See for example the Afrikaans language sections of www.africabookcentre.com and kalahari.net. The harry Potter series has been translated if you are using the magical method. "Harry Potter en die Towenaar se Steen" There should be loads of text books available from preschool up to university level... perhaps someone living in South Africa could go to a bookstore and look up the publishers websites? How would you get these outside of South Africa? SCHOOLS Taught at many schools and universities in South Africa. It used to be taught at every school (against many peoples wishes) and the backlash by the current government is to try and eradicate it from all schools and universities. Outside of South Africa though I dont thinks its taught anywhere????? The Univeristy of South Africa offers distance education courses from begginer up to Masters level in Afrikaans. LINKS afrikaans.us (now temporarily links to http://www.sois.uwm.edu/afrikaans/ because it was hacked?)- prime resource to learn Afrikaans online for free EasyAfrikaans Easy Afrikaans will help you to start to learn the Afrikaans language. It is aimed at beginner level language learners and anyone who plans to visit South Africa ATKV The ATKV is a cultural organisation through which the Afrikaans culture as a whole is experienced, promoted, enhanced and expanded, so as to make an indispensable contribution in Southern Africa. Edited by BelgoHead on 12 January 2008 at 2:23pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| BelgoHead Senior Member Belgium Joined 6306 days ago 120 posts - 119 votes Studies: French, English* Studies: Esperanto | Message 6 of 13 10 January 2008 at 9:34pm | IP Logged |
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I will take a stab at adressing the difficulty of the language, feel free to correct anything mal written.
DIFFICULTIES Thanks to the relatively simple grammar and conjugation of Afrikaans i would rate this language as 2 ** cacti. Quite easy to learn. If you speak German or Dutch (or just any Germanic language, english for example shares some vocab aswell) i would rate this language as a * cacti. You should be able to pick up this language without much difficulty although lack of lerning resources could be a problem and prononciation is rather difficult unless you speak a language like Dutch or German. Afrikaans will open up the world of Germanic language sfor you. Edited by BelgoHead on 10 January 2008 at 9:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bushwick Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6247 days ago 407 posts - 443 votes Speaks: German, Croatian*, English, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese | Message 7 of 13 10 January 2008 at 10:36pm | IP Logged |
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i'd rather say about chic factor that there isn't any.
actually, not many people even know about the language, and as the name suggest, they will think it's an african language (while it's indoeuropean). and in south africa, if i understood right it lost all its chic factor due to historical reasons and lack of usability. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| armando Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6281 days ago 44 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Italian | Message 8 of 13 11 January 2008 at 3:39am | IP Logged |
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BelgoHead: Regarding the difficulty I think your assessment is spot on and it is an easy language - although the lack of learning materials is frustrating because within south africa surely there is lots an lots available from pre-school up to postgraduate level. Maybe someone in south africa could provide some information on this as surely you can walk into any bookstore there and find lots of material...
Regarding the chic factor - its not that its not usable - there are large communities that speak only afrikaans at home and there are several hours of tv programs daily and several radio stations solely in afrikaans. Its just that the language debate at schools was politicised. To the average person in the street though if you could say a few words in afrikaans as a foreigner you will receive a good reception. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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