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African languages? | ||
Tags: African languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| ennime Tetraglot Senior Member South Africa universityofbrokengl Joined 5906 days ago 397 posts - 507 votes  Speaks: English, Dutch*, Esperanto, Afrikaans Studies: Xhosa, French, Korean, Portuguese, Zulu | Message 1 of 33 01 July 2010 at 11:28am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Hi
I was curious, it seems that african languages are quite underrepresented here... or with learners in general. I notice Kishwahili, and Arabic of course, and some interested here and there in Zulu and the like... However it's really really little (in terms of languages sub saharan), and wanted to ask opinions as to why this is. I think one argument is that there are often very little materials available... but apart from that... well Afrikaans or Dutch isn't all that more useful than say Oshiwambo or Chibemba, or Wolof... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mrhenrik Triglot Moderator Norway Joined 6081 days ago 482 posts - 658 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 33 01 July 2010 at 12:59pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I'd say African languages are underrepresented because, well, Africans are
underrepresented here. Most of the users here seem to be American or European, with quite a bunch of Asians as well. This is quite logical seeing as the main language of the forum is English. Anyhow, when it comes to learning an African language in Europe/America/Asia you'd consider how similar it is to languages you already know (easier to learn), how useful it would be in your area as well (Afrikaans gets points for Europeans) and I guess also how many resources there are available. I don't know how many resources there are for Afrikaans, but I doubt there's a serious lack of them in Arabic. Personally I'd love to learn an African language, both Xhosa and Zulu seem interesting, but I really don't know what I'd use it for. Perhaps if I move to France there is a larger African immigrant population (there are virtually none where I live in Norway, and seemingly none here in Cornwall as well) which could help me learn it, and also give me some opportunities of using it. Edited by mrhenrik on 01 July 2010 at 1:00pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6770 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 3 of 33 01 July 2010 at 4:30pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Reading and literature is a major influence on what languages I choose to study, and I'm sure that's true for many
other people. Unfortunately, most African languages don't have much of a literary tradition yet, so I wouldn't put any of them (aside from Afrikaans) high on my list to learn. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| johntm93 Senior Member United States Joined 5329 days ago 587 posts - 746 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 4 of 33 01 July 2010 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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There really isn't much of a reason to learn them, unless you're just interested in it linguistically (clicks) or you plan on going to Africa. Even if you plan on going to Africa, you can normally get by on another, more widespread language.
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| Derian Triglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5310 days ago 227 posts - 464 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 5 of 33 01 July 2010 at 8:53pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Actually, I am amazed how many people study Swahili, which seems to be the most popular African language to learn.
"104 other forum members speak or study Swahili". This is quite a lot. To put it in some perspective: Afrikaans - 101 learners, Croatian - 101, Indonesian - 153, Arabic (classical) - 114, Thai - 137 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Deshwi Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 5602 days ago 31 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Arabic (Written), Turkish, Hindi, Persian | Message 6 of 33 02 July 2010 at 12:25am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I think the lack of good resources for many languages is why people aren't learning African languages. I would like to learn Amharic, but virtually nothing. Eventually I will tackle Swahili, maybe even Zulu.
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| ennime Tetraglot Senior Member South Africa universityofbrokengl Joined 5906 days ago 397 posts - 507 votes Speaks: English, Dutch*, Esperanto, Afrikaans Studies: Xhosa, French, Korean, Portuguese, Zulu | Message 7 of 33 02 July 2010 at 9:35am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Well.. the funny thing is that people in Africa tend to be a lot better at English than people in Asia... Perhaps it's more an internet access related thing...
I all honesty, Afrikaans being Indo-European (albeit with some minor khoe and bantu influences...) I don't consider it to be a native African language
Actually, quite few languages in Africa have clicks... But in terms of reasons to learn them: Zulu and Xhosa have amazing poetry and folktales, as well as literature (albeit not easy to find)... I'm sure there is more out there... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Derian Triglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5310 days ago 227 posts - 464 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 8 of 33 02 July 2010 at 10:30am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Since the colonial era, Indo-European languages such as Afrikaans, English, French and Portuguese have held official status in many countries of Africa, and are widely spoken, generally as lingua francas. 130 milion people in Africa speak English as their secondary language, 115 milion speak French as their SL, and 20 million speak Portuguese. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Africa) This obviously isn't so in Asia. The other thing is that I think the European languages are generally harder for Asians than they are for Africans. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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