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| Vowel sounds | |
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Front
Central
Back
plain
lab.
Close
i
yː
u
Mid
ɛ, ɛː
œ
ə
ɔ, ɔː
Open
ɐ
ɑː
[edit] Tags:Front,Central,Back,Lab.,Close,Mid,Open, | |
| Orthography | |
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There are many parallels to the Dutch orthography conventions and those used for Afrikaans. There are 26 letters.
In Afrikaans, many consonants are dropped from the earlier Dutch spelling. For example, slechts ('only') in Dutch becomes slegs in Afrikaans. Part of this is because the spelling of Afrikaans words is considerably more phonemic than that of Dutch. For example, Afrikaans and some Dutch dialects make no distinction between /s/ and /z/, having merged the latter into the former; while the word for "south" is written "zuid" in Dutch, it is spelled "suid" in Afrikaans to represent this merger. Similarly, the Dutch digraph "ij" is written as "y", except where it replaces the Dutch suffix –lijk, as in waarschijnlijk > waarskynlik.
Another difference is the indefinite article, 'n in Afrikaans and een in Dutch. 'A book' is 'n boek in Afrikaans, whereas it is either een boek or 'n boek in Dutch. This 'n is usually pronounced as just a weak vowel, [ə].
The diminutive suffix in Afrikaans is "-tjie", whereas in Dutch it is "-tje", hence a "bit" is bietjie in Afrikaans and beetje in Dutch.
The letters "c", "q", "x", and "z" occur almost exclusively in borrowings from French, English, Greek and Latin. This is usually because words that had "c" and "ch" in the original Dutch are spelled with "k" and "g", respectively, in Afrikaans. Similarly original "qu" and "x" are spelt "kw" and "ks" respectively. For example "ekwatoriaal" instead of "equatoriaal", and "ekskuus" instead of "excuus".
The vowels with diacritics in non-loanword Afrikaans are: "á, é, è, ê, ë, í, î, ï, ó, ô, ú, û, ý". Diacritics are ignored when alphabetising, though they are still important, even when typing the diacritic forms may be difficult.
[edit] Tags:Dutch,ij,Weak Vowel,French,English,Greek,Dialect, | |
| Initial apostrophes | |
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A few short words in Afrikaans take initial apostrophes. In modern Afrikaans, these words are always written in lower case (except if the entire line is uppercase), and if they occur at the beginning of a sentence, the next word is capitalised. Three examples of such apostrophed words are 'k, 't, 'n. The last (the indefinite article) is the only apostrophed word that is common in modern written Afrikaans, since the other examples are shortened versions of other words (ek and het respectively) and are rarely found outside of a poetic context.[5]
Here are a few examples:
Apostrophed Version
Usual Version
Translation
Notes
'n Man loop daar
A man walks there
Standard Afrikaans pronounces "'n" as a schwa vowel.
'k 't Dit gesê
Ek het dit gesê
I said it
Uncommon, more common: Ek't dit gesê
't Jy dit geëet?
Het jy dit geëet?
Did you eat it?
Extremely uncommon
The apostrophe and the following letter are regarded as two separate characters, and are never written using a single glyph, although a single character variant of the indefinite article appears in Unicode, ʼn.
[edit] Tags:Unicode,Schwa, | |
| Table of characters | |
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For more on the pronunciation of the below letters, see Wikipedia:IPA for Dutch and Afrikaans.
Afrikaans letters and pronunciation
Grapheme
IPA
Examples
a
/ɐ/
appel ('apple')
aa
/ɑː/
aap ('ape')
aai
/ɑːi/
draai ('turn')
ai
/aj/
baie ('many', 'much' or 'very')
b
/b/
boom ('tree')
c
/s/, /k/
(found mainly in borrowed words; the former pronunciation occurs before 'e', 'i', or 'y'; featured in the plural form -ici, as in the plural of medikus (medic), medici)
ch
/ʃ/, /x/, /k/
chirurg ('surgeon'; /ʃ/, typically 'sj' is used instead), chemie ('chemistry'; /x/), chitien ('chitin'; /k/). Found only in loanwords and proper names
d
/d/
dae ('days'), dag ('day')
dj
/d͡ʒ/
djati ('teak') (used to transcribe foreign words)
e
/ɛ/, /eə/, /ə/
bed (/ɛ/), ete (/eə/), se (/ə/, indicates possessive, for example 'Jan se boom', meaning 'John's tree')
ê
/eː/
sê ('say' or 'says')
ê
/ɛː/
nê? ('yes?' or 'right?')
ë
/ə/
oë ('eyes')
ee
/eə/
weet ('know' or 'knows'), eet ('eat'), een ('one')
eeu
/iu/
sneeu ('snow'), eeu, ('century')
ei
/ɛi/
Mei ('May")
eu
/eø/
seun ('son' or 'lad')
f
/f/
fiets ('bicycle')
g
/x/
goed ('good'), geel ('yellow')
gh
/ɡ/
gholf ('golf'). Used for /ɡ/ when it is not an allophone of /x/; found only in borrowed words
h
/ɦ/
hael ('hail'), hond ('dog')
i
/i/
kind ('child') ink ('ink')
i.e.
/i/
iets ('something')
j
/j/
jonk ('young')
k
/k/
kat ('cat'), kan ('can' (verb) or 'jug')
l
/l/
lag ('laugh')
m
/m/
man ('man')
n
/n/
nael ('nail')
ng
/ŋ/
sing ('sing')
o
/ɔ/
op ('on' or 'up')
ô
/ɔː/
môre ('morrow')
oe
/u/
boek ('book'), koel ('cool')
oei
/ui/
koei ('cow')
oi
/oj/
mooi ('pretty' or 'beautiful') – Sometimes spelled 'oy' in loanwords and surnames
oo
/oə/
oor ('ear' or 'over')
ooi
/ɔːi/
nooi (saying for little girl)
ou
/ɵu/
oupa ('grand(pa/father), koud ('cold')
p
/p/
pot ('pot'), pers ('purple')
q
/k/
(found only in foreign words with original spelling maintained; typically "k" is used instead)
r
/r/
rooi ('red')
s
/s/
ses ('six'), stem ('steven')
sj
/ʃ/
sjaal ('shawl')
t
/t/
tafel ('table')
tj
/tʃ/, /k/
tjank ('whine like a dog' or 'to cry incessantly'). (The former pronunciation occurs at the beginning of a word and the latter in "-tjie")
u
/œ/
kus ('coast')
û
/œː/
brûe ('bridges')
ui
/œj/
uit ('out')
uu
/y/
uur ('hour')
v
/f/
vis ('fish'), vir ('for')
w
/v/
water ('water')
x
/ks/
xifoïed ('xiphoid')
y
/ɛi/
byt ('bite')
z
/z/
Zoeloe ('Zulu'). Found only in onomatopoeia and loanwords
[edit] Tags:Ipa,'morrow','steven', | |
| History | |
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The Afrikaans language originated mainly from 17th century Dutch dialects[6][7] and developed in South Africa. The Afrikaans language was also known as the Kitchen Language (Kombuistaal) nearly 60 years ago.[8] As an estimated 90 to 95% of Afrikaans vocabulary is ultimately of Dutch origin,[9][10][11] there are few lexical differences between the two languages;[12] however, Afrikaans has a considerably more regular morphology,[13] grammar, and spelling.[14] There is a degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages,[13][15][16] particularly in written form.[14][17][18]
Afrikaans acquired some lexical and syntactical borrowings from other languages such as Malay, Khoisan languages, Portuguese,[19] and of the Bantu languages,[20] and to a lesser extent, French. Afrikaans has also been significantly influenced by South African English.[21] Nevertheless, Dutch-speakers are confronted with fewer non-cognates when listening to Afrikaans than the other way round.[18] Mutual intelligibility thus tends to be asymmetrical, as it is easier for Dutch-speakers to understand Afrikaans than for Afrikaans-speakers to understand Dutch.[18] In general, research suggests that mutual intelligibility between Dutch and Afrikaans is better than between Dutch and Frisian[22] or between Danish and Swedish.[18]
Afrikaans was considered a Dutch dialect in South Africa up until the late 19th century when it became recognised as a distinct language.[23] A relative majority of the first settlers whose descendants today are the Afrikaners were from the United Provinces (now Netherlands and Belgium), though there were also many from Germany, a considerable number from France, and some from Norway, Portugal, Scotland, and various other countries.
The workers and slaves who contributed to the development of Afrikaans were Asians (especially Malays), Malagasys, as well as the Khoi, Bushmen and Bantu peoples who also lived in the area. African creole people in the early 18th century — documented on the cases of Hendrik Bibault and patriarch Oude Ram — were the first to call themselves Afrikaner (Africans). This is where Afrikaans got its name from.[24] Only much later in the second half of the 19th century did the Boers adopt this attribution, too.[25] The Khoi and mixed-race groups became collectively referred to as Coloureds.[24]
[edit] Tags:South Africa,Netherlands,Belgium,Malay,Portuguese,Bantu Languages,Coloured,Mutual Intelligibility,Khoisan Languages,South African English,Frisian,Danish,Swedish, | |
| Dialects | |
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Following early dialectical studies of Afrikaans, it was theorised that three main historical dialects probably existed after the Great Trek in the 1830s. These dialects are defined as the Northern Cape, Western Cape and Eastern Cape dialects. Remnants of these dialects still remain in present-day Afrikaans although the standardising effect of Standard Afrikaans has contributed to a great levelling of differences in modern times.[citation needed]
There is also a prison cant known as soebela, or sombela which is based on Afrikaans yet heavily influenced by Zulu. This language is used as a secret language in prison and is taught to initiates.[26]
[edit] Tags:Northern Cape,Western Cape, | |
| Expatriate geolect | |
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Although mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia, smaller Afrikaans-speaking populations live in Argentina, Australia, Botswana, Canada, Lesotho, Malawi, New Zealand, Swaziland, the United States, Zambia and Zimbabwe.[27] Most if not all Afrikaans-speaking people living outside of Africa are emigrants who have left South Africa or their descendants. Because of emigration and migrant labour, there are possibly over 100,000 Afrikaans speakers in the United Kingdom.[citation needed]
[edit] Tags:Namibia,Botswana,Zambia,Malawi,Zimbabwe,Lesotho,Swaziland,Canada,Australia,United Kingdom,United States,New Zealand,Argentina, | |
| Standardisation | |
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The linguist Paul Roberge suggests that the earliest 'truly Afrikaans' texts are doggerel verse from 1795 and a dialogue transcribed by a Dutch traveller in 1825. Printed material among the Afrikaners at first used only standard European Dutch. By the mid-19th century, more and more were appearing in Afrikaans, which was very much still regarded as a set of regional dialects.
In 1861, L.H. Meurant published his Zamenspraak tusschen Klaas Waarzegger en Jan Twyfelaar ("Conversation between Claus Truthsayer and John Doubter"), which is considered by some to be the first authoritative Afrikaans text. Abu Bakr Effendi also compiled his Arabic Afrikaans Islamic instruction book between 1862 and 1869, although this was only published and printed in 1877. The first Afrikaans grammars and dictionaries were published in 1875 by the Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaners ('Society for Real Afrikaners') in Cape Town.
The First and Second Boer Wars further strengthened the position of Afrikaans. The official languages of the Union of South Africa were English and Dutch until Afrikaans was subsumed under Dutch on 5 May 1925.
The main Afrikaans dictionary is the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT) (Dictionary of the Afrikaans Language), which is as yet incomplete owing to the scale of the project, but the one-volume dictionary in household use is the Verklarende Handwoordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (HAT). The official orthography of Afrikaans is the Afrikaanse Woordelys en Spelreëls, compiled by Die Taalkommissie.
[edit] Tags: | |
| The Afrikaans Bible | |
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Main article: Bible translations (Afrikaans)
A major landmark in the development of Afrikaans was the full translation of the Bible into the language. Prior to this most Cape Dutch-Afrikaans speakers had to rely on the Dutch Statenbijbel. The aforementioned Statenvertaling had its origins with the Synod of Dordrecht of 1618 and was thus in an archaic form of Dutch. This rendered understanding difficult at best to Dutch and Cape Dutch speakers, moreover increasingly unintelligible to Afrikaans speakers.
C. P. Hoogehout, Arnoldus Pannevis, and Stephanus Jacobus du Toit were the first Afrikaans Bible translators. Important landmarks in the translation of the Scriptures were in 1878 with C. P. Hoogehout's translation of the Evangelie volgens Markus (Gospel of Mark, lit. Gospel according to Mark), however this translation was never published. The manuscript is to be found in the South African National Library, Cape Town.
The first official Bible translation of the entire Bible into Afrikaans was in 1933 by J. D. du Toit, E. E. van Rooyen, J. D. Kestell, H. C. M. Fourie, and BB Keet.[28][29] This monumental work established Afrikaans as 'n suiwer en oordentlike taal, that is "a pure and proper language" for religious purposes, especially amongst the deeply Calvinist Afrikaans religious community that had hitherto been somewhat sceptical of a Bible translation out of the original Dutch language to which they were accustomed.
In 1983 there was a fresh translation in order to mark the 50th anniversary of the original 1933 translation and provide much needed revision. The final editing of this edition was done by E. P. Groenewald, A. H. van Zyl, P. A. Verhoef, J. L. Helberg and W. Kempen.
Afrikaans Version of the Lord's Prayer. Onse Vader.[30]
Onse Vader wat in die hemele is, laat U naam geheilig word. Laat U koninkryk kom, laat U wil geskied, soos in die hemel net so ook op die aarde. Gee ons vandag ons daaglikse brood, en vergeef ook al ons sonde, soos ons ook ons skuldenaars vergewe. En lei ons nie in versoeking nie, maar verlos ons van die bose. Want aan U behoort die Koninkryk en die krag en die heerlikheid, tot in ewigheid. Amen.
[edit] Tags: | |
| Grammar | |
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Main article: Afrikaans grammar
In Afrikaans grammar, there is no distinction between the infinitive and present forms of verbs, with the exception of the verbs 'to be' and 'to have':
infinitive form
present indicative form
Dutch
English
German
wees
is
zijn / wezen
be
sein
hê
het
hebben
have
haben
In addition, verbs do not conjugate differently depending on the subject. For example,
Afrikaans
Dutch
English
German
ek is
ik ben
I am
ich bin
jy/u is
jij/u bent
you are (sing.)
du bist (informal sing.)
hy/sy/dit is
hij/zij/het is
he/she/it is
er/sie/es ist
ons is
wij zijn
we are
wir sind
julle is
jullie zijn
you are (plur.)
ihr seid (informal pl.)
hulle is
zij zijn
they are
Sie (formal sing. & pl.)/sie sind
The preterite looks exactly like the present but is indicated by adverbs like toe (when), the exceptions being 'to be', 'to be able to', 'to have to', 'to want to', and the modal verb 'shall'.
Afrikaans
Dutch
English
German
ek was (present: is)
ik was
I was
ich war
ek kon (present: kan)
ik kon
I could
ich konnte
ek moes (present: moet)
ik moest
I had to
ich musste
ek wou (present: wil)
ik wilde/wou
I wanted to
ich wollte
ek sou (present: sal)
ik zou
I would
ich sollte
The perfect is sometimes preferred over the preterite in literature where the preterite would be used in Dutch or English, for example, in the case of the verb to drink:
Afrikaans
Dutch
English
German
ek het gedrink.
ik dronk.
I drank.
ich trank.
In other respects, the perfect in Afrikaans follows Dutch and English.
Afrikaans
Dutch
English
German
ek het gedrink
ik heb gedronken.
I have drunk.
ich habe getrunken.
A particular feature of Afrikaans is its use of the double negative, something that is absent from the other West Germanic standard languages. For example,
Afrikaans: Hy kan nie Afrikaans praat nie. (lit. He can not Afrikaans speak not.)
Dutch: Hij kan geen Afrikaans spreken.
English: He cannot speak Afrikaans.
Both French and San origins have been suggested for double negation in Afrikaans. While double negation is still found in Low Franconian dialects in West-Flanders and in some "isolated" villages in the center of the Netherlands (i.e. Garderen), it takes a different form, which is not found in Afrikaans. The following is an example:
Afrikaans
Dutch
English
Ek wil dit nie doen nie.* (lit. I want this not do not.)
Ik wil dit niet doen.
I do not want to do this.
*Compare with "Ek wil nie dit doen nie", which changes the meaning to "I do not want to do this specific thing." Whereas "Ek wil dit nie doen nie" emphasizes the unwillingness to act, "Ek wil nie dit doen nie" emphasizes the unwillingness to do the specified action.
The -ne was the Old Franconian way to negate but it has been suggested that since -ne became highly non-voiced, nie or niet was needed to complement the -ne. With time the -ne disappeared in most Low Franconian Dutch dialects.
The double negative construction has been fully grammaticalized in standard Afrikaans and its proper use follows a set of fairly complex rules as the examples below show:
Afrikaans
Dutch
English
Ek het nie geweet dat hy sou kom nie.
Ik heb niet geweten dat hij zou komen.1
I did not know that he would be coming.
Ek het geweet dat hy nie sou kom nie.
Ik heb geweten dat hij niet zou komen.²
I knew that he would not come.
Ek het nie geweet dat hy nie sou kom nie.
Ik heb niet geweten dat hij niet zou komen.³
I did not know that he would not come.
Hy sal nie kom nie, want hy is siek.
Hij zal niet komen, want hij is ziek.4
He will not be coming because he is sick.
Dis (Dit is) nie so moeilik om Afrikaans te leer nie.
Het is niet moeilijk om Afrikaans te leren.
It is not so difficult to learn Afrikaans.
The word het in Dutch does not correspond to het in Afrikaans. The het in Dutch means it in English. The Dutch word that corresponds to het in Afrikaans (in these cases) is heb.
Note that in these cases, most Dutch speakers would say instead:
No.
Dutch
English
1
Ik wist niet dat hij zou komen.
I knew not that he would come.
2
Ik wist dat hij niet zou komen.
I knew that he would not come.
3
Ik wist niet dat hij niet zou komen.
I knew not that he would not come.
4
Hij komt niet, want hij is ziek. (or more commonly Hij komt niet omdat hij ziek is.)
He does not come because he is sick.
A notable exception to this is the use of the negating grammar form that coincides with negating the English present participle. In this case there is only a single negation.
Afrikaans
English
Hy is in die hospitaal, maar hy eet nie. (lit. …he eats not.)
He is in hospital, but he isn't eating.
Certain words in Afrikaans arise due to grammar. For example, moet nie, which literally means "must not", usually becomes moenie; although one does not have to write or say it like this, virtually all Afrikaans speakers will change the two words to moenie in the same way as do not shifts to don't in English.
[edit] Tags:Germanic,West Germanic,Low Franconian, | |
| Afrikaans phrases | |
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This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.
Afrikaans is a very centralised language, meaning that most of the vowels are pronounced in a very centralised (i.e. very schwa-like) way. Although there are many different dialects and accents, the transcription should be fairly standard.
Afrikaans
IPA
Dutch
English
German
Hallo! Hoe gaan dit?
[ɦaləu ɦu xaˑn dət]
Hallo! Hoe gaat het (met je/jou/u)?
Also used: Hallo! Hoe is het?
Hello! How is it going? (Hello! How are you?)
Hallo! Wie geht's? (Hallo! Wie geht's dir?)
Baie goed, dankie.
[bajə xuˑt daŋki]
Heel goed, dank je.
Very well, thank you.
Es geht mir gut, danke.
Praat jy Afrikaans?
[prɑˑt jəi afrikɑ̃ˑs]
Spreek je Afrikaans?
Do you speak Afrikaans?
Sprichst du Afrikaans?
Praat jy Engels?
[prɑˑt jəi ɛŋəls]
Spreek je Engels?
Do you speak English?
Sprichst du Englisch?
Ja.
[jɑˑ]
Ja.
Yes.
Ja.
Nee.
[neˑə]
Nee.
No.
Nein.
'n Bietjie.
[ə biki]
Een beetje.
A bit.
Ein Bisschen.
Wat is jou naam?
[vat əs jəu nɑˑm]
Hoe heet je?
Less common: Wat is jouw naam?
What is your name?
Wie heißt du?
Die kinders praat Afrikaans.
[di kənərs prɑˑt afrikɑˑns]
De kinderen spreken Afrikaans.
The children speak Afrikaans.
Die Kinder sprechen Afrikaans.
Ek is lief vir jou.
Less common: Ek het jou lief.
[æk əs lif vɯr jəʊ]
Ik hou van je/jou.
Common in Flanders: Ik heb je/jou/u lief.
I love you.
Ich liebe dich.
Also: Ich habe dich lieb. (Colloquial; virtually no romantic connotation)
Note: The word Afrikaans means African (in the general sense) in the Dutch language. Since Afrikaans means African in Dutch, 'Zuid-Afrikaans' is a more common word for it, but is considered wrong, because in Afrikaans/Zuid-Afrikaans the only right word is Afrikaans. This problem also occurs in Afrikaans itself, resolved by using the words Afrika and Afrikaan to distinguish from Afrikaans(e) and Afrikaner respectively.
Some Afrikaans sentences having the same meaning and written identically in English (but pronounced differently) are:
My hand is in warm water. ([məi hɑnt əs ən varəm vɑˑtər])
My pen was in my hand. ([məi pɛn vɑs ən məi ɦɑnt])
[edit] Tags:Rendering Support,Question Marks, Boxes, Or Other Symbols, | |
| Sample text in Afrikaans | |
| 2>
Psalm 23. 1983 Translation:
Die Here is my Herder, ek kom niks kort nie.
Hy laat my in groen weivelde rus. Hy bring my by waters waar daar vrede is.
Hy gee my nuwe krag. Hy lei my op die regte paaie tot eer van Sy naam.
Selfs al gaan ek deur donker dieptes, sal ek nie bang wees nie, want U is by my. In U hande is ek veilig.
Translation dependant: Afrikaans:
Die Here is my Herder, niks sal my ontbreek nie.
Hy laat my neerlê in groen weivelde; na waters waar rus is, lei Hy my heen.
Hy verkwik my siel; Hy lei my in die spore van geregtigheid, om sy Naam ontwil.
Al gaan ek ook in 'n dal van doodskaduwee, ek sal geen onheil vrees nie; want U is met my: u stok en u staf die vertroos my.
The Lord is my shepherd I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the sha Tags: | |
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