Afrikaans

For white Afrikaans speakers, see Afrikaners.

Not to be confused with Africans.

Afrikaans (/ˌæfrɪˈkɑːns/ AF-rih-KAHNSS, /ˌɑːf-, -ˈkɑːnz/ AHF-, -⁠KAHNZ) is a West Germanic language, spoken in South Africa, Namibia and (to a lesser extent) Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It evolved from the Dutch vernacular of South Holland (Hollandic dialect) spoken by the predominantly Dutch settlers and enslaved population of the Dutch Cape Colony, where it gradually began to develop distinguishing characteristics in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Afrikaans
Pronunciation	[afriˈkɑːns]
Native to	South Africa Namibia
Region	Southern Africa
Ethnicity	Boers Afrikaners Coloureds
Native speakers	7.2 million (2016) 10.3 million L2 speakers in South Africa (2011)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Weser–Rhine Germanic Low Franconian Dutch Central Dutch Hollandic and Hottentot Dutch Afrikaans
Early forms	Frankish Old Dutch Middle Dutch Modern Dutch
Dialects	Kaaps Boeraans Eastern Cape Northern Cape Patagonian
Writing system	Latin script (Afrikaans alphabet), Arabic script
Signed forms	Signed Afrikaans
Official status
Official language in	South Africa
Recognised minority language in	Namibia
Regulated by	Die Taalkommissie
Language codes
ISO 639-1	af
ISO 639-2	afr
ISO 639-3	afr
Glottolog	afri1274
Linguasphere	52-ACB-ba
spoken by a majority    spoken by a minority

Colin speaking Afrikaans

Alaric speaking Afrikaans

Rossouw speaking Afrikaans

Obelisks of the Afrikaans Language Monument near Paarl

Although Afrikaans has adopted words from other languages, including German and the Khoisan languages, an estimated 90 to 95% of the vocabulary of Afrikaans is of Dutch origin. Differences between Afrikaans and Dutch often lie in the more analytic morphology and grammar of Afrikaans, and different spellings. There is a large degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, especially in written form.

Etymology

The name of the language comes directly from the Dutch word Afrikaansch (now spelled Afrikaans) meaning 'African'. It was previously referred to as 'Cape Dutch' (Kaap-Hollands or Kaap-Nederlands), a term also used to refer to the early Cape settlers collectively, or the derogatory 'kitchen Dutch' (kombuistaal) from its use by slaves of colonial settlers "in the kitchen".

History

Origin

The Afrikaans language arose in the Dutch Cape Colony, through a gradual divergence from European Dutch dialects, during the course of the 18th century. As early as the mid-18th century and as recently as the mid-20th century, Afrikaans was known in standard Dutch as a 'kitchen language' (Dutch: kombuistaal), lacking the prestige accorded, for example, even by the educational system in Africa, to languages spoken outside Africa. Other early epithets setting apart Kaaps Hollands ('Cape Dutch', i.e. Afrikaans) as putatively beneath official Dutch standards included geradbraakt, gebroken and onbeschaafd Hollands ('mutilated, broken, or uncivilised Dutch'), as well as verkeerd Nederlands ('incorrect Dutch').

Hottentot Dutch
Language family	Dutch-based pidgin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	hott1234

Historical linguist Hans den Besten theorises that modern Standard Afrikaans derives from two sources:

• Cape Dutch, a direct transplantation of European Dutch to Southern Africa, and
• 'Hottentot Dutch', a pidgin that descended from 'Foreigner Talk' and ultimately from the Dutch pidgin spoken by slaves, via hypothetical Dutch-based creole languages.

So Afrikaans, in his view, is neither a creole nor a direct descendant of Dutch, but a fusion of two transmission pathways.

Development

Standard Dutch used in a 1916 South African newspaper before Afrikaans replaced it for use in media

Most of the first settlers whose descendants today are the Afrikaners were from the United Provinces (now Netherlands), with up to one-sixth of the community of French Huguenot origin, and a seventh from Germany.

African and Asian workers, Cape Coloured children of European settlers and Khoikhoi women, and slaves contributed to the development of Afrikaans. The slave population was made up of people from East Africa, West Africa, Mughal India, Madagascar, and the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia). A number were also indigenous Khoisan people, who were valued as interpreters, domestic servants, and labourers. Many free and enslaved women married or cohabited with the male Dutch settlers. M. F. Valkhoff argued that 75% of children born to female slaves in the Dutch Cape Colony between 1652 and 1672 had a Dutch father. Sarah Grey Thomason and Terrence Kaufman argue that Afrikaans' development as a separate language was "heavily conditioned by nonwhites who learned Dutch imperfectly as a second language."

Beginning in about 1815, Afrikaans started to replace Malay as the language of instruction in Muslim schools in South Africa, written with the Arabic alphabet: see Arabic Afrikaans. Later, Afrikaans, now written with the Latin script, started to appear in newspapers and political and religious works in around 1850 (alongside the already established Dutch).

In 1875 a group of Afrikaans-speakers from the Cape formed the Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaaners ('Society for Real Afrikaners'), and published a number of books in Afrikaans including grammars, dictionaries, religious materials and histories.

Until the early 20th century Afrikaans was considered a Dutch dialect, alongside Standard Dutch, which it eventually replaced as an official language. Before the Boer wars, "and indeed for some time afterwards, Afrikaans was regarded as inappropriate for educated discourse. Rather, Afrikaans was described derogatorily as 'a kitchen language' or 'a bastard jargon', suitable for communication mainly between the Boers and their servants."

Recognition

"Dit is ons erns" ("This is our passion"), at the Afrikaans Language Monument

In 1925 Afrikaans was recognised by the South African government as a distinct language, rather than simply a vernacular of Dutch. On 8 May 1925, that is 23 years after the Second Boer War ended, the Official Languages of the Union Act, 1925 was passed—mostly due to the efforts of the Afrikaans-language movement—at a joint sitting of the House of Assembly and the Senate, in which the Afrikaans language was declared a variety of Dutch. The Constitution of 1961 reversed the position of Afrikaans and Dutch, so that English and Afrikaans were the official languages, and Afrikaans was deemed to include Dutch. The Constitution of 1983 removed any mention of Dutch altogether.

The Afrikaans Language Monument is on a hill overlooking Paarl in the Western Cape Province. Officially opened on 10 October 1975, it was erected on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Society of Real Afrikaners, and the 50th anniversary of Afrikaans being declared an official language of South Africa in distinction to Dutch.

Standardisation

The side view of the Pretoria Art Museum in Arcadia, Pretoria, with its name written in Afrikaans, Xhosa and Southern Ndebele.

The earliest Afrikaans texts were some doggerel verse from 1795 and a dialogue transcribed by a Dutch traveller in 1825. Afrikaans used the Latin alphabet around this time, although the Cape Muslim community used the Arabic script. In 1861, L.H. Meurant published his Zamenspraak tusschen Klaas Waarzegger en Jan Twyfelaar (Conversation between Nicholas Truthsayer and John Doubter), which is considered to be the first book published in Afrikaans.

The first grammar book was published in 1876; a bilingual dictionary was later published in 1902. The main modern Afrikaans dictionary in use is the Verklarende Handwoordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (HAT). A new authoritative dictionary, called Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT), was under development As of 2018. The official orthography of Afrikaans is the Afrikaanse Woordelys en Spelreëls, compiled by Die Taalkommissie.

The Afrikaans Bible

Main article: Bible translations into Afrikaans

The Afrikaners primarily were Protestants, of the Dutch Reformed Church of the 17th century. Their religious practices were later influenced in South Africa by British ministries during the 1800s. A landmark in the development of the language was the translation of the whole Bible into Afrikaans. While significant advances had been made in the textual criticism of the Bible, especially the Greek New Testament, the 1933 translation followed the Textus Receptus and was closely akin to the Statenbijbel. Before this, most Cape Dutch-Afrikaans speakers had to rely on the Dutch Statenbijbel. This Statenvertaling had its origins with the Synod of Dordrecht of 1618 and was thus in an archaic form of Dutch. This was hard for Dutch speakers to understand, and increasingly unintelligible for 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 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. This monumental work established Afrikaans as 'n suiwer en ordentlike taal, that is "a pure and proper language" for religious purposes, especially among the deeply Calvinist Afrikaans religious community that previously had been sceptical of a Bible translation that varied from the Dutch version that they were used to.

In 1983 a fresh translation marked the 50th anniversary of the 1933 version. 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. This translation was influenced by Eugene Nida's theory of dynamic equivalence which focused on finding the nearest equivalent in the receptor language to the idea that the Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic wanted to convey.

A new translation, Die Bybel: 'n Direkte Vertaling was released in November 2020. It is the first truly ecumenical translation of the Bible in Afrikaans as translators from various churches, including the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches, were involved.

Classification

• Indo-European languages
  • Germanic
    • West Germanic
      • Low Franconian
        • Dutch
          • Afrikaans

Afrikaans descended from Dutch dialects in the 17th century. It belongs to a West Germanic sub-group, the Low Franconian languages. Other West Germanic languages related to Afrikaans are German, English, the Frisian languages, Yiddish, and the unstandardised language Low German.

Geographic distribution

Statistics

The geographical distribution of Afrikaans in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Afrikaans at home.

  0–20%

  20–40%

  40–60%

  60–80%

  80–100%

Country	Speakers	Percentage of speakers	Year	Reference
South Africa	6,855,082	94.71%	2011
Namibia	219,760	3.04%	2011
Australia	49,375	0.68%	2021
New Zealand	36,966	0.51%	2018
Canada	29,670	0.41%	2021
United States	28,406	0.39%	2016
Botswana	8,082	0.11%	2011
United Kingdom	7,489	0.10%	2021
Pakistan	2,228	0.03%	2016
Argentina	650	0.01%	2019
Finland	150	0.002%	2023
Mauritius	36	0.0005%	2011
Total	7,237,894

Sociolinguistics

The geographical distribution of Afrikaans in South Africa: density of Afrikaans home-language speakers.

  <1 /km²

  1–3 /km²

  3–10 /km²

  10–30 /km²

  30–100 /km²

  100–300 /km²

  300–1000 /km²

  1000–3000 /km²

  >3000 /km²

The geographical distribution of Afrikaans in Namibia.

Afrikaans is also widely spoken in Namibia. Before independence, Afrikaans had equal status with German as an official language. Since independence in 1990, Afrikaans has had constitutional recognition as a national, but not official, language. There is a much smaller number of Afrikaans speakers among Zimbabwe's white minority, as most have left the country since 1980. Afrikaans was also a medium of instruction for schools in Bophuthatswana, an Apartheid-era Bantustan. Eldoret in Kenya was founded by Afrikaners.

There are also around 30.000 South-Africans in the Netherlands, of which the majority are of Afrikaans-speaking Afrikaner and Coloured South-African descent. A much smaller and unknown number of speakers also reside in the Dutch Caribbean.

Contrary to popular belief, the majority of Afrikaans speakers today are not Afrikaners or Boers, but Coloureds.

In 1976, secondary-school pupils in Soweto began a rebellion in response to the government's decision that Afrikaans be used as the language of instruction for half the subjects taught in non-White schools (with English continuing for the other half). Although English is the mother tongue of only 8.2% of the population, it is the language most widely understood, and the second language of a majority of South Africans. Afrikaans is more widely spoken than English in the Northern and Western Cape provinces, several hundred kilometres from Soweto. The Black community's opposition to Afrikaans and preference for continuing English instruction was underlined when the government rescinded the policy one month after the uprising: 96% of Black schools chose English (over Afrikaans or native languages) as the language of instruction. Afrikaans-medium schools were also accused of using language policy to deter Black African parents. Some of these parents, in part supported by provincial departments of education, initiated litigation which enabled enrolment with English as language of instruction. By 2006 there were 300 single-medium Afrikaans schools, compared to 2,500 in 1994, after most converted to dual-medium education. Due to Afrikaans being viewed as the "language of the white oppressor" by some, pressure has been increased to remove Afrikaans as a teaching language in South African universities, resulting in bloody student protests in 2015.

Under South Africa's Constitution of 1996, Afrikaans remains an official language, and has equal status to English and nine other languages. The new policy means that the use of Afrikaans is now often reduced in favour of English, or to accommodate the other official languages. In 1996, for example, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reduced the amount of television airtime in Afrikaans, while South African Airways dropped its Afrikaans name Suid-Afrikaanse Lugdiens from its livery. Similarly, South Africa's diplomatic missions overseas now display the name of the country only in English and their host country's language, and not in Afrikaans. Meanwhile, the constitution of the Western Cape, which went into effect in 1998, declares Afrikaans to be an official language of the province alongside English and Xhosa.

The Afrikaans-language general-interest family magazine Huisgenoot has the largest readership of any magazine in the country.

When the British design magazine Wallpaper described Afrikaans as "one of the world's ugliest languages" in its September 2005 article about the monument, South African billionaire Johann Rupert (chairman of the Richemont Group), responded by withdrawing advertising for brands such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Montblanc and Alfred Dunhill from the magazine. The author of the article, Bronwyn Davies, was an English-speaking South African.

Mutual intelligibility with Dutch

Main article: Comparison of Afrikaans and Dutch

An estimated 90 to 95 percent of the Afrikaans lexicon is ultimately of Dutch origin, and there are few lexical differences between the two languages. Afrikaans has a considerably more regular morphology, grammar, and spelling. There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, particularly in written form.

Afrikaans acquired some lexical and syntactical borrowings from other languages such as Malay, Khoisan languages, Portuguese, and Bantu languages, and Afrikaans has also been significantly influenced by South African English. Dutch speakers are confronted with fewer non-cognates when listening to Afrikaans than the other way round. Mutual intelligibility thus tends to be asymmetrical, as it is easier for Dutch speakers to understand Afrikaans than for Afrikaans speakers to understand Dutch.

In general, mutual intelligibility between Dutch and Afrikaans is far better than between Dutch and Frisian or between Danish and Swedish. The South African poet writer Breyten Breytenbach, attempting to visualise the language distance for Anglophones once remarked that the differences between (Standard) Dutch and Afrikaans are comparable to those between the Received Pronunciation and Southern American English.

Current status

Use of Afrikaans as a first language by province

Province	1996	2001	2011	2022
Western Cape	58.5%	55.3%	49.7%	41.2%
Eastern Cape	9.8%	9.6%	10.6%	9.6%
Northern Cape	57.2%	56.6%	53.8%	54.6%
Free State	14.4%	11.9%	12.7%	10.3%
KwaZulu-Natal	1.6%	1.5%	1.6%	1.0%
North West	8.8%	8.8%	9.0%	5.2%
Gauteng	15.6%	13.6%	12.4%	7.7%
Mpumalanga	7.1%	5.5%	7.2%	3.2%
Limpopo	2.6%	2.6%	2.6%	2.3%
South Africa	14.4%	13.3%	13.5%	10.6%

Afrikaans is an official language of the Republic of South Africa and a recognised national language of the Republic of Namibia. Post-apartheid South Africa has seen a loss of preferential treatment by the government for Afrikaans, in terms of education, social events, media (TV and radio), and general status throughout the country, given that it now shares its place as official language with ten other languages. Nevertheless, Afrikaans remains more prevalent in the media – radio, newspapers and television – than any of the other official languages, except English. More than 300 book titles in Afrikaans are published annually. South African census figures suggest a decreasing number of first language Afrikaans speakers in South Africa from 13.5% in 2011 to 10.6% in 2022. The South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) projects that a growing majority of Afrikaans speakers will be Coloured. Afrikaans speakers experience higher employment rates than other South African language groups, though as of 2012 half a million were unemployed.

Despite the challenges of demotion and emigration that it faces in South Africa, the Afrikaans vernacular remains competitive, being popular in DSTV pay channels and several internet sites, while generating high newspaper and music CD sales. A resurgence in Afrikaans popular music since the late 1990s has invigorated the language, especially among a younger generation of South Africans. A recent trend is the increased availability of pre-school educational CDs and DVDs. Such media also prove popular with the extensive Afrikaans-speaking emigrant communities who seek to retain language proficiency in a household context.

Afrikaans-language cinema showed signs of new vigour in the early 21st century. The 2007 film Ouma se slim kind, the first full-length Afrikaans movie since Paljas in 1998, is seen as the dawn of a new era in Afrikaans cinema. Several short films have been created and more feature-length movies, such as Poena Is Koning and Bakgat (both in 2008) have been produced, besides the 2011 Afrikaans-language film Skoonheid, which was the first Afrikaans film to screen at the Cannes Film Festival. The film Platteland was also released in 2011. The Afrikaans film industry started gaining international recognition via the likes of big Afrikaans Hollywood film stars, like Charlize Theron (Monster) and Sharlto Copley (District 9) promoting their mother tongue.

SABC 3 announced early in 2009 that it would increase Afrikaans programming due to the "growing Afrikaans-language market and [their] need for working capital as Afrikaans advertising is the only advertising that sells in the current South African television market". In April 2009, SABC3 started screening several Afrikaans-language programmes. There is a groundswell movement within Afrikaans to be inclusive, and to promote itself along with the indigenous official languages. In Namibia, the percentage of Afrikaans speakers declined from 11.4% (2001 Census) to 10.4% (2011 Census). The major concentrations are in Hardap (41.0%), ǁKaras (36.1%), Erongo (20.5%), Khomas (18.5%), Omaheke (10.0%), Otjozondjupa (9.4%), Kunene (4.2%), and Oshikoto (2.3%).

Some native speakers of Bantu languages and English also speak Afrikaans as a second language. It is widely taught in South African schools, with about 10.3 million second-language students.

Afrikaans is offered at many universities outside South Africa, including in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Russia and the United States.

Grammar

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
wees	is	zijn or wezen	be
hê	het	hebben	have

In addition, verbs do not conjugate differently depending on the subject. For example,

Afrikaans	Dutch	English
ek is	ik ben	I am
jy/u is	jij/u bent	you are (sing.)
hy/sy/dit is	hij/zij/het is	he/she/it is
ons is	wij zijn	we are
julle is	jullie zijn	you are (plur.)
hulle is	zij zijn	they are

Only a handful of Afrikaans verbs have a preterite, namely the auxiliary wees ('to be'), the modal verbs, and the verb dink ('to think'). The preterite of mag ('may') is rare in contemporary Afrikaans.

Afrikaans		Dutch		English
present	past	present	past	present	past
ek is	ek was	ik ben	ik was	I am	I was
ek kan	ek kon	ik kan	ik kon	I can	I could
ek moet	ek moes	ik moet	ik moest	I must	(I had to)
ek wil	ek wou	ik wil	ik wilde/wou	I want to	I wanted to
ek sal	ek sou	ik zal	ik zou	I shall	I should
ek mag	(ek mog)	ik mag	ik mocht	I may	I might
ek dink	ek dog	ik denk	ik dacht	I think	I thought

All other verbs use the perfect tense, het + past participle (ge-), for the past. Therefore, there is no distinction in Afrikaans between I drank and I have drunk. (In colloquial German, the past tense is also often replaced with the perfect.)

Afrikaans	Dutch	English
ek het gedrink	ik dronk	I drank
	ik heb gedronken	I have drunk

When telling a longer story, Afrikaans speakers usually avoid the perfect and simply use the present tense, or historical present tense instead (as is possible, but less common, in English as well).

A particular feature of Afrikaans is its use of the double negative; it is classified in Afrikaans as ontkennende vorm and is 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 spreekt geen Afrikaans.

English: He can not speak Afrikaans. / He can't 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 centre of the Netherlands (such as Garderen), it takes a different form, which is not found in Afrikaans. The following is an example:

Afrikaans: Ek wil nie dit doen nie.^* (lit. I want not this do not.)

Dutch: Ik wil dit niet doen.

English: I do not want to do this.

^* Compare with Ek wil dit nie doen nie, which changes the meaning to 'I want not to do this'. Whereas Ek wil nie dit doen nie emphasizes a lack of desire to act, Ek wil dit nie doen nie emphasizes the act itself.

The -ne was the Middle Dutch 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 Dutch dialects.

The double negative construction has been fully grammaticalised in standard Afrikaans and its proper use follows a set of fairly complex rules as the examples below show:

Afrikaans	Dutch (literally translated)	More correct Dutch	Literal English	Idiomatic English
Ek het (nie) geweet dat hy (nie) sou kom (nie).	Ik heb (niet) geweten dat hij (niet) zou komen.	Ik wist (niet) dat hij (niet) zou komen.	I did (not) know that he would (not) come.	I did (not) know that he was (not) going to come.
Hy sal nie kom nie, want hy is siek.	Hij zal niet komen, want hij is ziek.	Hij komt niet, want hij is ziek.	He will not come, as he is sick.	He is sick and is not going to come.
Dis (Dit is) nie so moeilik om Afrikaans te leer nie.	Het is niet zo moeilijk (om) Afrikaans te leren.		It is not so difficult to learn Afrikaans.

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: Hy is in die hospitaal, maar hy eet nie.

Dutch: Hij is in het ziekenhuis, maar hij eet niet.

English: He is in [the] hospital, though he doesn't eat.

Certain words in Afrikaans would be contracted. 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 is contracted to don't in English.

The Dutch word het ('it' in English) does not correspond to het in Afrikaans. The Dutch words corresponding to Afrikaans het are heb, hebt, heeft and hebben.

Afrikaans	Dutch	English
het	heb, hebt, heeft, hebben	have, has
die	de, het	the
dit	het	it

Phonology

Main article: Afrikaans phonology

A voice recording of Die Stem van Suid-Afrika ('The Voice of South Africa'), the former national anthem, read in poetic form

Vowels

Monophthong phonemes

	Front				Central				Back
	unrounded		rounded		unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	(iː)	y	yː					u	(uː)
Mid	e	eː			ə	(əː)	œ	(œː)	o	(oː)
Near-open	(æ)	(æː)
Open	a									ɑː

• As phonemes, /iː/ and /uː/ occur only in the words spieël /spiːl/ 'mirror' and koeël /kuːl/ 'bullet', which used to be pronounced with sequences /i.ə/ and /u.ə/, respectively. In other cases, [iː] and [uː] occur as allophones of, respectively, /i/ and /u/ before /r/.
• /y/ is phonetically long [yː] before /r/.
• /əː/ is always stressed and occurs only in the word wîe 'wedges'.
• The closest unrounded counterparts of /œ, œː/ are central /ə, əː/, rather than front /e, eː/.
• /œː, oː/ occur only in a few words.
• [æ] occurs as an allophone of /e/ before /k, χ, l, r/, though this occurs primarily dialectally, most commonly in the former Transvaal and Free State provinces.

Diphthongs

Diphthong phonemes

Starting point		Ending point
		Front	Central	Back
Mid	unrounded	ɪø, əi	ɪə
	rounded	œi, ɔi	ʊə	œu
Open	unrounded	ai, ɑːi

• /ɔi, ai/ occur mainly in loanwords.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

		Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Dorsal	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	t͡ʃ	k
	voiced	b	d	(d͡ʒ)	(ɡ)
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ (ɹ̠̊˔)	χ
	voiced	v	(z)	ʒ		ɦ
Approximant			l		j
Rhotic			r ~ ɾ ~ ʀ ~ ʁ

• All obstruents at the ends of words are devoiced, so that e.g. a final /d/ is realized as [t].
• /ɡ, dʒ, z/ occur only in loanwords. [ɡ] is also an allophone of /χ/ in some environments.
• /χ/ is most often uvular [χ ~ ʀ̥]. Velar [x] occurs only in some speakers.
• The rhotic is usually an alveolar trill [r] or tap [ɾ]. In some parts of the former Cape Province, it is realized uvularly, either as a trill [ʀ] or a fricative [ʁ].

Dialects

A warning sign in Afrikaans: Gevaar Slagysters or "Danger, Traps".

Following early dialectal studies of Afrikaans, it was theorised that three main historical dialects probably existed after the Great Trek in the 1830s. These dialects are the Northern Cape, Western Cape, and Eastern Cape dialects. Northern Cape dialect may have resulted from contact between Dutch settlers and the Khoekhoe people between the Great Karoo and the Kunene, and Eastern Cape dialect between the Dutch and the Xhosa. 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.

There is also a prison cant, known as Sabela, 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.

Patagonian Afrikaans dialect

Patagonian Afrikaans is a distinct dialect of Afrikaans is spoken by the 650-strong South African community of Argentina, in the region of Patagonia.

Influences on Afrikaans from other languages

Malay

Due to the early settlement of a Cape Malay community in Cape Town, who are now known as Coloureds, numerous Classical Malay words were brought into Afrikaans. Some of these words entered Dutch via people arriving from what is now known as Indonesia as part of their colonial heritage. Malay words in Afrikaans include:

• baie, which means 'very'/'much'/'many' (from banyak) is a very commonly used Afrikaans word, different from its Dutch equivalent veel or erg.
• baadjie, Afrikaans for jacket (from baju, ultimately from Persian), used where Dutch would use jas or vest. The word baadje in Dutch is now considered archaic and only used in written, literary texts.
• bobotie, a traditional Cape-Malay dish, made from spiced minced meat baked with an egg-based topping.
• piesang, which means banana. This is different from the common Dutch word banaan. The Indonesian word pisang is also used in Dutch, though usage is less common.
• piering, which means saucer (from piring, also from Persian).

Portuguese

Some words originally came from Portuguese such as sambreel ('umbrella') from the Portuguese sombreiro, kraal ('pen/cattle enclosure') from the Portuguese curral and mielie ('corn', from milho). Some of these words also exist in Dutch, like sambreel 'parasol', though usage is less common and meanings can slightly differ.

Khoisan languages

• dagga, meaning cannabis
• geitjie, meaning lizard, diminutive adapted from a Khoekhoe word
• gogga, meaning insect, from the Khoisan xo-xo
• karos, blanket of animal hides
• kierie, walking stick from Khoekhoe

Some of these words also exist in Dutch, though with a more specific meaning: assegaai for example means 'South-African tribal javelin' and karos means 'South-African tribal blanket of animal hides'.

Bantu languages

Loanwords from Bantu languages in Afrikaans include the names of indigenous birds, such as mahem and sakaboela, and indigenous plants, such as maroela and tamboekie(gras).

• fundi, from the Zulu word umfundi meaning 'scholar' or 'student"', but used to mean someone who is a student of/expert on a certain subject, i.e. He is a language fundi.
• lobola, meaning bride price, from (and referring to) lobolo of the Nguni languages
• mahem, the grey crowned crane, known in Latin as Balearica regulorum
• maroela, medium-sized dioecious tree known in Latin as Sclerocarya birrea
• tamboekiegras, species of thatching grass known as Hyparrhenia
• tambotie, deciduous tree also known by its Latin name, Spirostachys africana
• tjaila / tjailatyd, an adaption of the word chaile, meaning "to go home" or "to knock off (from work)".

French

The revoking of the Edict of Nantes on 22 October 1685 was a milestone in the history of South Africa, for it marked the beginning of the great Huguenot exodus from France. It is estimated that between 250,000 and 300,000 Protestants left France between 1685 and 1700; out of these, according to Louvois, 100,000 had received military training. A measure of the calibre of these immigrants and of their acceptance by host countries (in particular South Africa) is given by H. V. Morton in his book: In Search of South Africa (London, 1948). The Huguenots were responsible for a great linguistic contribution to Afrikaans, particularly in terms of military terminology as many of them fought on the battlefields during the wars of the Great Trek.

Most of the words in this list are descendants from Dutch borrowings from French, Old French or Latin, and are not direct influences from French on Afrikaans.

Afrikaans	Dutch	French	English
advies	advies	avis	advice
alarm	alarm	alarme	alarm
ammunisie	ammunitie, munitie	munition	ammunition
amusant	amusant	amusant	funny
artillerie	artillerie	artillerie	artillery
ateljee	atelier	atelier	studio
bagasie	bagage	bagage	luggage
bastion	bastion	bastion	bastion
bataljon	bataljon	bataillon	battalion
battery	batterij	batterie	battery
biblioteek	bibliotheek	bibliothèque	library
faktuur	factuur	facture	invoice
fort	fort	fort	fort
frikkadel	frikandel	fricadelle	meatball
garnisoen	garnizoen	garnison	garrison
generaal	generaal	général	general
granaat	granaat	grenade	grenade
infanterie	infanterie	infanterie	infantry
interessant	interessant	intéressant	interesting
kaliber	kaliber	calibre	calibre
kanon	kanon	canon	cannon
kanonnier	kanonnier	canonier	gunner
kardoes	kardoes, cartouche	cartouche	cartridge
kaptein	kapitein	capitaine	captain
kolonel	kolonel	colonel	colonel
kommandeur	commandeur	commandeur	commander
kwartier	kwartier	quartier	quarter
lieutenant	lieutenant	lieutenant	lieutenant
magasyn	magazijn	magasin	magazine
manier	manier	manière	way
marsjeer	marcheer, marcheren	marcher	(to) march
meubels	meubels	meubles	furniture
militêr	militair	militaire	militarily
morsel	morzel	morceau	piece
mortier	mortier	mortier	mortar
muit	muit, muiten	mutiner	(to) mutiny
musket	musket	mousquet	musket
muur	muur	mur	wall
myn	mijn	mine	mine
offisier	officier	officier	officer
orde	orde	ordre	order
papier	papier	papier	paper
pionier	pionier	pionnier	pioneer
plafon	plafond	plafond	ceiling
plat	plat	plat	flat
pont	pont	pont	ferry
provoos	provoost	prévôt	chief
rondte	rondte, ronde	ronde	round
salvo	salvo	salve	salvo
soldaat	soldaat	soldat	soldier
tante	tante	tante	aunt
tapyt	tapijt	tapis	carpet
tros	tros	trousse	bunch

Orthography

The Afrikaans writing system is based on Dutch, using the 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet, plus 16 additional vowels with diacritics. The hyphen (e.g. in a compound like see-eend 'sea duck'), apostrophe (e.g. ma's 'mothers'), and a whitespace character (e.g. in multi-word units like Dooie See 'Dead Sea') is part of the orthography of words, while the indefinite article ʼn is a ligature. All the alphabet letters, including those with diacritics, have capital letters as allographs; the ʼn does not have a capital letter allograph. This means that Afrikaans has 88 graphemes with allographs in total.

Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)
A	Á	Ä	B	C	D	E	É	È	Ê	Ë	F	G	H	I	Í	Î	Ï	J	K	L	M	N		O	Ó	Ô	Ö	P	Q	R	S	T	U	Ú	Û	Ü	V	W	X	Y	Ý	Z
Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters)
a	á	ä	b	c	d	e	é	è	ê	ë	f	g	h	i	í	î	ï	j	k	l	m	n	ʼn	o	ó	ô	ö	p	q	r	s	t	u	ú	û	ü	v	w	x	y	ý	z

In Afrikaans, many consonants are dropped from the earlier Dutch spelling. For example, slechts ('only') in Dutch becomes slegs in Afrikaans. Also, 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 (as well as dialectal Dutch writings) to represent this merger. Similarly, the Dutch digraph ij, normally pronounced as /ɛi/, corresponds to Afrikaans y, except where it replaces the Dutch suffix –lijk which is pronounced as /lək/, 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], just like English "a".

The diminutive suffix in Afrikaans is -tjie, -djie or -ie, whereas in Dutch it is -tje or dje, hence a "bit" is ʼn 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 most often 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, ä, é, è, ê, ë, í, î, ï, ó, ô, ö, ú, û, ü, ý. Diacritics are ignored when alphabetising, though they are still important, even when typing the diacritic forms may be difficult. For example, geëet ("ate") instead of the 3 e's alongside each other: *geeet, which can never occur in Afrikaans, or sê, which translates to "say", whereas se is a possessive form. The acute's (á, é, í, ó, ú, ý) primary function is to place emphasis on a word (i.e. for emphatic reasons), by adding it to the emphasised syllable of the word. For example, sál ("will" (verb)), néé ('no'), móét ("must"), hý ("he"), gewéét ("knew"). The acute is only placed on the i if it is the only vowel in the emphasised word: wil ('want' (verb)) becomes wíl, but lui ('lazy') becomes lúi. Only a few non-loan words are spelled with acutes, e.g. dié ('this'), ná ('after'), óf ... óf ('either ... or'), nóg ... nóg ('neither ... nor'), etc. Only four non-loan words are spelled with the grave: nè ('yes?', 'right?', 'eh?'), dè ('here, take this!' or '[this is] yours!'), hè ('huh?', 'what?', 'eh?'), and appèl ('(formal) appeal' (noun)).

Initial apostrophes

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.

Here are a few examples:

Apostrophed version	Usual version	Translation	Notes
'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
'n Man loop daar		A man walks there	Standard Afrikaans pronounces 'n as a schwa vowel.

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.

Table of characters

For more on the pronunciation of the letters below, see Help:IPA/Afrikaans.

Afrikaans letters and pronunciation

Grapheme	IPA	Examples and Notes
a	/a/, /ɑː/	appel ('apple'; /a/), tale ('languages'; /ɑː/). Represents /a/ in closed syllables and /ɑː/ in stressed open syllables
á	/a/, /ɑ:/	ná (after)
ä	/a/, /ɑ:/	sebraägtig ('zebra-like'). The diaeresis indicates the start of new syllable.
aa	/ɑː/	aap ('monkey', 'ape'). Only occurs in closed syllables.
aai	/ɑːi/	draai ('turn')
ae	/ɑːə/	vrae ('questions'); the vowels belong to two separate syllables
ai	/ai/	baie ('many', 'much' or 'very'), ai (expression of frustration or resignation)
b	/b/, /p/	boom ('tree')
c	/s/, /k/	Found only in borrowed words or proper nouns; the former pronunciation occurs before 'e', 'i', or 'y'; featured in the Latinate plural ending -ici (singular form -ikus)
ch	/ʃ/, /x/, /k/	chirurg ('surgeon'; /ʃ/; typically sj is used instead), chemie ('chemistry'; /x/), chitien ('chitin'; /k/). Found only in recent loanwords and in proper nouns
d	/d/, /t/	dag ('day'), deel ('part', 'divide', 'share')
dj	/d͡ʒ/, /k/	djati ('teak'), broodjie ('sandwich'). Used to transcribe foreign words for the former pronunciation, and in the diminutive suffix -djie for the latter in words ending with d
e	/e(ː)/, /æ(ː)/, /ɪə/, /ɪ/, /ə/	bed (/e/), mens ('person', /eː/) (lengthened before /n/) ete ('meal', /ɪə/ and /ə/ respectively), ek ('I', /æ/), berg ('mountain', /æː/) (lengthened before /r/). /ɪ/ is the unstressed allophone of /ɪə/
é	/e(ː)/, /æ(ː)/, /ɪə/	dié ('this'), mét ('with', emphasised), ék ('I; me', emphasised), wéét ('know', emphasised)
è	/e/	Found in loanwords (like crèche) and proper nouns (like Eugène) where the spelling was maintained, and in four non-loanwords: nè ('yes?', 'right?', 'eh?'), dè ('here, take this!' or '[this is] yours!'), hè ('huh?', 'what?', 'eh?'), and appèl ('(formal) appeal' (noun)).
ê	/eː/, /æː/	sê ('to say'), wêreld ('world'), lêer ('file') (Allophonically /æː/ before /(ə)r/)
ë	–	Diaeresis indicates the start of new syllable, thus ë, ëe and ëi are pronounced like 'e', 'ee' and 'ei', respectively
ee	/ɪə/	weet ('to know'), een ('one')
eeu	/ɪu/	leeu ('lion'), eeu ('century', 'age')
ei	/ei/	lei ('to lead')
eu	/ɪɵ/	seun ('son' or 'lad')
f	/f/	fiets ('bicycle')
g	/x/, /ɡ/	/ɡ/ exists as the allophone of /x/ if at the end of a root word preceded by a stressed single vowel + /r/ and suffixed with a schwa, e.g. berg ('mountain') is pronounced as /bæːrx/, and berge is pronounced as /bæːrɡə/
gh	/ɡ/	gholf ('golf'). Used for /ɡ/ when it is not an allophone of /x/; found only in borrowed words. If the h instead begins the next syllable, the two letters are pronounced separately.
h	/ɦ/	hael ('hail'), hond ('dog')
i	/i/, /ə/	kind ('child'; /ə/), ink ('ink'; /ə/), krisis ('crisis'; /i/ and /ə/ respectively), elektrisiteit ('electricity'; /i/ for all three; third 'i' is part of diphthong 'ei')
í	/i/, /ə/	krísis ('crisis', emphasised), dít ('that', emphasised)
î	/əː/	wîe (plural of wig; 'wedges' or 'quoins')
ï	/i/, /ə/	Found in words such as beïnvloed ('to influence'). The diaeresis indicates the start of new syllable.
ie	/i(ː)/	iets ('something'), vier ('four')
j	/j/	julle (plural 'you')
k	/k/	kat ('cat'), kan ('can' (verb) or 'jug')
l	/l/	lag ('laugh')
m	/m/	man ('man')
n	/n/	nael ('nail')
ʼn	/ə/	indefinite article ʼn ('a'), styled as a ligature (Unicode character U+0149)
ng	/ŋ/	sing ('to sing')
o	/o/, /ʊə/, /ʊ/	op ('up(on)'; /o/), grote ('size'; /ʊə/), polisie ('police'; /ʊ/)
ó	/o/, /ʊə/	óp ('done, finished', emphasised), gróót ('huge', emphasised)
ô	/oː/	môre ('tomorrow')
ö	/o/, /ʊə/	Found in words such as koöperasie ('co-operation'). The diaeresis indicates the start of new syllable, thus ö is pronounced the same as 'o' based on the following remainder of the word.
oe	/u(ː)/	boek ('book'), koers ('course', 'direction')
oei	/ui/	koei ('cow')
oo	/ʊə/	oom ('uncle' or 'sir')
ooi	/oːi/	mooi ('pretty', 'beautiful'), nooi ('invite')
ou	/ɵu/	die ou ('the guy'), die ou skoen ('the old shoe'). Sometimes spelled ouw in loanwords and surnames, for example Louw.
p	/p/	pot ('pot'), pers ('purple' — or 'press' indicating the news media; the latter is often spelled with an <ê>)
q	/k/	Found only in foreign words with original spelling maintained; typically k is used instead
r	/r/	rooi ('red')
s	/s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/	ses ('six'), stem ('voice' or 'vote'), posisie ('position', /z/ for first 's', /s/ for second 's'), rasioneel ('rational', /ʃ/ (nonstandard; formally /s/ is used instead) visuëel ('visual', /ʒ/ (nonstandard; /z/ is more formal)
sj	/ʃ/	sjaal ('shawl'), sjokolade ('chocolate')
t	/t/	tafel ('table')
tj	/tʃ/, /k/	tjank ('whine like a dog' or 'to cry incessantly'). The latter pronunciation occurs in the common diminutive suffix "-(e)tjie"
u	/ɵ/, /y(ː)/	stuk ('piece'), unie ('union'), muur ('wall')
ú	/œ/, /y(:)/	búk ('bend over', emphasised), ú ('you', formal, emphasised)
û	/ɵː/	brûe ('bridges')
ü	–	Found in words such as reünie ('reunion'). The diaeresis indicates the start of a new syllable, thus ü is pronounced the same as u, except when found in proper nouns and surnames from German, like Müller.
ui	/ɵi/	uit ('out')
uu	/y(ː)/	uur ('hour')
v	/f/, /v/	vis ('fish'), visuëel ('visual')
w	/v/, /w/	water ('water'; /v/); allophonically /w/ after obstruents within a root; an example: kwas ('brush'; /w/)
x	/z/, /ks/	xifoïed ('xiphoid'; /z/), x-straal ('x-ray'; /ks/).
y	/əi/	byt ('bite')
ý	/əi/	hý ('he', emphasised)
z	/z/	Zoeloe ('Zulu'). Found only in onomatopoeia and loanwords

Sample text

Psalm 23 1983 translation:

Die Here is my Herder, ek kom niks kort nie.
Hy laat my rus in groen weivelde. 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.

Psalm 23 1953 translation:

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.

Lord's Prayer (Afrikaans New Living Version translation):

Ons Vader in die hemel, laat u Naam geheilig word.
Laat u koninkryk kom.
Laat u wil hier op aarde uitgevoer word soos in die hemel.
Gee ons die porsie brood wat ons vir vandag nodig het.
En vergeef ons ons sondeskuld soos ons ook óns skuldenaars vergewe het.
Bewaar ons sodat ons nie aan verleiding sal toegee nie; maar bevry ons van die greep van die bose.
Want aan U behoort die koningskap,
en die krag,
en die heerlikheid,
vir altyd.
Amen.

Lord's Prayer (Original translation):

Onse Vader wat in die hemel is,
laat U Naam geheilig word;
laat U koninkryk kom;
laat U wil geskied op die aarde,
net soos in die hemel.
Gee ons vandag ons daaglikse brood;
en vergeef ons ons skulde
soos ons ons skuldenaars vergewe
en laat ons nie in die versoeking nie
maar verlos ons van die bose
Want aan U behoort die koninkryk
en die krag
en die heerlikheid
tot in ewigheid.
Amen

See also

• Aardklop Arts Festival
• Afrikaans literature
• Afrikaans speaking population in South Africa
• Arabic Afrikaans
• Handwoordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (Afrikaans Dictionary)
• Differences between Afrikaans and Dutch
• IPA/Afrikaans
• Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (Arts Festival)
• Languages of South Africa
• Languages of Zimbabwe § Afrikaans
• List of Afrikaans language poets
• List of Afrikaans singers
• List of English words of Afrikaans origin
• South African Translators' Institute
• Tsotsitaal

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Further reading

• Grieshaber, Nicky. 2011. Diacs and Quirks in a Nutshell – Afrikaans spelling explained. Pietermaritzburg. ISBN 978-0-620-51726-3; e-ISBN 978-0-620-51980-9.
• Roberge, P. T. (2002), "Afrikaans – considering origins", Language in South Africa, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-53383-X
• Thomas, C. H. (1899), "Boer language", Origin of the Anglo-Boer War revealed, London, England: Hodder and Stoughton

External links

• afrikaans.com
• Afrikaans English Online Dictionary at Hablaa (archived 4 June 2012)
• Afrikaans-English Online Dictionary at majstro.com
• Learn Afrikaans Online (Open Learning Environment)
• Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge (FAK) – Federation of Afrikaans Cultural Associations
• Dutch Writers from South Africa: A Cultural-Historical Study, Part I from the World Digital Library
• Afrikaans Literature and Language Web dossier African Studies Centre, Leiden (2011) Archived 18 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine