Afrikaans is a West Germanic language descended from Dutch that is spoken primarily in South Africa and Namibia. It has about 10 million native and second language speakers. Afrikaans developed from the Dutch spoken by early Dutch settlers in South Africa and incorporated vocabulary from local Bantu and Khoisan languages as well as Portuguese and Malay. While similar to Dutch, there are some differences in pronunciation and vocabulary. It has been an established written language since the mid-19th century.
4. History of Afrikaans
A Low Franconian West Germanic language
descended from Dutch and spoken mainly in South
Africa and Namibia.
Speakers of Afrikaans also in Australia, Belgium,
Botswana, Canada, Germany, Lesotho, Malawi,
Namibia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK, the
USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
About 10 million people speak Afrikaans as a first or
second language, and several million other have a
basic knowledge of the language.
5. Afrikaans retains some features of 18th
century Dutch
together with vocabulary from various
Bantu and Khoisan languages
and also from Portugese and Malay.
Speakers of Afrikaans can understand
Dutch, though Dutch speakers tend to
need a while to tune into Afrikaans.
6. From about 1815 Afrikaans started to replace Malay
as the language of instruction in Muslim schools in
South Africa.
At that time it was written with the Arabic alphabet.
Afrikaans, written with the Latin alphabet, started
to appeare in newspapers and political and
religious works in about 1850.
Then in 1875 a group of Afrikaans speakers from
the Cape formed the Genootskap vir Regte
Afrikaanders (Society for Real Afrikaners),
and published a number of books in Afrikaans,
including grammars, dictionaries, religious material
and histories.
They also published a journal called the Patriot.
7. During the early years of the 20th century
there was a blossoming of academic
interest in Afrikaans.
In 1925 Afrikaans was recognised by the
government as a real language, instead of
a slang version of Dutch.
Afrikaans has changed little since then.
8. Afrikaans alphabet
A a B b C c D d E e F f G g H h I i
aa bee see dee ee ef gee haa ie
J j K k L l M m N n O o P p Q q R r
jee kaa el em en oo pee kuu er
S s T t U u V v W w X x Y y Z z
es tee uu vee wee ex y set
Afrikaans pronunciation, in the next slide