Whose Language is it Anyway: Afrikaans in South Africa SuidAfrika

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Whose Language is it Anyway? Afrikaans in South
Africa (Suid-Afrika)

• Courtney Godwin
• Carrington Skinner

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Modern Afrikaans

• Spoken in South Africa (and also in Namibia)
• 6 million native speakers 10 million secondary
  speakers
• West Germanic Indo-European language closely
  related to Dutch
• Diverged from Dutch in the 1700s, considered a
  distinct language by the late 19th century, named
  official language (alongside Dutch and English)
  in 1925 in 1961 Dutch no longer an official
  language
• Three main dialects (Northeastern forms basis of
  written standard)

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Modern South Africa

• In 1961 South Africa became an independent
  republic
• Afrikaans is first language of 60 of South
  Africas Whites
• It is the first language of 90 of the Coloured
  or mixed race population
• Afrikaans is one of eleven official languages

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History of The Tavern of the Seas

• Dutch settlers first arrived in 1652 to set up a
  refreshment post for Dutch East India Company
  (VOC) on the way to the East Indies a group of
  French Huguenots arrived in 1688 to escape
  religious persecution
• Slaves from other places in Africa (Madagascar,
  Angola), India, and Indonesia were brought in for
  labor
• Miscegenation and contact with other foreign
  tongues helps shape Afrikaans into a new
  language development of Coloured Afrikaans
  speakers
• In 1814 the Cape Colony finally ceded to Great
  Britain from the Dutch

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More History

• British settlers arrive slavery abolished
• 1836- The Boers Great Trek Dispersal of the
  language across South Africa
• Discovery of diamonds in 1867
• The Boer Wars and Afrikaner Nationalism
• 1910- Union of South Africa established

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Language Development

• A patois? Bastard Dutch?
• Three Linguistic Traditions- European, African,
  Asian
• Malay-Portuguese influence on the language
• Double negative influence from French
• Loan words from English, Khoi, Xhosa
• 95 of Afrikaans words and vocabulary are related
  to Dutch

Afrikaans maak sleg pynappel Dutch maken slech
t ananas English make bad pineapple
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Current Issues

• Apartheid began in 1948 with the rise of the
  white Nationalist Party Apartheid meant
  separating the races and maintaining equality,
  but it soon became the domination of the White
  minority over the Black and Coloured majority
• Afrikaans was the language that became associated
  with the white government that suppressed many
  ethnicities in the country anti-Afrikaans
  protests
• Apartheid ended in the early 1990s, with this
  came greater linguistic freedom
• Non-white Afrikaans speakers have attempted to
  assert their own identity

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Future Outlook

• Afrikaans and the other indigenous languages of
  South Africa have equal status and will continue
  to play an important role in the social and
  political spheres of the country
• South Africa will continue to seek a balance
  among all of its varied languages and
  ethnicities, and heal the wounds of past
  wrongdoings

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• Its too early to tell, but the pendulum is
  swinging away from where it was in the early
  1990s. Immediately after apartheid, people did
  not see a future for Afrikaans in South Africa.
  Today were seeing a new role for Afrikaans,
  although a more modest role, alongside the other
  10 official languages. Nelleke Van
  Deusen-Scholl

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Bibliography

• Afrikaans." 13 Apr. 2006. Wikipedia, The Free
  Encyclopedia. 10 Apr. 2006 lthttp//en.wikipedia.or
  g/wiki/Afrikaansgt.
• "Afrikaner." 18 Apr. 2006. Wikipedia, The Free
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  g/wiki/Afrikanersgt.
• Kell, Gretchen. "New class at UC Berkeley
  explores Afrikaans, the language many wrongly
  associate exclusively with apartheid ." 2 Nov
  1997. The Regents of the University of
  California. 18 Apr. 2006 lthttp//www.berkeley.edu/
  news/media/releases/ 97legacy /afrikaan.htmlgt.
• Le May, G.H.L. The Afrikaners An Historical
  Interpretation. Cambridge Blackwell, 1995.
• "Promotion of indigenous languages requires
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  the African National Congress 5 (2005). 10 Apr
  2006 lthttp//www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/
  anctoday/2005/at33.htmgt.
• Roberge, Paul T. "The Formation of Afrikaans."
  SPIL Plus 23 (1994).
• Schwerin, Alan, ed. Apartheid's Landscape and
  Ideas A Scorched Soul. Rochester University of
  Rochester, 2001.
• "Translation in Afrikaans Today." 2005. Applied
  Language Solutions. 10 Apr. 2006
  lthttp//www.appliedlanguage.com/articles/translati
  ons_in_africaans_today.shtmlgt.
• Valkoff, Marius F. New Light on Afrikaans and
  "Malayo-Portuguese". Johannesburg University of
  Witwatersrand, 1972.