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Afrikaans is an official language of South Africa
where it is spoken by 6.2 million people as a first and by over 10
million people as a second language (Ethnologue). It is taught in
primary and secondary schools, and used in electronic and print media.
Before 1925, when Afrikaans was proclaimed to be a language separate
from Dutch, the official languages of the Union of South Africa were
English and Dutch. Dutch was replaced as an official language by
Afrikaans. Today, it is once again being marginalized, this time by
Bantu languages spoken by a large percentage of the population. Standard
Afrikaans is based on the Cape variety. Afrikaans has several
geographical variations that include both grammar and lexicon. For
instance, Northwestern Afrikaans has a significant number of Khoikhoi
words, while Southwestern Afrikaans has a larger number of Malay,
English, and Portuguese vocabulary items.
Afrikaans is written with the
Latin alphabet consisting of 26
letters.
- c, q, x,
and z are used
almost excusively in foreign
words.
- Long vowels are represented
by double letters, e.g.,
nee "no."
- The letter g
represents a velar fricative /x/
as in Bach
or Loch.
- 'n
represents the indefinite
article (equivalent to Dutch "een").
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Reviewer: |
Julia van
Niekerk
(NYC) |
I was really excited
when I bought this
book. Seeing an
opportunity to
really expand my
ability to speak
Afrikaans, a "woordeboek"
seemed to be exactly
what I needed.
However, based on
the response I get
from my fiance, who
is a native
Afrikaans speaker, I
would probably not
buy this book again.
Many times, when I
use a word from the
book, he's never
even heard of it,
and gives me the
correct Afrikaans
word. He feels that
this book was
probably written by
a native Dutch
speaker, being that
Dutch and Afrikaans
are very similar,
but with some
distinct
differences. I find
it still helpful for
any words I
encounter in
Afrikaans that I
need translated into
English, but as a
reference for
translating from
English into
Afrikaans, it's
proven decidedly
lacking.
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