It turns out that Afrikaans is one of the most interesting languages ​​for scientific study. Along with Hebrew.

Afrikaans(Afrikaans, formerly also known as Afrikaans) - Germanic language (until the beginning of the 20th century, a dialect of Dutch), one of the 11 official languages ​​of the Republic of South Africa, also common in Namibia. In addition, small communities of Afrikaans speakers live in other countries of Southern Africa: Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia. Many Afrikaans-speaking emigrants from South Africa settled in the UK, Australia, New Zealand

Afrikaans is one of the eleven official official languages ​​of the Republic of South Africa, along with English and the languages ​​of Ndebele, Sesothosa Leboa, Sesotho, Siswati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu. At the same time, it is much closer to English than to the aforementioned dialects of the indigenous people. And about 6 million people speak it in the world, most of whom live in South Africa and Namibia. It is predominantly white.

Afrikaans (also called the Boer language) belongs to the Germanic group, and of all the Indo-European languages ​​it is the youngest. Its history does not even go back four centuries, and its right to exist as an independent language was recognized only at the beginning of the last century! Germanic linguists love to study it: after all, the “progenitor” of the Boer language is Dutch, and together they form the only pair in which both the “ancestor” and the “descendant” are living languages, represented in all the variety of styles. Although, of course, the Dutch of the 21st century differs from the same language spoken in the mid-17th century, but these differences are not so great.

The first settlements of Dutch colonists in South Africa (at the Cape of Good Hope in the Cape Province) arose in 1652 at the site of a temporary stop for sailors heading to India.

The colored population in South Africa is called the Kaapnare, i.e. the colored mestizos from Cape Town, they should not be confused with the South African Indians. They appeared as a result of marriages of European men with local women. Thus a new people arose. About two hundred years ago, Colored Basters also appeared in Namibia, considering Afrikaans their native language. The so-called Basters and Kaapnars, unlike the Boers, speak with a special accent, and their dialect has slightly different phonetics.

Apart from South Africa, Afrikaans is one of the most important languages ​​of Namibia. In Namibia, the newspaper Dee Republicain, founded in 1977, is published in Afrikaans.

A.K. Ignatenko - Territorial-ethnic varieties of the Afrikaans language (2000 - www.philology.ru)

A.K. Ignatenko. Afrikaans language textbook. Initial course (2000) - file for download (in-yaz-book.ru/afrikaans.html)

South African literature in Afrikaans
The material was prepared by A.V. Yakovlev. Reproduced from the text published in the reference book South Africa. (M.: Institute for African Studies RAS, 1994).

English-language sites about Afrikaans

Afrikaans (www.omniglot.com)
Afrikaans is a Low Franconian West Germanic language descended from Dutch and spoken mainly in South Africa and Namibia. There are also speakers of Afrikaans 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 others have a basic knowledge of the language.

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.

), one of the 11 official languages ​​of the Republic of South Africa, also common in Namibia. In addition, small communities of Afrikaans speakers live in other countries of Southern Africa: Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia. Many Afrikaans-speaking emigrants from South Africa settled in Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.

Spreading

Afrikaans is the native language of a large portion of the white and colored populations of South Africa and Namibia. Afrikaans speakers make up the majority in the Western Cape and Northern Cape provinces of South Africa, as well as in the west of the Free State (in these territories a considerable part of them are colored). In addition, many (mostly white) Afrikaans speakers live in some relatively large cities in the center of the country (Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Potchefstroom, Vereeniching, Welkom, Klerksdorp, Krugersdorp, Johannesburg).

Many Afrikaans speakers do not classify themselves as "white" or "colored" and identify as "Afrikaans-speaking South Africans" or "Namibians". Collective name for Afrikaans speakers - Afrikaanses.

Afrikaans is the native language of approximately 6 million people (5,983,426 in South Africa according to the 2001 census); the total number of speakers is about 10 million. Speakers of Afrikaans and Dutch can understand each other without prior preparation (literary Afrikaans differs from literary Dutch less than many Dutch dialects proper).

Story

The specific features of Afrikaans probably developed by the end of the 17th century in the Cape Colony. During the 18th and 1st half of the 19th centuries. Afrikaans functioned only as an oral language, apart from errors made by the Boers in texts in Dutch. The basis for Afrikaans was mainly the dialect of South Holland, but the influence of the Flemish dialect can also be traced: for example, the suffix of adjectives -lijk corresponds not expected -lyk, A -lik, which is also typical for the dialects of Flanders. In addition, there is undoubtedly the influence of the Malayo-Portuguese Creole used in the Dutch East Indies (from where slaves were brought to the Cape Colony) and various jargons and pidgins based on Dutch dialects used among sailors. So, from the Malay language came, for example, the words piesang"banana" (Malay pisang, Dutch banaan) or baie"Very".

Probably the earliest record of Afrikaans is songs (like ditties) recorded in 1795. In 1861 J. H. Merant published the story Zamenspraak tusschen Klaas Waarzegger en Jan Twyfelaar("Conversation between Klaas Warseheer [the Truth-Teller] and Jan Tweifelaar [the Doubter]"), considered to be the first Afrikaans text. In the 1860s, a monument to “Arabic Afrikaans” was also created - an instruction in the Islamic faith of Abu Bakr Effendi, written in Afrikaans in Arabic letters. The first Afrikaans grammar and dictionary were published in 1875 in Cape Town by the True Afrikaners Society ( Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners). With the rise of Boer patriotism, especially in the Transvaal and the Orange Republic, the importance of Afrikaans grew rapidly, and after the Boer War - . he began to receive more and more recognition.

Nevertheless, with the formation of the South African Republic in 1910, Afrikaans did not yet become the official language of the country (at that time, along with English, it was still Dutch) and was only consolidated as the state language of the South African Republic (now South Africa). During the apartheid era, the role of Afrikaans as the only national language of South Africa was emphasized in every possible way, and teaching it was compulsory.

It is now one of the 11 official languages ​​of the Republic of South Africa, although its role in society has been somewhat reduced. However, it occupies an important place, for example in the media: although the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has reduced the number of programs in Afrikaans, in the print media its position is very strong: for example, a magazine for the whole family Huisgenoot has the largest circulation in South Africa. Other newspapers and magazines are published in Afrikaans, quite a few books are published, and there is a pay cable channel KykNet and specialized radio stations. At the same time, greater attention is being given to varieties of Afrikaans previously considered "non-standard" and "unliterary", in particular Cape Afrikaans, which is spoken by the majority of speakers of the language.

Linguistic characteristics

From a linguistic point of view, Afrikaans is partly close to other Germanic languages ​​and especially Dutch (it partially retains features inherent in the Middle Dutch language, but lost in the modern literary language of the Netherlands). In Afrikaans, there has been a simplification of the declension and conjugation system (while the syntax remains fundamentally Dutch), but in terms of its scale it is quite comparable to what happened, for example, in English.

Phonetics and phonology

The Afrikaans phonetic system is close to the Dutch one. It is distinguished from the latter by the nasalization of vowels (with compensatory lengthening) before voiceless spirants (cf. Afrikaans , Netherlands ( mens, “person”), deafening of all voiced fricative consonants, including at the beginning of a word (Suid-Afrika, Dutch. Zuid-Afrika). In addition, Afrikaans is characterized by the loss of consonants, primarily g(phonetically [x], in Dutch it is also possible [ɣ]), between vowels: cf. reël "rule", Dutch. regel. [d] is also subject to this, cf. oud"old", ouer"older". Sometimes [d] transitions between vowels (especially after long ones) into [j]: blad"leaf", plural h. blaaie. Another characteristic feature of Afrikaans is the simplification of consonant clusters, especially at the end of a word: cf. pos"mail", Dutch post. With inflection and word formation, etymological combinations can be restored: nag"night", plural h. nagte.

Consonants

Italics in the table indicate rare and peripheral sounds. Thus, , , [ʃ] [ʒ] are found almost only in borrowed or onomatopoeic words (cf. sjiek"chic" tjek"check", tjilp"tweet"). The same applies to [g] (cf. rugby"rugby", ghnoe"(antelope) wildebeest"), which sometimes occurs in native words, especially after [r] ( berge"mountains", burger"citizen"); Wed Also nege"nine". Palatal plosives [c][ɟ] occur mainly in diminutives, e.g. stoeltjie"high chair" hondjie"dog". [c] is also sometimes found as a variant of [k] before front vowels. After dental consonants [v] (spelling w) is realized as [w], cf. twee"two".

Afrikaans in general is characterized by various assimilative processes: for example, [ɦ], depending on the subsequent vowel, can also be realized as [j] (before front vowels) or [w] (before rounded vowels). Similarly, [x] before front vowels can be realized as [ç]; in the area of ​​consonantism, various regressive and progressive assimilations are possible. In addition, Afrikaans, like the Dutch language, is characterized by deafening of consonants at the absolute end of a word, and voicedness is restored before the vowel: held"hero", held in "heroine"

Vowels

The vowel composition of Afrikaans is generally the same as that of Dutch vowels.

Afrikaans also has a rich system of diphthongs, including true diphthongs and so-called. "double vowels", involving combinations of long vowels with [i], which usually appear before diminutive suffixes ( raatjie), but are also found in roots ( waai).

Road sign with inscriptions in Afrikaans and English

Particularly difficult are the questions related to the implementation of the vowel, orthographically represented as i, as well as long mid-rise vowels. Traditionally it is believed that i corresponds to the IPA symbol [ə], however B. Donaldson points out that this vowel actually has a slightly higher rise than the true [ə], found in Afrikaans in an unstressed position; Donaldson himself refers to it as ï , apparently, in the IPA it most closely corresponds to [ɪ]. As for the “long vowels of the middle rise”, in traditional descriptions they are considered diphthongs, or,: the same Donaldson believes that the transcription would be more correct,.

Among the processes in the vowel area, one should note the frequent reduction of unstressed vowels to [ə], syncopation [ə] ( gisteraand"last night" ), increase e And o in the pre-stressed syllable before [i], [u] ( polisie"police"), demotion e And o in the second pre-stressed syllable before [ɛ], [ɔ] ( energy"energy" [ɛnər"xi]), (non-normative) delabialization [ʏ], [œ], [ø], [œy] to [i], [ə/ɪ], , [əi] ( muur"wall" instead of), lowering [ɛ] to [æ] before [l], [k], [r], [x].

Other phonological information

The stress in Afrikaans, as in other Germanic languages, usually falls on the first syllable: cf. speller"player", Onderwys"teach"; exceptions in native words are unstressed prefixes be-, ge-, ver-, er-, her-: bespréek"order". In borrowed words the stress is usually preserved: koepee"coupe".

As in Dutch, combinations [l] + consonant, [r] plus a word-final consonant undergo epenthesis [ə]: melk"milk".

Spelling

The letters Cc, Qq, Xx, Zz are used only in borrowings. The most commonly used diacritic is the circumflex: ê [ɛː] , ô [ɔː] , û [œː] (the last one is just two words), î [əː]. Dieresis is used to indicate two-syllable writing ( rein"rain", cf. Netherlands regen). Very common digraphs: ie , eu [øə] , oe , ch [ʃ] , , tj, [c] , dj, [ɟ]. When adapting foreign words, the spelling is sometimes preserved ( genius"genius"), but more often adapts ( annexeer"annex").

An important principle of Afrikaans orthography is the consistent reflection of vowel length. Short vowels in a closed syllable are written with one letter, but if the syllable becomes open, then the single consonant after the short vowel is doubled, which does not affect the pronunciation: cf. mat"rug", plural h. matte. On the contrary, long vowels in a closed syllable are indicated by digraphs, and if the syllable is open, they are written with one letter: boom"tree", plural h. bome. Long is traditionally written doubled and at the end of the word: see"lake".

Sometimes, as in Dutch, the acute sign is used to indicate the stress of a word or semantic emphasis: sometimes it has a semantic meaning, e.g. die"definite article", die"this".

Words are written with a capital letter if they are proper names, and at the beginning of a sentence. In addition, if there is an indefinite article at the beginning of a sentence "n, then the next word is written with a capital letter: "n Man het met my gepraat.

Morphology

Afrikaans is an analytical language and is characterized by weak morphological structure. The intensive process of inflection decay leads to the complete destruction of the noun declension system and the conjugation system in the verb (loss of personal endings). The opposition between weak and strong verbs, characteristic of all other Germanic languages, has been almost completely destroyed; temporary oppositions are expressed in analytical forms (as in some German dialects).

Nouns and adjectives

Monument to the Afrikaans language in Paarl (Western Cape)

The noun does not distinguish between genders, unlike Dutch, where common and neuter gender are distinguished, case contrasts are completely lost (however, almost destroyed in Dutch). Nevertheless, the contrast in number remains. The most common way to form a plural is a suffix -e (mens"person", plural h. mense; dag"day", plural h. dae), the suffix is ​​less productive -s(although it is more common than in Dutch) ( storm"storm", plural h. storms); Other morphemes are also rare, for example, kind"child", plural h. kinders, ouer"parent", plural h. ours, suppletivism ( seeman"sailor", seeliede"sailors"). As noted above, when forming the plural, consonants that are not present in the singular form can be restored: gas"guest", plural h. gaste.

• Join -e polysyllabic adjectives: " n winderige dag"Windy day". The exceptions are:
  • Compound adjectives, the second component of which is an adjective that does not join -e: "n wondermooi meisie"amazingly beautiful ( mooi) young woman";
  • Adjectives on -er, el(including comparative degree): "n lekker piesang"delicious banana" n langer pad"longer way";
• Join -e monosyllabic adjectives in [x], [d], [u], [f], [s], and the alternations described above can occur:
  • Dropping out d ("n wye romp"wide ( wyd) skirt"), with a possible transition to [j] ( "n goeie oes"good ( goed) harvest"). Exceptions: wreed, oud(has a special shape ou);
  • Drop [x] : " n lae muur"low ( laag) wall"
  • Restoring the final consonant: " n slegte reuk"bad ( sleg) smell", "n vaste reel"solid ( vas) rule";
  • Increment [v] (for adjectives on -u): "n ruwe speler"rude ( ru) player"
  • Voicing f before w: "n dowwe lig"dim ( dof) light"
• Other monosyllabic adjectives, as a rule, -e not attached.

An adjective has three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative: grot"big", grother"more", ( die) growste“the largest” (the superlative degree is always used with the definite article). Degrees of comparison of adverbs are formed in the same way. The formation of degrees of comparison is regular, with three exceptions ( min - minder - minst"small", goed - beter - beste"good", baie - meer - meest“very, a lot”) and morphonological processes similar to those described above: oud"old", ouer"older" sag"soft", sagter"softer". Besides, d build up in front -er all adjectives ending in r: lekker"nice", lekkerder.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns (singular) preserve the distinction between two cases: direct and objective, their distribution is similar to the distribution of pronominal cases in other languages, for example English or Swedish: direct case in the role of the subject and nominal part of the predicate, objective - in the position of the complement, including after prepositions.

Form u used in approximately the same way as the Russian respectful “you”. Forms sy And hy Usually used only in relation to persons, although there are exceptions: Waar is die train? - Hy is laat"Where is the train? - It's late."

Possessive pronouns generally coincide with the forms of the objective case. The exception is the forms of the 3rd masculine person and inanimate objects, where the form is used sy. Also, possessive (but not personal) julle, hulle allow options jul, hul.

Possessive pronouns also have forms for use in the predicative function and with ellipsis of the main name: cf. hierdie jas is joune. Waar is myne? "This is a coat your. And where my?" These pronouns look like this:

Verb

The Afrikaans verb system is greatly simplified compared to Dutch. Conjugation (change in persons and numbers) has completely disappeared; most verbs have only two forms: the actual verbal and the participle form. There are almost no synthetic forms, their place has been taken by analytical ones, cf.: ek praat Afrikaans"I speak Afrikaans" hulle sal Afrikaans praat"They will speak Afrikaans" u het Afrikaans gepraat"You spoke Afrikaans" ons sou Afrikaans gepraat“We would speak Afrikaans.” The infinitive form is the same as the personal forms; in the sentence the elements are used before it om te(if there is an object with the infinitive, it is placed between om And te): ek hoop om haar weer te sien"I hope ( hoop) her again ( haar) see".

For most non-derivative verbs, the participle form is formed by adding the prefix ge-. In the case of verbs with separable prefixes, this suffix is ​​inserted between the prefix and the root: Ma skep op"Mom is setting the table" Ma het al opge skep“Mom has already set the table.” For verbs with inseparable prefixes, the participle form does not differ from all other forms: Hy bestuur hierdie firma"He runs this company" Hy het dit altyd bestuur"He always guided her."

The infinitive form, which differs from the finite forms, is preserved in only two verbs; they also retain special participle forms: hê"to have" (personal form het, participle gehad) And wees(personal form is, participle gewees). Slightly more verbs retain special preterite (past tense) forms: the same wees (was), wil"want" ( wou), sal"future tense auxiliary verb" ( sou), moet"should" ( moes), kan"to be able" ( kon). Also rarely used dag(from dink"to think") and wis(from weet"know").

Various aspectual and tense oppositions are expressed in Afrikaans mainly using analytical forms formed with the help of auxiliary verbs het"have", wees"be", sal(And sou) "Future tense", word"passive auxiliary verb":

Syntax

In general, Afrikaans syntax is similar to Dutch syntax and generally has few features that would set it apart from other Germanic languages. As in Dutch or German, the second place in a sentence is occupied by the finite verb form (in the case of the analytical form, its finite part), despite the fact that the first component can be either the subject or another member of the sentence. If the predicate is expressed in an analytical verb form, the participle is placed at the end of the sentence: ek lees "n boek"I am reading a book", ek het "n boek gelees"I read the book." The non-prepositional indirect object comes before the direct object: ek het my broer "n boek gegee"I gave my brother a book"; the prepositional object, on the contrary, is placed after the direct: ek het "n boek vir my broer gegee"Same". Possessive relations are expressed either using a preposition van (die boek van die broer"brother's book"), or using a possessive particle se (die broer se boek"Same"). Particle se(now inconsistent) goes back to a construction with vertex marking of possessiveness using a possessive pronoun: previously there was die broer sy boek, die meisie haar boek(cf. possible in Dutch de broer z'n (zijn) boek, de zuster d'r boek).

Afrikaans is characterized by double negation: the first element can be the actual verb negation nie(comes immediately after the verb) or a negative pronoun ( geen"no one", nêrens"nowhere"), and the second is the element nie which comes at the end: ek heet nie dié boek gelees nie"I haven't read this book" hy het geen boek gelees nie"he didn't read any book."

In the subordinate clause in Afrikaans, as in other Germanic languages, the word order is different from that of the main clause: the subject comes first, and all verb forms come at the end: ek wees dat jou dié boek lees"I know that you are reading this book." If in a subordinate sentence the verb is in the perfect, then in Afrikaans (as in German, but unlike Dutch) the auxiliary verb het comes in last place: ek weet dat jou dié boek gelees het"I know that you have read this book." Moreover, when using forms with sal, sou and modal verbs, the infinitive (as in Dutch, but unlike German) comes after the auxiliary forms: hy het my gesê dat hy môre sou kom"He told me that he would come tomorrow." Widely used as a relative pronoun wat"what", including for persons: die man wat ek ontmoet het is my vriend"the man I met is my friend."

The widespread use of the preposition vir in front of personal direct objects: hy slaan vir Piet"He hits Pete."

In spoken Afrikaans, the use of a non-conjunctive subordinating connection is widespread, in which the word order in the subordinate clause is the same as in the main clause: Karel sê hy sal om tienuur huistoe kom"Karel says (that) he will come home tomorrow at ten o'clock."

Vocabulary

Afrikaans vocabulary reflects the history of the settlement of the Cape Colony: it is basically Dutch, or more precisely Dutch (although there are also lexical doublets, in the Netherlands distributed by dialect, such as, werp And gooi"throw": the first word is common in the south of the Netherlands, the second in the north). There are quite a lot of borrowings from French, but this is mainly international vocabulary ( energy, genius and so on); limited influence of German ( verskaf“to do something,” from German. verschaffen). There are quite a lot of borrowings from the Malay-Portuguese Creole, both of Malay and Portuguese origin: small. baie"so many", piercing"saucer", port. tronk"jail", mielie"corn". There are almost no borrowings from local languages ​​into Afrikaans, and those that exist mainly reflect local realities ( gogga, kamma, kamtig, donga, indaba).

Despite the relatively rich vocabulary of the language, young Afrikaans speakers in urban South Africa constantly use English words and entire phrases in their everyday speech. The phenomenon is interesting because in the vast majority of cases there is a corresponding word or phrase in Afrikaans. The reason lies in the fact that English looks fashionable and “advanced” in the eyes of many urban youth, and also because the appropriate Afrikaans word sometimes does not immediately come to mind. The scope of use of Afrikaans is slowly but steadily narrowing. Recently, for many, Afrikaans has become almost exclusively the language of everyday communication. Young people, upon completion of their studies, read and write little in the language, hence the tendency to replace Afrikaans vocabulary with English equivalents.

Differences from literary Dutch

In phonetics, the differences between Afrikaans and Dutch come down largely to differences in the dialect basis of Afrikaans and literary Dutch; in a number of cases, Afrikaans “preserves” a norm that is considered outdated in Dutch (for example, open pronunciation e in a word wereld"peace" (in Afrikaans - wêreld)). Among the phonetic differences are the following (some were mentioned earlier):

• Pronunciation of a long nasalized vowel in words like mens;
• Voiceless [f], [s], [x] in place of Dutch spellings v, z, g;
• Dropping of terminals after voiceless spirants: nag"night", plural h. nagte, Wed Netherlands nacht, nachten;
• A fall d And g between vowels: spiel, Netherlands spiegel "mirror";
• Pronunciation sk instead of sch( ) at the beginning of the morpheme: skool"school" instead school, suffix -skap instead of -schap.
• Pronunciation -er([ɛːr]) instead of Dutch -aar (perd"horse", Dutch paard)

In the field of morphology, attention is drawn to the complete collapse of personal inflection, the coincidence of the infinitive and present forms, the regularization of the formation of participles (Dutch participles of strong verbs are preserved only as verbal adjectives: neem"take", ek het "n besluit geneem"I made a decision" n genome besluit"a decision made" (cf. in Dutch ik heb het besluit genomen), disappearance of the synthetic preterite. In the name system - the complete disappearance of the case system, the disappearance of grammatical gender, the lack of agreement of adjectives. Another notable difference is the use of reduplication in Afrikaans to express meanings such as gerunds or adverbs: hy kom lag-lag"He walks away laughing."

Differences in syntax (double negative, different word order in subordinate sentences) and vocabulary were noted above.

Dialects

Predominant languages ​​of South Africa by district: Afrikaans in blue

Afrikaans did not reflect dialect differences related to which areas of the Netherlands the settlers came to the Kaap from: all dialect varieties were formed directly in South Africa. It is customary to distinguish three main varieties of Afrikaans:

• Eastern ( Oosgrens-Afrikaans), which became the basis of the literary language: it is the language of the free settlers of the east of the Cape Colony (up to Fish River), and later of the Voortrekkers (Boers), free peasants who went on the Great Trek deep into the continent and founded the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.
• Cape ( Kaapse Afrikaans), the language of Western Kaap, is primarily the language of slaves (brought from other colonies) and servants from the local population. He was most influenced by the Malayo-Portuguese-Dutch Creole; it is now primarily the language of the colored people. Many of them are Muslims;
• Oranzhevorechnaya ( Oranjerivier-Afrikaans listen)) are the dialects of another group of mixed population, descendants mainly from marriages of whites and Hottentots. They moved from the Cape Colony north to what is now the Northern Cape and Namibia. This variety of Afrikaans is spoken, for example, by the Basters and Griquas.

The linguistic differences of all these varieties are small, boiling down mainly to lexical and minor phonological features.

Influence on other languages

Afrikaans, having been the dominant language in South Africa for a long time, influenced other languages ​​with which it came into contact. Loanwords from Afrikaans have found their way into many of the Bantu languages ​​spoken in South Africa, as well as into South African English (e.g. lekker along with nice, bakkie"small truck" Afrikaans vocabulary also had a great influence on contact languages, which developed in conditions of mixing of large groups of workers from different tribes, primarily in mines: for example, in the diamond and gold mines of the Witwatersrand, many words from Afrikaans were absorbed by fanagalo, which later spread as a contact language over a large area . Words from Afrikaans are, for example, also in the Bemba language, used in the copper mines of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). In addition, Afrikaans also influenced koine that were formed in urban environments (particularly during the apartheid era, when school education was conducted in Afrikaans), such as isikamto (flaaitaal).

Many Afrikaans words denoting specific local realities have entered other languages ​​of the world: these realities became especially famous after the Second Boer War: these are the words veld, commando, boer, English. trek"pioneer journey"

Afrikaans in education

Afrikaans is widely used in education, mainly in areas where its speakers form the majority. During the apartheid era, school education was conducted in Afrikaans in South Africa, SWA and the quasi-independent Bantustan of Bophuthatswana. Afrikaans was also taught in most universities. Currently, the scope of its use in teaching has decreased; some educational institutions have introduced the parallel use of English or local languages. Among universities, Afrikaans (usually along with English) is preserved in Stellenbosch (“Boer

AFRIKAANS(Boer language), a language closely related to Dutch, spoken by Afrikaners living in the Republic of South Africa, or Boers (people of the white race, descendants of Dutch colonists who landed at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th century), as well as “colored” people. .e. people of mixed Boer-Negro descent. Afrikaans is one of the two official languages ​​of South Africa (along with English), but it is also understood by many Africans, English-speaking whites and Asians outside South Africa.

The first differences between the Dutch language and the language of the colonists began to be discovered after 1685. At the beginning of the 19th century. the language of the Dutch colonists was called "African-Dutch" or "Cape-Dutch". The first texts in Afrikaans date back to 1795. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. It was believed that the Afrikaans language arose as a result of a mixture of various dialects of the Dutch language of the 17th century, spoken by the first colonists, as well as the influence of Hottentot languages, Creole Malayo-Portuguese and the Dutch language spoken by foreigners in the Cape Province, especially Germans and French people. Currently, on the question of the origin of the Afrikaans language, linguists are inclined to the point of view that the influence of other languages ​​played a secondary role here, and its formation was determined by the own tendencies of the Dutch dialects of the 17th century. to simplify the grammatical system (which is a characteristic feature of the Afrikaans language).

There are significant differences in pronunciation between Dutch and Afrikaans. The consonantism of the Afrikaans language is characterized by the elimination of the final consonant following the fricative (Dutch. kreeft, Afrikaans creef) and loss d, g and other consonants in the position between a stressed and unstressed syllable (Dutch. zadel, African saal). Changes in vocalism: Dutch oo often corresponds to Afrikaans eu (ö ) Dutch a And aa – e(Dutch darm, African derm). Another important difference is that in Afrikaans the vowels are nasalized. The articulation of sounds in Afrikaans is generally the same as in Dutch; the effect of different phonetic appearance arises due to differences in intonation and stress patterns.

The Afrikaans language has greatly simplified its grammatical system. This tendency is characteristic of all Germanic languages, but here it is taken to its logical conclusion. The verb in Afrikaans is not inflected for either person or number. The meaning of time is expressed using auxiliary verbs or adverbs; the number of strong (“irregular”) verbs is small. The past tense is almost always formed by adding a prefix ge-. The morphology of the name in the Afrikaans language is close to the Dutch - in particular, in the formation of plurals. numbers, the use of diminutive suffixes and gender indicators. From the point of view of its morphological structure, Afrikaans is the most analytical of the Germanic languages ​​(and in general of all modern Indo-European languages).

The most significant difference between Afrikaans and Dutch in the area of ​​syntax is the presence of double negation: Hy wil dit nie doen nie(“He doesn’t want to do this”). Other distinctive features are repetition of prepositions and modal adverbs, reduplication and use of prepositions vir before the direct object. There are also discrepancies in word order. Otherwise, the syntax of Afrikaans is similar to Dutch. The Dutch initially experience some difficulties in understanding the Afrikaans language, but usually they overcome them quite quickly and learn to perceive both oral and written speech - which is due to the direct genetic proximity of Afrikaans to Dutch, on the one hand, and the preservation of the Dutch tradition in South Africa - with another.

Despite the obvious close relationship of the Afrikaans language to Dutch, in their lexical composition these two languages ​​differ sharply from each other. Some words that sound like archaisms in modern Dutch are quite common in Afrikaans; modern Dutch developed in cities, while Afrikaans has its roots in rural dialects of the 17th century; some Dutch words acquired new meanings in the Cape Province; In addition, new conditions in a new country required new words. Many such words come from the language of sailors. The lexical composition of the Afrikaans language was also replenished by borrowings from other languages ​​common in South Africa: English, Malay-Portuguese, Hottentot and some African languages. However, the main thing that distinguishes Afrikaans from Dutch is its “African spirit”.

School education and worship in Afrikaans have been carried out since 1914. There are several reasons for this: the initial lack of national identity, the status of Dutch as the language of the church, and the desire of Great Britain to anglicize the Boers. In 1918, the use of Afrikaans in universities was allowed, and in 1925 it was finally recognized as the official language. The heyday of poetry in the Afrikaans language occurred after the publication of a collection of poems by E. Marais in 1904 Winter night. The poetry of such authors as E. Marais, K. Leitpoldt, Totius (J.D. du Toit), J. Celliers, T. van der Heever and others constitute literature that reaches the world level. Poems by “colored” poets S. Petersen, P. Philander, A. Small are devoted to the problems of their ethnic groups and, in particular, their relations with the white population. Afrikaans prose initially had a local significance, but the renewal movement of the 1960s, led by E. Lerub, C. Barnard, A. Brink and D. Schoeman, contributed to its entry into the international arena.

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Meaning of the word Afrikaans

Afrikaans in the crossword dictionary

Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998

Afrikaans

AFRIKAANS (Boer language) is the language of the Afrikaners (Boers), belongs to the Indo-European family of languages ​​(Germanic group). One of the two official languages ​​of South Africa. It arose through the process of integration and mixing of Dutch dialects with German and English, as well as with some local languages. Writing based on the Latin alphabet.

Afrikaans

Boer language, one of the official languages ​​(along with English) of the Republic of South Africa; belongs to the group of West Germanic languages. It is spoken by St. 3.5 million people (1967). A. is distributed over a large territory of South Africa, but mainly in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. A. arose in the 17th century. in the process of integration and mixing of various Dutch (mainly Dutch) dialects with closely related languages ​​(German and English), as well as with the languages ​​of the local indigenous population (Hottentot, Bushman, Bantu) and the Creole Malay-Portuguese language of sailors, traders and slaves. The specific features of A. developed by the end of the 17th century. still in the Cape Province. A characteristic feature is the absence of territorial dialects. During the 18th and 1st half of the 19th centuries. A. functioned only as an oral spoken language. The first attempt to consolidate a written norm was made in 1875 by the Society of True Afrikaners. Written monuments on A. appeared only in the 70s. 19th century With the formation of the South African Republic (1910), Arabic did not yet become the official language of the country and only in 1925 was it established as the state language of the South African Republic.

The phonetic system of Armenia is close to the Dutch one. Characteristic features are nasalization of vowels in certain positions and deafening of voiced fricative consonants at the beginning of a word. Spelling is constructed primarily on a phonetic basis. The vocabulary retains its Dutch basis; borrowings from local African languages ​​are insignificant. A. is an analytical language and is characterized by weak morphological formation. The intensive process of inflection decay leads to the complete destruction of the noun declension system and the verb conjugation system (loss of personal endings). To express syntactic relations, function words (prepositions and auxiliary verbs appearing in a frozen form) and the technique of adjacency are used, and therefore the order of words in a sentence and phrase acquires grammatical meaning.

Lit.: Mironov S. A., Afrikaans Language, M., 1969; Botha M. S., Burger J. F., Maskew Miller se Afrikaanse grammatika, 5 druk, Kaapstad, 1923; Bouman A. C. en Pienaar E. C., Afrikaanse spraakkuns, Stellenbosch; 1924; Kloeke G. G., Herkornst en groei van het Africanans, Leiden, 1950; Villiers M. d e, Afrikaanse Klankleer, Kaapstad ≈ Amsterdam, 1958; Bosman D. B., Merwe J. W. van den, Tweetalige woordeboek, Afrikaans-Engels, Engels-Afrikaans, Kaapstad, 1962.

S. A. Mironov.

Wikipedia

Afrikaans

Afrikaans (Afrikaans, was previously also known as Afrikaans) - Germanic language (until the beginning of the 20th century, a dialect of Dutch), one of the 11 official languages ​​of the Republic of South Africa, also common in Namibia. In addition, small communities of Afrikaans speakers live in other countries of Southern Africa: Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia. Many Afrikaans-speaking emigrants from South Africa settled in Great Britain, Australia, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.

Examples of the use of the word Afrikaans in literature.

But knowing Afrikaans, I understood some words in German, the aliens spoke a different language.

She said something to Afrikaans into the telephone receiver, they were immediately brought into the office of Mr. Benson - a friendly and ruddy man in a beige suit.

Viljoen, who spoke to him in Afrikaans, covered the receiver with his hand and whispered: “He says he was in Stalag 344.”

Therefore, at home, English and Dutch take turns, at school - intersystem, and also Portuguese, Tagalog, Bengali, Swedish, Afrikaans, Finnish.

Zell on Afrikaans to his comrade, who was frantically rummaging in his pockets, looking for a syringe with a drug.

Kuyper on Afrikaans, when the area where tape B ended appeared on the right screen.

I understood a little Afrikaans and, listening to their conversation, I realized that the bushman introduced himself to the girl as a resident of Johannesburg.

The Coates family did not forbid themselves to speak Afrikaans and would start a conversation bubbling in her throat with those she met, and Daphne would calm down, understanding only fragments of it.

Many of us, while reading articles on Wikipedia, have more than once come across articles in the Afrikaans language, which looks very similar to Dutch, and if you look closely, you can find similarities in it with German. Afrikaans (or as it is also called in English “Cape Dutch” - Cape Dutch) is, in fact, a dialect of the well-known West German language, which, due to a number of historical reasons, ceased to be considered a regional variant of Dutch and began to stand out as an independent language. So how did Afrikaans come about? And what are its features?

In the late 17th century, South Africa (SA) was colonized by the Dutch, who introduced their language and other aspects of Dutch culture to the region. During the 18th century, the Dutch language in South Africa underwent significant changes due to several factors, including the phonological characteristics/capabilities of the local population, as well as the influence of the Khoisan and Bantu languages ​​spoken in the region. To a somewhat lesser extent, the African dialect of the Dutch language acquired borrowings from the Malay and Portuguese languages. However, the Dutch believed that the new language did not live up to the standards of official Dutch, and, in addition to the official name "Cape Dutch", called it incorrect, illiterate or even uncivilized Dutch. Until the early 20th century, Standard Dutch remained the official language of South Africa, as the regional variety was still considered a dialect. It was around this period that the term “Afrikaans” arose, and over time it replaced “European Dutch” as the official language of the state.

So let's talk about the characteristics of this unusual yet melodic language. Firstly, it is important to note that, despite the influence of other languages ​​spoken in South Africa, about 90-95% of Afrikaans vocabulary comes from Dutch. However, the language has its own morphology, spelling and even grammar. Secondly, Afrikaans became as widespread as the original Dutch, mainly due to the fact that the Cape Colony covered a huge territory, and the use of the language extended beyond its borders (including the territory of modern Namibia and Botswana). And thirdly, Afrikaans is a surprisingly orderly language. Because the development of this daughter language occurred gradually and simultaneously in different areas of southern Africa, Afrikaans was originally a collection of a large number of individual dialects originating from Dutch. Thanks to the efforts of linguists, the dialects of Cape Dutch were standardized and combined into one language, which we know as today's Afrikaans.

Having read this preface, many, I think, began to wonder: how similar are Afrikaans and Dutch? Wikipedia itself has a wonderful article in English, “Comparison of Afrikaans and Dutch,” which examines in detail all the differences between languages. There is no doubt that Afrikaans has some interesting features. For example, the language uses regular patterns to simplify Dutch spelling. Moreover, in most cases, these changes are a consequence of the evolution of Afrikaans phonetics. The Dutch combination of sounds “ij” began to be written “y”; the hard “c” sound became “k”; the trigraphs "tie" and "cie" were both simplified and became "sie"; combinations of “ou”, “ouw”, “au” and “auw” were merged and began to be written as “ou” and, voila, the language began to look completely different! Since the sound structure of Afrikaans is also different from European Dutch, changes in spelling were an absolutely necessary measure. That is why the Dutch “ch” and “g”, which in Afrikaans are both pronounced /χ/ in speech, also began to be denoted in writing by the same grapheme - “g”.

Another interesting fact is that Afrikaans grammar has also undergone many changes since its separation from Dutch. The changes that have occurred can be described in a nutshell approximately like this: “it has become simpler.” There is no grammatical gender in Afrikaans, so instead of constantly thinking about whether to choose “de” or “het” for the definite article, in Afrikaans you can simply use “die” for the definite article. And one more important difference that is worth paying attention to: “I don’t speak Dutch” in Dutch will sound like “Ik spreek geen Nederlands”, but “I don’t speak Afrikaans” in the African version itself will sound like “Ek praat nie Afrikaans nie.” Please note that, unlike Dutch or English, Afrikaans has a double negative!

As for the vocabulary of the language, as we said above, 90-95% of words were borrowed from the original Dutch language. Where do the rest of the words come from? Once the Cape Malay community formed in Cape Town, Malay loanwords began to appear in Afrikaans, along with other South African languages. For example, the Afrikaans word for "banana" would be "piesang", unlike most European languages. There are also a number of other basic words in the language that may seem strange to a Dutch speaker: for example, "insect" would be "gogga", which comes from the Khoisan word "xo-xo". This word is consonant with the name of one of the extinct subspecies of zebras that once lived in this region - the quagga. Other languages ​​that have influenced Afrikaans (and with it English in South Africa) include Portuguese and Bantu languages, including Zulu.

And finally, the most interesting thing: what is the mutual understanding between speakers of Afrikaans and Dutch. In other words, how difficult it is for original Dutch speakers to trace the roots of their mother tongue into Afrikaans, to master the basic elements of that daughter language that can be built upon their existing knowledge of Dutch, and to feel confident communicating with Afrikaans speakers.

In fact, the degree of similarity between the two languages ​​is quite high. This means that a native speaker of one or a second language can understand each other’s written texts at a fairly good level. At the same time, oddly enough, the mutual understanding of both languages ​​was not at all influenced by which of them is original and which is a daughter language. This trait is especially evident in the written form of the language, as Dutch speakers have an easier time understanding Afrikaans than vice versa. Isn't it strange? It would seem that Afrikaans speakers should have an easier time understanding Dutch, since it is the original language from which the dialect developed, while Dutch speakers would, in theory, have to struggle with Malay and Zulu loanwords in the text. In fact, since Afrikaans itself is much simpler than the primary language, and simplification in it occurs according to natural rules (for example, “vogel” becomes “voël”, “regen” becomes “reën”), then we can to say that when reading an Afrikaans text, a Dutch speaker receives a simplified version of his native language. In other words, the Dutch encounter fewer unfamiliar language phenomena than Afrikaans speakers.

And here's another interesting fact: studies show that mutual understanding between Dutch and Afrikaans is better than between Dutch and Frisian. This means that Dutch is closer to its daughter language, which developed on another continent for more than 300 years, than to another West Germanic language, which, along with Dutch itself, is used in the Netherlands. Amazing, right? This happened because Afrikaans developed from Dutch itself, and Frisian was initially less close to Dutch, and the geographical distribution of both languages ​​\u200b\u200bdid not have much of an effect.

Translation: editor of the ACCENT company Elena Deniskina