The Afrikaans and Dutch languages are like brothers and sisters. The dominant languages to some 27 million people throughout the world, they can be studied and enjoyed. For Dutch and Flemish people Afrikaans is a precious language, because it resembles Dutch. Here you can read how and to what extent this African language resembles the European Dutch language. The rich vocabularies of both Afrikaans and Dutch and the origins they have in common are interesting subjects to Dutch linguists and people who study languages as a hobby.

Marcel Bas



- Afrikaans, the African Dutch Language
- Discrimination against Afrikaans - African Renaissance (?)

AFRIKAANS,– THE AFRICAN DUTCH LANGUAGE

When the Dutch set foot on the southern tip of Africa, Dutch would be one of the languages on the continent. There, at the Cape of Good Hope, in the second half of the seventeenth century, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) planted a refreshing station for the vessels that were halfway their voyages. Because of close contacts with non-Europeans and influence from Low German, the Dutch dialects evolved into what is now known as Afrikaans; this mature, modern language is the mother tongue of 16 million people. But the present government does not like Afrikaans, so the use of the language is actively abolished in schools, universities, courts and other public places.

Twenty years after the first settlement the seventeenth-century VOC-employees would start families. Asian slaves arrived to serve as workers in the small community. As in many colonies at the time the slaves were speaking a Portuguese-based pidgin with Malay elements. A pidgin can best be characterised as a basic, corrupted contact language. At the time, the Dutch on the Cape spoke diverse dialects of the western provinces of the Netherlands. Meanwhile, families increased and here and there racial mixing took place. In the eighteenth century some indigenous Hottentot people (a Negroid tribe) also mixed with the Dutch and most Dutch families had Hottentot nannies to look after their children while they were working for the VOC, or for themselves on their own land (there were many free farmers).

The nannies had been speaking western Dutch pidgin languages dialects. The children that the nannies were taking care of would adopt this 'Learners' Hollandic Dutch'. Their parents often used sailor’s slang words and Malay terms for products and customs that had been hitherto unknown to speakers in the Dutch motherland. Hence, European and African Dutch were developing separately from each other.

In a later stage of the eighteenth century, hundreds of Northern and Western Germans were hired as East India Company workers, who mingled easily with the Dutch, leaving their traces in the local language. Still, the contribution of the nannies was the biggest; within one generation the initial Dutch dialects were extinct and the nannies’' learner’s' Dutch was used instead by the new generation. Here we have white people speaking Dutch that was literally coloured by slaves and natives.

Soon this Cape Dutch would worry the authorities, who would try to ‘dutchify’ the Capetonians, who, in turn, were reluctant to learn official Dutch. The ensuing -- third -- generation would rather consider themselves African: "Africaander" and their language gradually became known as Africaansch; Afrikaans. They no longer lived only in Cape Town or the adjacent farming villages. Many of then migrated land inward, to eke out for an existence, free from ties with the Dutch dominating government-like East India Company.

But, in a way, Afrikaans was 'redutchified'; the Bible -- usually the only book a family had -- was written in Standard Dutch. This influenced vocabulary and grammar and it prevented the Dutch children from fully adopting their nannies' pidgin. But it also prevented the new language from total annihilation by standard Dutch because the slightly standardised new language could function well on most levels of daily life. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries' various language emancipation movements opposed to the official language, but they were also inspired by it; Dutch was an example because it completed Afrikaans vocabulary. Its influence would organise Afrikaans grammar and it unified the different local and ethnic varieties of Afrikaans.

The nineteenth-century version of Afrikaans spoken by the white farmers in the eastern part of the vast Cape Colony eventually became the official version. In the twentieth century all other dialects were considered inferior. After being particularly ignited by the war against the British, Afrikaner nationalism had made Afrikaans a modern, adaptive and full-fledged language that would be suitable for every imaginable place and level of society.

Some characteristics of Afrikaans will be given here below. Compared to Dutch, Afrikaans looks like a simple, somewhat child-like variety of Dutch, which is understandable when we look at its history. Its simple spelling is its most characteristic feature. Although it was conceived by Dutch experts on orthography such as Koldewijn, written Afrikaans attracts a Dutch person’'s attention because the language's orthography is both close to spoken Afrikaans and to the way Dutch people would transcribe instances of spoken dialects from the west of the Netherlands. This is because the experts firstly wanted the spelling of Afrikaans to exacly match its pronunciation. And the -- also historically explicable -- parallels with Dutch dialects often aroused a feeling of linguistic familiarity, or it makes them laugh when they mistake texts in Afrikaans books and newspapers for explicitly transcribed 'bad' Dutch. So to Dutch laymen written Afrikaans resembles strongly vernacular Dutch dialects, and its modern spelling comes across rather unsophisticated and, at times, incorrect and too phonetic.

Another striking element of Afrikaans is its simple grammar. Verbs have no personal flexion (e.g. they do no’t change when ‘he does’ something or when ‘they do’ something). Time tenses are also simple; there is present, past and future, but past can only be expressed by using the past particle and its auxiliary verb (e.g. ‘I have looked’ and not ‘I looked’). Like in English, but different to Dutch, nouns have only one definite article (e.g. ‘the’ is always ‘die’, whereas in Dutch there are the neutral and the feminine/masculine ‘het’ and ‘de’ definite articles). Also worth mentioning is the deletion of medial ‘g’ in between vowels (cf.: Dutch regen > Afrikaans reën [rain]; Dutch bruggen > Afrikaans brûe [bridges]). Most other significant differences with standard Dutch have their origins in the Dutch motherland and cannot be considered Afrikaans innovations.

Today Afrikaans is the dominant language of 15,2 million people, regardless their racial backgrounds. It is the second largest language of South Africa, leaving English on a fourth place. Nevertheless, it is on the demise. English is widely promoted by the government, dismissing Afrikaans in most public institutions and services. The status that Afrikaans had yesterday, is today being deliberately abolished in favour of English, although the South African constitution states that there are eleven official, equal languages in the country. The new government ignores the cultural value of Afrikaans as an African language. As in many post-colonial countries; the recognition of multiple official languages will only further provide English with the status of the 'necessary', connecting, neutral lingua franca. This problem will be addressed in the following section.

Discrimination against Afrikaans - the African Renaissance (?)

Like all smaller languages and cultures in the Western world, these languages too face the culturally withering effects of globalism and they sometimes even have to deal with a hostile government; the latter is the case in South Africa. Relatively small languages, that are being sustained by locally based communities, are perishing because of the dominant, global doctrines of egalitarianism, cultural relativism and consumerism, which regard these vital local cultures as old-fashioned or anti-egalitarian obstructions in the way to lucrative world markets and global mass-culture. Like in the times of Apartheid, cultural imperialism is taking place in South Africa again, albeit that English is the domineering language. This is a worrisome situation. Awareness of and appreciation for what people have in their own communities can save the smaller cultures and languages. But it is more important for cultural richess if only a government (such as the South African) acknowledges -- while they put the stress so much on nation building in a clearly multi-ethnic state -- that it is a great loss for humanity when the smaller native cultures and languages will have disappeared from the face of the earth because of cultural pressure inflicted by the promoted dominant state-culture and state-language. A growing number of speakers of Afrikaans prefer their children to speak English in stead of the mother tongue; succumbing to the pressure of world culture...

Currently, the South African government is scaling down the Afrikaans language in all important and official places. This government will be responsible for the demise of Afrikaans if they continue this course of nation building at the expense of cultural pluriformity within the 'Rainbow Nation'. 'Simunye' denotes 'we are one', but in the eyes of the ANC-government is denotes 'we are the same, and if not... you will become the same'. The demise of Afrikaans is of major - if not the major - concern to De Roepstem editors. There is too huge a discrepancy between the ideals of the new South African government (rainbow nation, colourful country, many cultures in one state) and what the government really does to native cultures, to wit, blunt nation-building enforced by cultural imperialism, at the cost of smaller native cultures, in favour of English. Thabo Mbeki, the president of the Republic of South Africa, says he embraces the ideal of reviving South African cultures; the African Renaissance. He tries to create a kind of new, African collective conscience. Hearsay, poorly informed people and the new propagandists maintain that Afrikaans and its culture are those of a virtually white community, and apparently the new government thinks that it is not an African culture, because while advocating this romantic cultural 'Renaissance' they push this African home language to millions of African whites, coloureds and blacks, out of the official insitutions. Of all Afrikaans-speaking South Africans, coloureds comprised 50.4 percent, whites 44 percent, and blacks 3.7 percent. A total of 82 percent of all coloureds consider Afrikaans their mother tongue, compared to 59 percent of whites. Now the governmment abolishes Afrikaans at Afrikaans universities, schools, courts and many other public services, in order to make way for English. Apparently, in the storms of nation-building the goal justifies the means. South Africa is a remarkably conservative country when it comes to its governement which embraces outdated notions and modernistic ideas. To take people their language away in universities, public places and official documents is an antisocial act; it is counterproductive to the accomodating policy of 'Simunye' ('we are one') and of attempting to get more South Africans involved with the social situation of the country. People start feeling themselves strangers in their own country.
While the government propagates this African Renaissance, where a characteristic such as Ubuntu (i.e. the 'caring for people' and 'the wish to reconcile') is a facet of the new set of norms and values, Afrikaans is dismissed where possible. Why is that? Why is the government so blunt, careless and unrefined and why is there no space for this highly developed language which used to be one of the two official languages, together with English?

Underlying contempt
It is clear that the government is both showing pragmatism and grudge; pragmatism by using English so the different black tribes with their different natives languages in South Africa will not feel discriminated against if one black language may be preferable to certain people in national and local authorities; grudge because Afrikaans used to be the favourite language of the old white rulers. The ANC manifestly dislikes Afrikaans and many people in that party see their wish, getting even with the formerly dominating Afrikaners, come true. The Afrikaners have forced Afrikaans upon the black students throughout the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties, when they received special, discriminatory 'Bantu education'; education specially designed for black people.
Now the language of the earlier rulers, the British, has all the prefence, whereas English finds itself on a fourth place and Afrikaans is on second place, after the Bantu language Xhosa. Once again, English is being dragooned.

Such developments contribute to people appreciating their mothertongue less, it leads up to people feeling like strangers in their own country where all official transactions, all important things, all communications with the state have to take place in a language that is not theirs. It is not difficult for South Africans to speak at least Afrikaans and English; they are the two major cultural and - used to be - the public languages. The other nine official languages in South Africa have never been as well developed in public life as Afrikaans and English. Today all 11 languages are recognised by the government as official languages. To convey a system of 11 official languages with equal rights is either a utopia or a false promise. If it is a false promise then it could eventually be used to demonstrate the 'necessity' of retaining only one language in a, feigned, pool of Babylonic confusion. This what the government has been doing and is doing throughout the years; by squeezing Afrikaans between motives of impartiality and pragmatism Afrikaans would be rejected because the most rational choice would me made for English.
It were be better if both English and Afrikaans retained their status as world language and cultural language respectively. This would be a true reflection of the new South Africa where culture, heritage and compatibility with a mainly anglophile Western world are met with.

Afrikaans; South Africa's cultural language
By considering Afrikaans and English as the two main languages nothing needs to be changed; the existing situation, where Afrikaans and English are most the frequently used spoken and written languages, can remain the same. The difference will be that these two convenient languages will be further developed and used. Afrikaans an English are the two highest developed languages in SA and they surmount racial boundaries. Afrikaans is the cultural language which links the African continent with the Germanic Western cultures on mainland Europe. The Dutch, Flemish and Germans have therefore a special bond with the language. Duly noted; one of the most striking things to Dutch speaking Europeans is the language they find when they are on a holiday in South Africa and to see the interesting writings on many etiquettes of South African products. In the Leiden University and the Catholic University of Louvain, for instance, close ties with Afrikaans departments and Afrikaans organisations in South Africa have been made.
Afrikaans reflects the typical South African colourfulness and English can play the part of the international language. Hopefully there will be more South Africans who take leave from of their grudge towards Afrikaans, so that a compromise can be established without discriminating against all African languages, and without succumbing to flat internationalism, where globalisation is so glorifying. South Africa must be bilingual, at least. Most modern democracies create accomodations for the use and encouragement of more than one language and for the cultivation of minority rights of native groups, safeguarding their distinctive faculties.
In Europe and Canada the countries refine their state-apparatuses by encouraging regionally cultural diversity. South Africa, on the other hand, seems to be radical, old-fasioned and unrefined. South Africa is an étatistic country, inspired by outdated ways of government.

Consumerism and its devastating effects on local cultures and economies
In any case, the smaller Western nations in this world have to stand up for their cultural heritage. More and more people lose interest in their own minority language and culture. The American culture, and its economic system of international orientation at the cost of the own, smaller-scaled communities will put enormous pressure on these smaller Western communities. The non-American Western cultures too, are increasingly influenced by consumerism. People are no longer considered bearers of their cultures but they are sources of income who have to be stimulated to buy products. Only if one can make a lot of financial profit from 'culture', it will be largely encouraged. Therefore the American culture is around and about in Europe and South Africa.
Consumerism is dependant on consumers, but it also uses consumers. This has a huge, if not devastating, impact on societies and smaller cultures. To the powerful institutions in the world -- the multinational trading companies -- big is more rewarding and small is an obstruction towards bigger. A grey, easily acessible basin of consumers is more rewarding and needs less effort than many independant, variegated communities with different preferences and traditional produce. Consumers are expected to sustain the modernistic notion of progression by economic growth, and in stead of living within their regional social ties and enjoying traditional local goods and cultural expressions, the new consumers will be made as unicultural (monocultural) as possible. Mass culture is advertised massively and nations and ethnic groups will be encouraged to 'unite' and to be 'modern'. When 'primitive' tribes have been discovered three missions will try to overthrow their traditional lives; catholic mission, protestant mission and 'Coca-Cola mission'. The third one is the finishing touch, nowadays causing make people of any -- western or not -- small communities unaware of their special local, cultural character.
Bigger and richer are not necessarily beautiful, though. Local culture and heritages are also valuable. American cultural exporting products that the consumption society is offering us via cinemas, television, CD's and mass media are usually American. So why is it then, that this American culture and English language are being promoted so relentlessly? Small nations have the capacity to keep this world colourful. That is multiculturalism. The smaller cultural communities need to realise that they are special and that the smaller languages that they speak are not blocking the way to well-being. Afrikaners and the Dutch must realise that they bear a culture, a Dutch civilisation, that their ancestors have built up bit by bit, unwittingly, automatically, organically and gradually. No 'big-is-beautiful' government should be able to make people stop speaking their languages.

The Need for Bilingualism
It is going to take a lot of convincing to get this point across to those increasing numbers of discriminated Afrikaans speaking people who consider their language 'common' or even an obstacle towards perfect anglophony, paving their ways to a career! We know that that multilingualism is preferable in order to keep up with the winds of economy and the developments in science and intellectual life. At least English and French should be mastered, alongside the native language. Either one of the two world languages can suffice too, although it limits the range of subjects and worldviews that are worth to be studied. Bilingualism is a concession to this increasingly internationalistic world. Bilingualism is necessary for the smaller nations like the Afrikaans-speaking in this world of threatening, internationalistic, large-scaled globalisation.

November 2001.