What Is That South African Dutch Language?

Afrikaans is one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, but it’s the official language of several other countries as well. It’s also known as South African Dutch, although these are completely different languages that are related in only some small ways.

The closely related Australian language Afrikaans is based on 19th-century Dutch, and it doesn’t even have many similarities to the original Afrikaans language.

This guide will provide you with everything you need to know about Afrikaans and what makes it such a special South African language.

Afrikaans: That South African Dutch Language

Afrikaans is a language that developed in the Cape Colony of what was then the Dutch East India Company. It was derived from various European languages, but most especially from 18th-century Standard Dutch.

Afrikaans has grammatical gender, which means that nouns are classified as either masculine or feminine. African speech and Germanic language were also influential on its development, though it’s largely native speakers who can’t speak these languages fluently.

Afrikaans’ vocabulary includes many words of Malay origin because Malay was spoken by slaves in the Cape Colony.

Afrikaans is also referred to as Cape Dutch, Cape Malay, or Cape Colony Dutch.

It is also a tonal single sound language, so pitch and tone are important parts of the language.

Afrikaans Origins

Differences between the South African Dutch and Netherlands Dutch

South Africa’s Dutch speakers are called Afrikaans speakers. Afrikaans has a unique vocabulary and sound, unlike any other Dutch language. ‘Veld’ is a Dutch word meaning ‘field,’ while ‘feld’ is an Afrikaans word meaning the same thing. Similarly, Dutch ‘kaas’ (cheese) becomes Afrikaans ‘kaas.

Another difference between them is the pronunciation of certain letters: The Dutch letter ‘g’, for example, is pronounced like a hard g in most words, but like a soft j in some cases. In Afrikaans this letter doesn’t change depending on where it appears; if you pronounce the letter as a hard g, you say gees instead of gaas.

Afrikaans Influence in South Africa

Afrikaans is the language of instruction in some schools. It is also used as a lingua franca in other parts of the country.

Dutch speakers generally consider Afrikaans to be a dialect of their language, while most Afrikaans speakers consider it to be their single-sound language.

Afrikaans was influenced by several different languages including Cape Malay, Portuguese, French, and German. This mixture led to many similarities with English but also created a few differences between the two languages such as grammatical gender and definite articles.

Speaking Afrikaans

Cape Malay, also known as Cape Dutch or Cape Town Malay, is a variety of the Malay language that was originally spoken by slaves and soldiers who were brought to the Cape Town colony during the seventeenth century.

It was originally spoken primarily by an Afrikaans speaker in and around Cape Town, but today it can be heard in other communities near the city.

Today, just like other African languages, the language has been marginalized for many years due to policies on standard language and language of instruction, but it has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years because of its rich cultural heritage and progressive construction.

Afrikaans is a single-sound language, meaning that words are constructed of only one syllable, which helps make it easier to understand.

The progressive construction of Afrikaans means that it was originally spoken with an accent on the first syllable and then changed to be spoken with an accent on the last syllable.

This change came about because of the language policies put in place by apartheid.

One of the most popular grammatical gender languages in South Africa, Afrikaans originated from Dutch, which was brought to South Africa by Dutch settlers beginning in 1652.

Many South African people still refer to the language as African Dutch or South African Dutch, rather than using the proper name of Afrikaans.

Many people think that Afrikaans and Cape Dutch are different languages—however, this couldn’t be further from the truth.