Afrikaans
West Germanic language / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Afrikaans (/ˌæfrɪˈkɑːns/ AF-rih-KAHNSS, /ˌɑːf-, -ˈkɑːnz/ AHF-, -KAHNZ)[3][4] is a West Germanic language, spoken in South Africa, Namibia and (to a lesser extent) Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It evolved from the Dutch vernacular[5][6] of South Holland (Hollandic dialect)[7][8] spoken by the predominantly Dutch settlers and enslaved population of the Dutch Cape Colony, where it gradually began to develop distinguishing characteristics in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.[9]
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/AfrikaanseTaalmonumentObelisks.jpg/640px-AfrikaanseTaalmonumentObelisks.jpg)
Afrikaans | |
---|---|
Pronunciation | [afriˈkɑːns] |
Native to |
|
Region | Southern Africa |
Ethnicity | Afrikaners Basters Cape Coloureds Cape Malays Griqua Oorlams |
Native speakers | 7.2 million (2016) 10.3 million L2 speakers in South Africa (2011)[1] |
Early forms | |
Dialects | |
Latin script (Afrikaans alphabet), Arabic script | |
Signed Afrikaans[2] | |
Official status | |
Official language in | ![]() |
Recognised minority language in | ![]() |
Regulated by | Die Taalkommissie |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | af |
ISO 639-2 | afr |
ISO 639-3 | afr |
Glottolog | afri1274 |
Linguasphere | 52-ACB-ba |
![]() spoken by a majority spoken by a minority | |
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Although Afrikaans has adopted words from other languages, including German and the Khoisan languages, an estimated 90 to 95% of the vocabulary of Afrikaans is of Dutch origin.[n 1] Differences between Afrikaans and Dutch often lie in the more analytic morphology and grammar of Afrikaans, and different spellings.[n 2] There is a large degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, especially in written form.[10]