| Is Afrikaans an African language? |
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My guess is that it depends what statement you want to make and how far back you are prepared to draw the line.
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language falling under the very high-level group called Indo-European languages. These evolved from the Indus Valley in India and from Europe. West Germanic languages include English and some of Afrikaans' closer relatives, Dutch and Flemish. Considering that the languages it relates closely to are European, it is not an African language. But is it then an Indian language because it related to the Indus Valley? Afrikaans is a very new language. It was created by the confluence of cultures around the Cape. The earliest written Afrikaans is written in Arabic script and is an Islmaic text, most probably written by an Imam from Malaysia. So does that mean it is European or African or Malaysian? In the latest census Afrikaans is ranked 3rd in terms of the number of mother tongue speakers, over 6 million. More than half of these are black. Afrikaans is also often a lingua franca for many people. So if the majority of speakers of a language are black does that make it an African language? When a poster at Johannesburg International Airport says "Nine indigenous languages and no word for stranger." I ask myself, "Does the exclusion of Afrikaans mean it is not an African language?" Over 98% of Afrikaans speakers live in South Africa, others in Namibia, the others are probably serving beer in London. Does that make it a European language? For us at Translate.org.za we believe in empowering South African languages - all of them. |
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