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Writing systems:
abjads |
alphabets |
syllabic alphabets |
syllabaries |
semanto-phonetic scripts
undeciphered scripts |
alternative scripts |
your con-scripts |
A-Z index |
Direction index |
Language index
Afrikaans is a descendent of Dutch which is spoken mainly in South Africa and Namibia by about 6 million people. 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.
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.
From about 1815 Afrikaans started to replace Malay as the language of instruction in Muslim schools in South Africa. At that time it was written with the Arabic alphabet. Afrikaans, written with the Latin alphabet, started to appeared in newspapers and political and religious works in about 1850. Then in 1875 a group of Afrikaans speakers from the Cape formed the Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaanders (Society for Real Afrikaaners), and published a number of books in Afrikaans, including grammars, dictionaries, religious material and histories. They also published a journal called the Patriot.
During the early years of the 20th century there was a blossoming of academic interest in Afrikaans. In 1925 Afrikaans was recognised by the government as a real language, instead of a slang version of Dutch. Afrikaans has changed little since then.
| A a | B b | C c | D d | E e | F f | G g | H h | I i |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| aa | bee | see | dee | ee | ef | gee | haa | ie |
| J j | K k | L l | M m | N n | O o | P p | Q q | R r |
| jot | kaa | el | em | en | oo | pee | kuu | er |
| S s | T t | U u | V v | W w | X x | Y y | Z z | |
| es | tee | uu | vau | wee | ex | y | set |
Source: http://web.sois.uwm.edu/AFR101/Document/index.asp?Parent=7225
Alle menslike wesens word vry, met gelyke waardigheid en regte, gebore. Hulle het rede en gewete en behoort in die gees van broederskap teenoor mekaar op te tree.
Hear a recording of this text by Marius Kock
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)
Afrikaans language learning materials
Information about Afrikaans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaans
Online Afrikaans lessons
http://www.afrikaans.us
An introduction to Afrikaans (includes pronunciation and a few words and phrases)
http://www.cyberserv.co.za/users/~jako/lang/afr.htm
Online Afrikaans <> English dictionary
http://www.freedict.com/onldict/afr.html
Radio Sonder Grense - Online Afrikaans Radio
http://www.rsg.co.za/
arikaans.be - a blog in Afrikaans
http://afrikaans.be
Afrikaans, Alsatian, Cimbrian, Danish, Dutch, English, Faroese, Frisian, German, Icelandic, Luxembourgish, Norwegian, Old English, Old Norse, Scots, Swedish
Other languages written with the Latin alphabet
Copyright 1998- Simon Ager