Country: South Africa
Language code: AFK
Continent: Africa
Dialect names: Cape Afrikaans (West Cape Afrikaans), Orange River Afrikaans, East Cape Afrikaans
Genetic affiliation: Indo-European, Germanic, West, Continental, Low, Dutch
Geographical region: Pretoria and Bloemfontein are principal centers of population. Cape Malays live mainly in Capetown, with some in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, and Port Elizabeth. Afrikaans also in Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Australia and New-Zealand.
Population: 6,200,000 in South Africa (1991 Christos van Rensburg); of whom 1,000,000 are native bilinguals with English (1989 J. Holm); 112,000 in Namibia (1989 Holm); 2,353 in Canada (1974 census); 12,655 in Australia (1971 UN); 3,840 in New Zealand (1976 census); 6,300,000 total or more. 4,000,000 in South Africa use it as second or third language (1989 Holm)
Bible printings: 1933-1983
New Testament printings: 1941-1980
Printings of whole books of Bible: 1893-1929
National language: Yes
Remarks: A variant of the Dutch spoken by the 17th century colonists, with some lexical and syntactic borrowings from Malay, Bantu languages, Khoisan languages, Portuguese, and other European languages. 150,000 Cape Malays speak Afrikaans; some also speak English. Their ancestors were brought from Java 300 years ago
Some handy frases and words in Afrikaans:
Hi There - Hi daar
Please - Asseblief
Thank you - Dankie
I Love You - Ek's lief vir jou
What's the time? - Hoe laat is dit?
Goodbye - Totsiens
Check out the #afrikaans IRC homepage and drop in at our channel on ZAnet.
