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How useful is Afrikaans?
It’s worth learning Afrikaans if you want to understand Afrikaners on a deeper level. Like many languages unique to certain cultures, Afrikaans gives you an insight into the psyche of an Afrikaner. Some Afrikaners are profoundly poetic and artistic. The language is well suited to express poignant and soulful ideas.
Why is Afrikaans an important language?
Afrikaans is rather interesting due to it being a South African language with Dutch roots. Native speakers of Afrikaans take pride in the language and view it as a symbol of their unique culture. The language even has its own monument in Western Cape Province, South Africa.
Why is Afrikaans important in schools?
Many school teachers also tell of how their students prefer to take Afrikaans as their additional language, rather than their own home language or another African language that might be closer to their home language. The reason they opt for Afrikaans is that there are more resources available.
Why is the Afrikaans language spoken in Africa?
Afrikaans is a creole language that evolved during the 19th century under colonialism in southern Africa. This simplified, creolised language had its roots mainly in Dutch, mixed with seafarer variants of Malay, Portuguese, Indonesian and the indigenous Khoekhoe and San languages.
Is Afrikaans a compulsory subject?
Afrikaans would still form part of the languages available, the report said, but as there are now three language subjects, other African languages beyond English and Afrikaans must be taken. …
What is the current state of Afrikaans in South Africa?
Under South Africa’s Constitution of 1996, Afrikaans remains an official language, and has equal status to English and nine other languages. The new policy means that the use of Afrikaans is now often reduced in favour of English, or to accommodate the other official languages.
What language do many Africans speak?
The Most Commonly Spoken Languages Arabic. Arabic is a Semitic language spoken by 150 million people in Africa, making it the most widely spoken language on the continent. Berber. Berber is an Afro-Asiatic language made up of twenty-six closely related languages. Hausa. Hausa is the third most commonly spoken language in Africa and includes more than 34 million native speakers.
Is Afrikaans really the youngest language?
Afrikaans is one of the youngest languages in the world (high-five Afrikaans!).
How many people speak Afrikaans?
Afrikaans is currently one of eleven official languages spoken in South Africa, where over 23 million people speak Afrikaans, of which at least one third are native speakers.
Where on Earth do they speak Afrikaans?
Afrikaans (UK: / ˌ æ f r ɪ ˈ k ɑː n s /, US: / ˌ ɑː f-/) 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 of Holland (Hollandic dialect) spoken by the Dutch settlers in South Africa, where it gradually began to develop distinguishing characteristics in the course of the 18th century.