AFRIKAANS

ORIGIN OF AFRIKAANS

• Afrikaans is the first language of the colored people occupying Southern Africa.
• Afrikaans has adopted words from Portuguese, Bantu, Malay, German, and Khoisan, but is estimated to be 95% of Dutch origin.

AFRIKAANS: AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

• Afrikaans is one of the official languages of South Africa.
• It is also said to be spoken in Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.
• It is estimated that about 4,740,000 people speak Afrikaans as a first language, and about 10,300,000 people speak it as a second or third language.

LITERARY TRADITIONS

• English and Dutch roots influence the alphabet of Afrikaans.

STYLE OF ALPHABET

ADDITIONAL FACTS

• Letter c is replaced by a k for a hard sound, and an s for a soft sound. Q is generally replaced by a kw.
• "Afrikaans" is a Dutch word that means "African".
• Afrikaans has been labeled an "ugly language" because of its guttural quality.

FIGURES OF THE ALPHABET

USING THE LANGUAGE

• Ons doen 'n taal-projek in menslike geografia.
• "We are doing a language project in human geography."