Afrikaans
Afrikaans (/ˌæfrɪˈkɑːns/ AF-rih-KAHNSS, /ˌɑːf-, -ˈkɑːnz/ AHF-, -KAHNZ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch colonization in Africa from the Dutch vernacular of Dutch proper (i.e. the Dutch dialect) used by Dutch settlers and people enslaved by them. Afrikaans gradually began to develop distinguishing characteristics during the course of the 18th century. Now spoken in South Africa, Namibia and (to a lesser extent) Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, estimates c. 2010 of the total number of Afrikaans speakers range between 15 and 23 million.
| Afrikaans | |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation | [afriˈkɑːns] |
| Native to | |
Native speakers | 7.2 million (2016) 10.3 million L2 speakers in South Africa (2011) |
Indo-European
| |
Early forms | Frankish
|
| Latin script | |
| Signed Afrikaans | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | South Africa |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Regulated by | Die Taalkommissie |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | af |
| ISO 639-2 | afr |
| ISO 639-3 | afr |
| Glottolog | afri1274 |
| Linguasphere | 52-ACB-ba |
Dark Blue: Spoken by a majority; Light Blue: Spoken by a minority | |
Afrikaans is estimated to have 95% of the vocabulary of standard Dutch, with adopted words from other languages, including the Khoisan languages of Southern Africa. Differences with Dutch include a more analytic-type morphology and grammar, and some pronunciations. There is a large degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, especially in written form.