AFRIKAANS(Boer language), a language closely related to Dutch, spoken by Afrikaners living in the Republic of South Africa, or Boers (people of the white race, descendants of Dutch colonists who landed at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th century), as well as “colored” people. .e. people of mixed Boer-Negro descent. Afrikaans is one of the two official languages of South Africa (along with English), but it is also understood by many Africans, English-speaking whites and Asians outside South Africa.
The first differences between the Dutch language and the language of the colonists began to be discovered after 1685. At the beginning of the 19th century. the language of the Dutch colonists was called "African-Dutch" or "Cape-Dutch". The first texts in Afrikaans date back to 1795. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. It was believed that the Afrikaans language arose as a result of a mixture of various dialects of the Dutch language of the 17th century, spoken by the first colonists, as well as the influence of Hottentot languages, Creole Malayo-Portuguese and the Dutch language spoken by foreigners in the Cape Province, especially Germans and French people. Currently, on the question of the origin of the Afrikaans language, linguists are inclined to the point of view that the influence of other languages played a secondary role here, and its formation was determined by the own tendencies of the Dutch dialects of the 17th century. to simplify the grammatical system (which is a characteristic feature of the Afrikaans language).
There are significant differences in pronunciation between Dutch and Afrikaans. The consonantism of the Afrikaans language is characterized by the elimination of the final consonant following the fricative (Dutch. kreeft, Afrikaans creef) and loss d, g and other consonants in the position between a stressed and unstressed syllable (Dutch. zadel, African saal). Changes in vocalism: Dutch oo often corresponds to Afrikaans eu (ö ) Dutch a And aa – e(Dutch darm, African derm). Other important difference The reason is that Afrikaans has nasalized vowels. The articulation of sounds in Afrikaans is generally the same as in Dutch; the effect of different phonetic appearance arises due to differences in intonation and stress patterns.
The Afrikaans language has become extremely simplified grammatical system. This tendency is characteristic of all Germanic languages, but here it is taken to its logical conclusion. The verb in Afrikaans is not inflected for either person or number. The meaning of time is expressed using auxiliary verbs or adverbs; the number of strong (“irregular”) verbs is small. The past tense is almost always formed by adding a prefix ge-. The morphology of the name in the Afrikaans language is close to the Dutch - in particular, in the formation of plurals. numbers, the use of diminutive suffixes and gender indicators. From the point of view of its morphological structure, Afrikaans is the most analytical of the Germanic languages (and in general of all modern Indo-European languages).
The most significant difference between Afrikaans and Dutch in the area of syntax is the presence of double negation: Hy wil dit nie doen nie(“He doesn’t want to do this”). Other distinctive features are repetition of prepositions and modal adverbs, reduplication and use of prepositions vir before the direct object. There are also discrepancies in word order. Otherwise, the syntax of Afrikaans is similar to Dutch. The Dutch have some difficulty understanding Afrikaans at first, but they usually overcome them fairly quickly and learn to understand both spoken and written speech, - which is due to the direct genetic proximity of Afrikaans to Dutch, on the one hand, and the preservation in South Africa Dutch tradition - on the other.
Despite the obvious close relationship of the Afrikaans language to Dutch, in their lexical composition these two languages differ sharply from each other. Some words that sound like archaisms in modern Dutch are quite common in Afrikaans; modern Dutch developed in cities, while Afrikaans has its roots in rural dialects of the 17th century; some Dutch words acquired new meanings in the Cape Province; In addition, new conditions in a new country required new words. Many such words come from the language of sailors. The lexical composition of the Afrikaans language was also replenished by borrowings from other languages common in South Africa: English, Malay-Portuguese, Hottentot and some African languages. However, the main thing that distinguishes Afrikaans from Dutch is its “African spirit”.
School education and worship in Afrikaans have been carried out since 1914. There are several reasons for this: the initial lack of national identity, the status of Dutch as the language of the church, and the desire of Great Britain to anglicize the Boers. In 1918, the use of Afrikaans in universities was allowed, and in 1925 it was finally recognized as the official language. The heyday of poetry in the Afrikaans language occurred after the publication of a collection of poems by E. Marais in 1904 Winter night . The poetry of such authors as E. Marais, K. Leitpoldt, Totius (J.D. du Toit), J. Celliers, T. van der Heever and others constitute literature that reaches the world level. Poems by “colored” poets S. Petersen, P. Philander, A. Small are devoted to the problems of their ethnic groups and, in particular, their relations with the white population. Afrikaans prose initially had a local significance, but the renewal movement of the 1960s, led by E. Lerub, C. Barnard, A. Brink and D. Schoeman, contributed to its entry into the international arena.
It turns out that Afrikaans is one of the most interesting languages for scientific study. Along with Hebrew.
Afrikaans(Afrikaans, formerly also known as Afrikaans) - Germanic language (until the beginning of the 20th century, a dialect of Dutch), one of the 11 official languages of the Republic of South Africa, also common in Namibia. In addition, small communities of Afrikaans speakers live in other countries of Southern Africa: Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia. Many Afrikaans-speaking emigrants from South Africa settled in the UK, Australia, New Zealand
Afrikaans is one of the eleven official official languages of the Republic of South Africa, along with English and the languages of Ndebele, Sesothosa Leboa, Sesotho, Siswati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu. At the same time, it is much closer to English than to the aforementioned dialects of the indigenous people. And about 6 million people speak it in the world, most of who lives in South Africa and Namibia. It is predominantly white.
Afrikaans (also called the Boer language) belongs to the Germanic group, and of all the Indo-European languages it is the youngest. Its history does not even go back four centuries, and its right to exist as independent language was recognized only at the beginning of the last century! Germanic linguists love to study it: after all, the “progenitor” of the Boer language is Dutch, and together they form the only pair in which both the “ancestor” and the “descendant” are living languages, represented in all the variety of styles. Although, of course, the Dutch of the 21st century differs from the same language spoken in the mid-17th century, but these differences are not so great.
The first settlements of Dutch colonists in South Africa (at the Cape of Good Hope in the Cape Province) arose in 1652 at the site of a temporary stop for sailors heading to India.
The colored population in South Africa is called the Kaapnare, i.e. the colored mestizos from Cape Town, they should not be confused with the South African Indians. They appeared as a result of marriages of European men with local women. Thus a new people arose. About two hundred years ago, Colored Basters also appeared in Namibia, considering Afrikaans their native language. The so-called Basters and Kaapnars, unlike the Boers, speak with a special accent, and their dialect has slightly different phonetics.
Apart from South Africa, Afrikaans is one of the most important languages of Namibia. In Namibia, the newspaper Dee Republicain, founded in 1977, is published in Afrikaans.
A.K. Ignatenko - Territorial-ethnic varieties of the Afrikaans language (2000 - www.philology.ru)
A.K. Ignatenko. Afrikaans language textbook. Beginner course(2000) - file for download (in-yaz-book.ru/afrikaans.html)
South African literature in Afrikaans
The material was prepared by A.V. Yakovlev. Reproduced from the text published in the reference book South Africa. (M.: Institute for African Studies RAS, 1994).
English-language sites about Afrikaans
Afrikaans (www.omniglot.com)
Afrikaans is a Low Franconian West Germanic language descended from Dutch and spoken mainly in South Africa and Namibia. 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. About 10 million people speak Afrikaans as a first or second language, and several million others have a basic knowledge of the language.
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.
AFRIKAANS (obsolete Boer language), the language of the Afrikaners (Boers) and the so-called colored people - mestizos, descendants of slaves of mixed origin and Khoikhoin (Hottentots). One of the official languages of South Africa; in six of its nine provinces it is one of the three languages official documents and legal proceedings. It is also widespread as a language of interethnic communication in Namibia (with the exception of the northern regions), as a language of everyday communication in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi and Zambia. The main language of instruction at four universities in South Africa, the language of the three Calvinist churches in southern Africa. The total number of speakers of Afrikaans as a first, second and third language is approximately 10 million (early 21st century, estimate).
Afrikaans is one of the Germanic languages (West Germanic group). Its main features developed in the 17th and 18th centuries on the Cape Peninsula, in a colony of European settlers based on various dialects of the Dutch language, which were spoken by both immigrants from the Netherlands and colonists from other countries who adopted them European countries, representatives local population(Khoi-koin) and slaves brought into the colony from different countries. Until the mid-19th century it functioned only as an oral language; wherein written language The Boers remained the literary Dutch language.
A special feature of Afrikaans is the absence of dialects in the traditional sense. There are 3 variants of Afrikaans, which have developed in different ethnic groups: among the Boers - Afrikaans eastern border(central and northern South Africa), among the slaves - Cape Afrikaans (Cape Peninsula), among the Khoi-Koin - Orange River Afrikaans (southwest South Africa and Namibia). Afrikaans from the eastern border formed the basis of the modern literary language; the other two variants are used by certain ethnic groups at the everyday level.
Typologically, Afrikaans is extremely close to the Dutch language. Characteristic differences in phonetics: diphthongization of semi-long [e], [o.] and long [e:], [o:], bringing them closer together with , and , respectively; nasalization of vowels in the position before “[n] + fricative”; lengthening of vowels when consonants [x] and [d] are dropped in intervocalic position; apokopa [t] after the consonants [f], [x], [s], [k], [p] at the end of the word; delabialization of vowels [у], [ø] and [?].
Afrikaans stands out among the Germanic languages with the highest degree of analyticity, which is expressed in the extremely weak morphological formation of nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs. There are no categories of gender and case in the noun and person system and number in the verb system. The present tense form of the verb is regularly used in the simple past sense. Unlike related Germanic languages, Afrikaans has only one regular past tense form, the perfect. A specific and typical construction only for Afrikaans is a combination of a transitive verb with the preposition vir and a direct object expressed by a proper name or personal pronoun (middle Jan slaan vir Piet ‘Jan beats Pete’); is a regular means of expressing the meaning of the accusative.
A characteristic feature of Afrikaans is the reduplication of some adverbial and verbal stems, which gives the new formation [often used instead of participle I (participle imperfect form) in function of circumstance I emphatic or iterative meaning]. The emergence of this innovation is probably one of the few traces of an African or Malay substrate.
A feature of Afrikaans syntax is the doubling of negation (nie...nie).
The Afrikaans lexical fund has preserved 99.75% of the original Dutch vocabulary and shows stability and resistance to the penetration of foreign (especially English) borrowings. 0.25% falls on borrowings from African languages (mainly names of animals, plants, place names), from German, French and English, from Malay-Portuguese Koine servants and slaves. Neologisms not used in Dutch and changes in the original meanings of words are noted.
The formation of the literary Afrikaans language began with the founding of the True Afrikaners Society in 1875 (the goal was to fight for the recognition of Afrikaans as the national literary language of the Afrikaners); The term "Afrikaans" became established. Established in 1909, the South African Academy of Language, Literature and Art began work to normalize and standardize Afrikaans. Since 1914 it has become a language school education, in 1925 acquired the status of an official language. In 1933, a complete translation of the Bible into Afrikaans appeared.
The first attempts to create a written language for Afrikaans were made in the 1860s - translations of fragments of the Koran and other Muslim texts were made in the Cape Muslim community holy books in Cape Afrikaans, written in Arabic script. Since the 1870s, thanks to the work of the True Afrikaners Society, Afrikaans has used an alphabet based on the Latin script.
Lit.: Mironov S. A. On analytical and semi-analytical forms of the word // Analytical constructs in languages of various types. M.; L., 1965; aka. Afrikaans language. M., 1969; Schoor J.L. van. Die Grammatika van Standaard-Afrikaans. Kaapstad, 1983; Conradie S.J. Taalgeskiedenis. Pretoria, 1986; Ignatenko A.K. Textbook of the Afrikaans language. Beginner course. M., 2000.
Dictionaries: Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse taal / Ed. R. S. Schoonees. Pretoria, 1951-2000-. Vol. 1-11; Tweetalige woordeboek / Ed. D. V. Bosnian. 8th ed. Kaapstad, 1984; Verklarende handwoordeboek van die Afrikaanse taal. 3 ed. Perskor, 1994; Stadler L. G. de. Groot tesourus van Afrikaans. Halfweghuis, 1994.
(in these territories, a considerable part of them are people of color). In addition, many (mostly white) Afrikaans speakers live in some relatively large cities in the center of the country (Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Potchefstroom, Vereeniching, Welkom, Klerksdorp, Krugersdorp, Johannesburg).
Many Afrikaans speakers do not identify as "white" or "colored" and identify as "Afrikaans-speaking South Africans" or "Namibians". Collective name for Afrikaans speakers - Afrikaanses.
Afrikaans is the native language of approximately 6 million people (5,983,426 in South Africa according to the 2001 census); the total number of speakers is about 10 million. Speakers of Afrikaans and Dutch can understand each other without prior preparation (literary Afrikaans differs from literary Dutch less than many Dutch dialects proper).
Story
The specific features of Afrikaans probably developed by the end of the 17th century in the Cape Colony. During the 18th and 1st half of the 19th centuries. Afrikaans functioned only as an oral language, apart from errors made by the Boers in texts in Dutch. The basis for Afrikaans was mainly the dialect of South Holland, but the influence of the Flemish dialect can also be traced: for example, the suffix of adjectives -lijk corresponds not expected -lyk, A -lik, which is also typical for the dialects of Flanders. In addition, there is undoubtedly the influence of the Malay-Portuguese Creole used in the Dutch East Indies (from where slaves were brought to the Cape Colony) and various jargons and pidgins based on Dutch dialects used among sailors. So, from the Malay language came, for example, the words piesang"banana" (Malay pisang, Dutch banaan) or baie"Very".
Probably the earliest record of Afrikaans is songs (like ditties) recorded in 1795. In 1861 J. H. Merant published the story Zamenspraak tusschen Klaas Waarzegger en Jan Twyfelaar("Conversation between Klaas Warseheer [the Truth-Teller] and Jan Tweifelaar [the Doubter]"), considered to be the first Afrikaans text. In the 1860s, a monument to “Arabic Afrikaans” was also created - an instruction in the Islamic faith of Abu Bakr Effendi, written in Afrikaans in Arabic letters. The first Afrikaans grammar and dictionary were published in 1875 in Cape Town by the True Afrikaners Society ( Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners). With the rise of Boer patriotism, especially in the Transvaal and the Orange Republic, the importance of Afrikaans grew rapidly, and after the Boer War - . he began to receive more and more recognition.
Nevertheless, with the formation of the South African Republic in 1910, Afrikaans has not yet become the official language of the country (at that time, along with English, it was still Dutch) and is only consolidated as the state language of the South African Republic (now South Africa). During the apartheid era, the role of Afrikaans as the only national language of South Africa was emphasized in every possible way, and teaching it was compulsory.
It is now one of the 11 official languages of the Republic of South Africa, although its role in society has been somewhat reduced. However, it occupies an important place, for example in the media: although the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has reduced the number of programs in Afrikaans, in the print media its position is very strong: for example, a magazine for the whole family Huisgenoot has the largest circulation in South Africa. Other newspapers and magazines are published in Afrikaans, quite a few books are published, and there is a pay cable channel KykNet and specialized radio stations. At the same time, greater attention is now being paid to varieties of Afrikaans previously considered "non-standard" and "unliterary", in particular Cape Afrikaans, which is spoken by the majority of speakers of the language.
Linguistic characteristics
From a linguistic point of view, Afrikaans is partly close to other Germanic languages and especially Dutch (it partially retains features inherent in the Middle Dutch language, but lost in the modern literary language of the Netherlands). In Afrikaans, there has been a simplification of the declension and conjugation system (while the syntax remains fundamentally Dutch), but in terms of its scale it is quite comparable to what happened, for example, in English.
Phonetics and phonology
The Afrikaans phonetic system is close to the Dutch one. It is distinguished from the latter by the nasalization of vowels (with compensatory lengthening) before voiceless spirants (cf. Afrikaans , Netherlands ( mens, “person”), deafening of all voiced fricative consonants, including at the beginning of a word (Suid-Afrika, Dutch. Zuid-Afrika). In addition, Afrikaans is characterized by the loss of consonants, primarily g(phonetically [x], in Dutch it is also possible [ɣ]), between vowels: cf. rëel "rule", Dutch. regel. [d] is also subject to this, cf. oud"old", ouer"older". Sometimes [d] transitions between vowels (especially after long ones) into [j]: blad"leaf", plural h. blaaie. Another characteristic feature of Afrikaans is the simplification of consonant clusters, especially at the end of words: cf. pos"mail", Dutch post. With inflection and word formation, etymological combinations can be restored: nag"night", plural h. nagte.
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
| Explosive | |||||||
| Nasal | |||||||
| Affricate | tʃ dʒ | ||||||
| Fricative | |||||||
| Approximant | |||||||
| Smooth |
Italics in the table indicate rare and peripheral sounds. Thus, , , [ʃ] [ʒ] are found almost only in borrowed or onomatopoeic words(cf. sjiek"chic" tjek"check", tjilp"tweet"). The same applies to [g] (cf. rugby"rugby", ghnoe"(antelope) wildebeest"), which sometimes occurs in native words, especially after [r] ( berge"mountains", burger"citizen"); but cf. Also nege"nine". Palatal plosives [c][ɟ] occur mainly in diminutives, e.g. stoeltjie"high chair" hondjie"dog". [c] is also sometimes found as a variant of [k] before front vowels. After dental consonants [v] (spelling w) is realized as [w], cf. twee"two".
Afrikaans in general is characterized by various assimilative processes: for example, [ɦ], depending on the subsequent vowel, can also be realized as [j] (before front vowels) or [w] (before rounded vowels). Similarly, [x] before front vowels can be realized as [ç]; in the area of consonantism, various regressive and progressive assimilations are possible. In addition, Afrikaans, like the Dutch language, is characterized by deafening of consonants at the absolute end of a word, and voicedness is restored before the vowel: held"hero", held in "heroine"
Vowels
The vowel composition of Afrikaans is generally the same as that of Dutch vowels.
| Sound | Example | Notes | ||
| IPA | IPA | Spelling | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ɪ/ə | vɪt | wit | "white" | |
| ɪː/əː | wɪːə | wîe | "wedges" | |
| spis | spies | "a spear" | ||
| iː | fiːr | vier | "four" | |
| spʏx | spug | "spit" | ||
| ʏː | bʏːrə | bure | "neighbours" | Occurs mainly before [r] |
| bɛt | bed | "bed" | ||
| ɛː | sɛː | sê | "speak" | Also occurs as a variant [e] before [r] + consonant |
| eː | beːn | been | "leg" | |
| mɛ̃ːsə | mense | "People" | ||
| son | seun | "son" | ||
| brœx | brug | "bridge" | ||
| œː | brœːə | brûe | "bridges" | Just in a nutshell |
| mɑn | man | "Human" | ||
| aː | plaːs | plaas | "farm" | |
| bɔs | bos | "forest, bush" | ||
| ɔː | mɔːrə | more | "morning" | |
| oː | boːm | boom | "tree" | |
| buk | boek | "book" | ||
| uː | buːr | boer | "peasant, boer" | |
Afrikaans also has a rich system of diphthongs, including true diphthongs and so-called. "double vowels", involving combinations of long vowels with [i], which usually appear followed by diminutive suffixes ( raatjie), but are also found in roots ( waai).
Road sign with inscriptions in Afrikaans and English
Particularly difficult are the questions related to the implementation of the vowel, orthographically represented as i, as well as long, mid-rise vowels. Traditionally it is believed that i corresponds to the IPA symbol [ə], however B. Donaldson points out that this vowel actually has a slightly higher rise than the true [ə], found in Afrikaans in an unstressed position; Donaldson himself refers to it as ï , apparently, in the IPA it most closely corresponds to [ɪ]. As for the “long vowels of medium rise”, then in traditional descriptions they are considered to be diphthongs, or,: the same Donaldson believes that the transcription would be more correct,.
Among the processes in the vowel area, one should note the frequent reduction of unstressed vowels to [ə], syncopation [ə] ( gisteraand"last night" ), increase e And o in the pre-stressed syllable before [i], [u] ( polisie"police"), demotion e And o in the second pre-stressed syllable before [ɛ], [ɔ] ( energy"energy" [ɛnər"xi]), (non-normative) delabialization [ʏ], [œ], [ø], [œy] to [i], [ə/ɪ], , [əi] ( muur"wall" instead of), lowering [ɛ] to [æ] before [l], [k], [r], [x]. .
Other phonological information
The stress in Afrikaans, as in other Germanic languages, usually falls on the first syllable: cf. speller"player", Onderwys"teach"; exceptions in native words are unstressed prefixes be-, ge-, ver-, er-, her-: bespréek"order". In borrowed words the stress is usually preserved: koepee"coupe".
As in Dutch, combinations [l] + consonant, [r] plus a word-final consonant undergo epenthesis [ə]: melk"milk".
Spelling
| Aa | Bb | Cc | Dd | Ee | Ff | Gg | Hh | II | Jj | Kk | Ll | mm |
| [b] | [k] | [d] | , [ɛ] , [ə] | [f] | [x] | [ɦ] | , [ə] | [j] | [k] | [l] | [m] | |
| Nn | Oo | Pp | Rr | Ss | Tt | Uu | Vv | Ww | Xx | Yy | Zz | |
| [n] | , [ɔ] | [p] | [r] | [s] | [t] | [ʏ(ː)] , [œ] | [f] | [v], [w] | [əj] | [z] |
The letters Cc, Qq, Xx, Zz are used only in borrowings. The most commonly used diacritic is the circumflex: ê [ɛː] , ô [ɔː] , û [œː] (the last one is just two words), î [əː]. Dieresis is used to indicate two-syllable writing ( reen"rain", cf. Netherlands regen). Very common digraphs: ie , oe , ch [ʃ] , , tj, [c] , dj, [ɟ]. When adapting foreign words, the spelling is sometimes preserved ( genius"genius"), but more often adapts ( annexeer"annex").
An important principle of Afrikaans orthography is the consistent reflection of vowel length. Short vowels in closed syllable are written with one letter, but if the syllable becomes open, then a single consonant after a short vowel is doubled, which does not affect the pronunciation: cf. mat"rug", plural h. matte. On the contrary, long vowels in a closed syllable are indicated by digraphs, and if the syllable is open, they are written with one letter: boom"tree", plural h. bome. Long is traditionally written doubled and at the end of the word: see"lake".
Sometimes, as in Dutch, the acute sign is used to indicate the stress of a word or semantic emphasis: sometimes it has a semantic meaning, e.g. die"definite article", die"this".
Words are written with a capital letter if they are proper names, and at the beginning of a sentence. Also, if there is an indefinite article at the beginning of a sentence "n, then the next word is written with a capital letter: "n Man het met my gepraat.
Morphology
Afrikaans - language analytical system and is characterized by weak morphological formation. The intensive process of inflection decay leads to the complete destruction of the noun declension system and the conjugation system in the verb (loss of personal endings). The opposition between weak and strong verbs, characteristic of all other Germanic languages, has been almost completely destroyed; temporary oppositions are expressed in analytical forms (as in some German dialects).
Nouns and adjectives
Monument to the Afrikaans language in Paarl (Western Cape)
The noun does not distinguish between genders, unlike Dutch, where common and neuter gender are distinguished, case contrasts are completely lost (however, almost destroyed in Dutch). Nevertheless, the contrast in number remains. The most common way to form a plural is a suffix -e (mens"person", plural h. mense; dag"day", plural h. dae), the suffix is less productive -s(although it is more common than in Dutch) ( storm"storm", plural h. storms); Other morphemes are also rare, for example, kind"child", plural h. kinders, ouer"parent", plural h. ours, suppletivism ( seeman"sailor", seeliede"sailors"). As noted above, during education plural Consonants that are not present in the singular form can be restored: gas"guest", plural h. gaste.
Adjectives do not agree with nouns. In the predicative function they have a dictionary form ( Hierdie huis grot "This house big"), but when used attributively they sometimes acquire special form, dating back to the Dutch weak form adjectives and formed using a suffix -e(cf. "n grote huis " Big house". The rules for using this special form are quite variable, but they can be described as follows:
- Join -e polysyllabic adjectives: " n winderige dag"Windy day". The exceptions are:
- Compound adjectives, the second component of which is an adjective that does not join -e: "n wondermooi meisie"amazingly beautiful ( mooi) young woman";
- Adjectives on -er, el(including comparative degree): "n lekker piesang"delicious banana" n langer pad"longer way";
- Join -e monosyllabic adjectives to [x], [d], [u], [f], [s], and the alternations described above can occur:
- Dropping out d ("n wye romp"wide ( wyd) skirt"), with a possible transition to [j] ( "n goeie oes"good ( goed) harvest"). Exceptions: wreed, oud(has a special shape ou);
- Drop [x] : " n lae muur"low ( laag) wall"
- Restoring the final consonant: " n slegte reuk"bad ( sleg) smell", "n vaste reel"solid ( vas) rule";
- Increment [v] (for adjectives on -u): "n ruwe speler"rude ( ru) player"
- Voicing f before w: "n dowwe lig"dim ( dof) light"
- Other monosyllabic adjectives, as a rule, -e not attached.
An adjective has three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative: grot"big", grother"more", ( die) growste“the largest” (the superlative degree is always used with the definite article). Degrees of comparison of adverbs are formed in the same way. The formation of degrees of comparison is regular, with three exceptions ( min - minder - minst"small", goed - beter - beste"good", baie - meer - meest“very, a lot”) and morphonological processes similar to those described above: oud"old", ouer"older" sag"soft", sagter"softer". Besides, d build up in front -er all adjectives ending in r: lekker"nice", lekkerder.
Pronouns
Personal pronouns (in singular) preserve the distinction between two cases: direct and objective, their distribution is similar to the distribution of pronominal cases in other languages, for example English or Swedish: direct case in the role of the subject and the nominal part of the predicate, objective - in the position of the complement, including after prepositions.
Form u used in much the same way as the Russian respectful “you”. Forms sy And hy Usually used only in relation to persons, although there are exceptions: Waar is die train? - Hy is laat"Where is the train? - It's late."
Possessive pronouns in general case match the shapes objective case. The exception is 3rd person forms male and inanimate objects where shape is used sy. Also, possessive (but not personal) julle, hulle allow options jul, hul.
Possessive pronouns also have forms for use in the predicative function and with ellipsis of the main name: cf. hierdie jas is joune. Waar is myne? "This is a coat your. And where my?" These pronouns look like this:
Verb
A sign with inscriptions in Afrikaans, part of the complex at Parle
The Afrikaans verb system is greatly simplified compared to Dutch. Conjugation (change in persons and numbers) has completely disappeared; most verbs have only two forms: the actual verbal and the participle form. There are almost no synthetic forms, their place has been taken by analytical ones, cf.: ek praat Afrikaans"I speak Afrikaans" hulle sal Afrikaans praat"They will speak Afrikaans" u het Afrikaans gepraat"You spoke Afrikaans" ons sou Afrikaans gepraat“We would speak Afrikaans.” The infinitive form is the same as the personal forms; in the sentence the elements are used before it om te(if there is an object with the infinitive, it is placed between om And te): ek hoop om haar weer te sien"I hope ( hoop) her again ( haar) see".
For most non-derivative verbs, the participle form is formed by adding the prefix ge-. In the case of verbs with separable prefixes, this suffix is inserted between the prefix and the root: Ma skep op"Mom is setting the table" Ma het al opgeskep“Mom has already set the table.” For verbs with inseparable prefixes, the participle form does not differ from all other forms: Hy bestuur hierdie firma"He runs this company" Hy het dit altyd bestuur"He always guided her."
The infinitive form, which differs from the finite forms, is preserved in only two verbs; they also retain special participle forms: hê"have" ( personal form het, participle gehad) And wees(personal form is, participle gewees). Slightly more verbs retain special preterite (past tense) forms: the same wees (was), wil"want" ( wou), sal "auxiliary future tense" ( sou), moet"should" ( moes), kan"to be able" ( kon). Also rarely used dag(from dink"to think") and wis(from weet"know").
Various aspectual and tense oppositions are expressed in Afrikaans mainly using analytical forms formed with the help of auxiliary verbs het"have", wees"be", sal(And sou) "Future tense", word"passive auxiliary verb":
| Time | Active voice | Passive voice |
|---|---|---|
| Present | ek lees I am reading |
die huis word gebou the house is being built |
| Preterite (perfect) | ek het gelees I read |
die huis is gebou the house was being built |
| Plusquaperfect | die huis was gebou the house was under construction (until a moment in the past) |
|
| Futurum | ek sal lees I will read |
die huis sal gebou word the house will be built |
| Futurum II | ek sal gelees het I will read (at a time in the future) |
die huis sal gebou wees die huis sal gebou geword het the house will be built (by a time in the future) |
| The future is in the past | ek sou lees | die huis sou gebou word |
| Future in the past II | ek sou gelees het | die huis sou gebou wees die huis sou gebou geword het |
| Conditionalis I | ek sou gelees I would read (in the future) |
|
| Conditionalis II | ek sou gelees het I would have read (in the past) |
Syntax
In general, Afrikaans syntax is similar to Dutch syntax and generally has few features that would set it apart from other Germanic languages. As in Dutch or German, the second place in a sentence is occupied by the finite verb form (in the case of the analytical form, its finite part), despite the fact that the first component can be either the subject or another member of the sentence. If the predicate is expressed in an analytical verb form, the participle is placed at the end of the sentence: ek lees "n boek"I am reading a book", ek het "n boek gelees"I read the book." Unprepositioned indirect object costs up to direct: ek het my broer "n boek gegee"I gave my brother a book"; the prepositional object, on the contrary, is placed after the direct: ek het "n boek vir my broer gegee"Same". Possessive relations are expressed either using a preposition van (die boek van die broer"brother's book"), or using a possessive particle se (die broer se boek"Same"). Particle se(now inconsistent) goes back to a construction with vertex marking of possessiveness using a possessive pronoun: previously there was die broer sy boek, die meisie haar boek(cf. possible in Dutch de broer z'n (zijn) boek, de zuster d'r boek).
Afrikaans is characterized by double negation: the first element can be the actual verb negation nie(comes immediately after the verb) or a negative pronoun ( geen"no one", nêrens"nowhere"), and the second is the element nie which comes at the end: ek heet nie dié boek gelees nie"I haven't read this book" hy het geen boek gelees nie"he didn't read any book."
In the subordinate clause in Afrikaans, as in other Germanic languages, the word order is different from that of the main clause: the subject comes first, and all verb forms come at the end: ek wees dat jou dié boek lees"I know that you are reading this book." If in a subordinate sentence the verb is in the perfect, then in Afrikaans (as in German, but unlike Dutch) the auxiliary verb het stands on last place: ek weet dat jou dié boek gelees het"I know that you have read this book." Moreover, when using forms with sal, sou And modal verbs the infinitive (as in Dutch, but unlike German) comes after the auxiliary forms: hy het my gesê dat hy môre sou kom"He told me that he would come tomorrow." Widely used as a relative pronoun wat"what", including for persons: die man wat ek ontmoet het is my vriend"the man I met is my friend."
The widespread use of the preposition vir in front of personal direct objects: hy slaan vir Piet"He hits Pete."
In spoken Afrikaans the use of non-union is widespread. subordinating connection, in which the word order in the subordinate sentence is the same as in the main one: Karel sê hy sal om tienuur huistoe kom"Karel says (that) he will come home tomorrow at ten o'clock."
Vocabulary
Afrikaans vocabulary reflects the history of the settlement of the Cape Colony: it is basically Dutch, or more precisely Dutch (although there are also lexical doublets, in the Netherlands distributed by dialect, such as, werp And gooi"throw": the first word is common in the south of the Netherlands, the second in the north). There are quite a lot of borrowings from French, but this is mainly international vocabulary ( energy, genius and so on); limited influence of German ( verskaf“to do something,” from German. verschaffen). There are quite a lot of borrowings from the Malay-Portuguese Creole, both Malay and Portuguese origin: small baie"so many", piercing"saucer", port. tronk"jail", mielie"corn". There are almost no borrowings from local languages into Afrikaans, and those that exist mainly reflect local realities ( gogga, kamma, kamtig, donga, indaba).
Differences from literary Dutch
In phonetics, the differences between Afrikaans and Dutch come down largely to differences in the dialect basis of Afrikaans and literary Dutch; in a number of cases, Afrikaans “preserves” a norm that is considered outdated in Dutch (for example, open pronunciation e in a word wereld"peace" (in Afrikaans - wêreld)). Among the phonetic differences are the following (some were mentioned earlier):
- Pronunciation of a long nasalized vowel in words like mens;
- Voiceless [f], [s], [x] in place of Dutch spellings v, z, g;
- Dropping of terminals after voiceless spirants: nag"night", plural h. nagte, Wed Netherlands nacht, nachte;
- A fall d And g between vowels: spiel, Netherlands spiegel "mirror";
- Pronunciation sk instead of sch( ) at the beginning of the morpheme: skool"school" instead school, suffix -skap instead of -schap.
- Pronunciation -er([ɛːr]) instead of Dutch -aar (perd"horse", Dutch paard)
In the field of morphology, attention is drawn to the complete collapse of personal inflection, the coincidence of the infinitive and present forms, the regularization of the formation of participles (Dutch participles of strong verbs are preserved only as verbal adjectives: neem"take", ek het "n besluit geneem"I made a decision" n genome besluit"a decision made" (cf. in Dutch ik heb het besluit genomen), disappearance of synthetic
Afrikaans (Boer language) is a West Germanic language spoken in South Africa and Namibia. In the literature it is described as a partially creolized language or as a deviant variety of the Dutch (Dutch) language.
Although Afrikaans has loanwords from Malay, Portuguese, Bantu and Khoisan, 90-95% of its vocabulary is of Dutch origin. Its main difference from the Dutch language is its more systematic morphology, grammar and spelling.
In South Africa, Afrikaans is the mother tongue of 6 million people, or 13.3% of the population. According to the 2001 census, 79.5% of the so-called "colored community", 59.1% of the white population, 1.7% of the Indian population and 0.7% of the black population were fluent in Boer. In addition, Afrikaans is used as a second language by the majority of English and Bantu speakers here.
According to the 1996 constitution, Afrikaans is one of the official languages of South Africa, along with English and 9 other languages.
In neighboring Namibia, Afrikaans is widely used as a lingua franca; here it is the mother tongue of 11% of the population - mainly in the capital Windhoek, as well as in the southern provinces of Hardap and Karas.
The total number of Boer language speakers (Boers, or Afrikaners) is unknown, but estimates range from 15 to 23 million.
The history of the Boer language begins in 1652, when the first European (Dutch) settlement appeared in South Africa. The settlers themselves for a long time they called it Kombuistaal ("kitchen tongue"). Afrikaans was considered a dialect of Dutch until the end of the 19th century, when it was recognized as a language in its own right.
Linguists believe that at first Afrikaans existed in the form of three dialects: northern, western and eastern. Traces of these dialects remain in modern standardized language. A special place is occupied by the prison argot of Sombela - it is based on Afrikaans, but has experienced strong influence Zulu language. This dialect was used in prisons as secret language, which was taught only to initiates.
Linguist Paul Roberge considers the first texts in “true Afrikaans” to be poems by an unknown author written in 1795 and a dialogue recorded by a Dutch traveler in 1825. The first printed books in Afrikaans only began to appear in the mid-19th century, when the language was still considered a collection of regional dialects.
The Afrikaans alphabet consists of 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, to which are added diacritics for vowels: á, é, è, ê, ë, í, î, ï, ó, ô, ú, û, ý. Short words may begin with an apostrophe, which reflects the peculiarity of Afrikaans - widespread use in colloquial speech reduced vowel phonemes, for example: ‘k ‘t Dit gesê instead of Ek het dit gesê (“I said it”), ‘t Jy dit geëet? instead of Het jy dit geëet? (“Did you eat this?”).
In 1861 L.Kh. Moran published his book Zamenspraak tusschen Klaas Waarzegger en Jan Twyfelaar ("Conversation between Klaus the Truth-Teller and Jan the Doubter"), which is considered by a number of researchers to be the first authoritative text in the Boer language. The first Afrikaans grammars and dictionaries were published charitable organization"Society of True Afrikaners" in Cape Town in 1875.
After the First and Second Boer Wars, the position of Afrikaans was significantly strengthened. Before official languages The Union of South Africa had English and Dutch, and in 1925 they were joined by Afrikaans, which was recognized as a Dutch dialect. The main dictionary of the Boer language is Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal ("Dictionary of the Afrikaans Language"), the compilation of which has not yet been completed due to the scale of the project (only the first volume has been published).
An important milestone in the development of the language was the first official complete translation of the Bible into Afrikaans, made in 1933. Thanks to this translation, Afrikaans was established as “pure and correct language» religious texts, especially the numerous Calvinist communities, which had previously been very skeptical about translation attempts Holy Scripture into Boer language. In 1933, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first translation, a new translation was made.