Is Afrikaans the youngest language in the world??

Answer 1

No, the youngest language in the world is baby-talk:
gaa-gaa goo-goo

Answer 2

Youngest Language In The World

Answer 3

To my knowledge Afrikaans is the youngest language, partly because South Africa is such a young country and partly because of its rapid development away from Dutch when it was exposed to various lingual influences.

Fact is, Afrikaans is a mix of Dutch, German, English, French, Portuguese, Bantu and Malay. Most people are surprised by this but Dutch underwent massive syntactical and grammatical changes during the days of the East Indies Trade route. It became so different that the Boers took steps in declaring it an independent language.

Because of its infancy, Afrikaans also has very few exceptions to rules and the way a word is spelt is almost definitely the way you pronounce it.

Answer 4

Yes, Afrikaans is recognised as being the youngest language in the world. Although it shares similarities with Dutch, it is a different language altogether, not merely another dialect. I've been told that Flemish is actually more like Afrikaans, than Dutch is.

To say that Afrikaans is restricted to South Africa is incorrect. Afrikaans is widely spoken in Southern Africa. There are large Afrikaans speaking communities in South America, Australasia and Europe.

Afrikaans is a beautiful language and offers much to the song-writer and poet. It is a vivid, descriptive language.

Dit is 'n baie mooi taal! (It is a very nice language!)

Answer 5

The argument for Afrikaans being the youngest language is probably sound. It developed out of 18th century Dutch, with vocabulary from various Bantu and Khoisan languages and also from Portugese and Malay. Afrikaans speakers find it easier to understand Dutch, than vice versa. Interestingly, from about 1815 Afrikaans started to replace Malay as the language of instruction in Muslim schools in South Africa, but written with the Arabic alphabet. Afrikaans, written with the Latin alphabet, started to appeared in newspapers and political and religious works in about 1850. Then in 1875 a group of Afrikaans speakers from the Cape formed the Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaanders (Society for Real Afrikaners), and published a number of books in Afrikaans, including grammars, dictionaries, religious material and histories. In 1925 Afrikaans was recognised by the government as a real language, instead of a slang version of Dutch.

There have been numerous constructed languages since Esperanto (1887), and they include Interlingua (1951) and Europanto (1998). The newest I could find online is Esata (2004).

Answer 6

Afrikaans derives from Dutch - at least the South Africans acknowledge it as a separate Language. Probably the youngest language - until the English speaking residents of the USA acknowledge that they no longer speak English - then Usenglish would become the youngest language.

Answer 7

No, the youngest language is esperanto, Afrikaans is a language with the same source as Dutch, it just developed differently.

Answer 8

Afrikaans is the language of the BOERS in South Africa.
It is similar to Dutch, but very much simplified and with influences from French, German and English.
Afrikaans is not only spoken by the descendants of the Boers, but also by large segments of the colored and black population.
It is not a very old language, since it was recognized as an official language only in 1925. Today it is one of the official languages of the Republic of South Africa.

For more info go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaans

Answer 9

Surely Afrikaans is the Boer language which in turn is Dutch(Nederlandish)(?).
Text is not a language, it's a scipt.
I'd go for Esperanto.

Answer 10

It is older than Esperanto
However it did not get recognition as a language till the 1920's
Esperanto has official since the 1880's.
Although as another answerer suggested some instances are starting to recognise Klingon as a language too.

Answer 11

No, the youngest language in the world is Esperanto!