Is Afrikaans an Africa language or a European language in Africa?

Question

So far the answers contradict each other, MJ's is definitely the most accurate it would seem, I am also looking for opinions, not fact alone.

Answer 1

I have always regarded it as an African language with its roots in Europe. I was going to say it is hardly spoken in Europe but there so many of you feckers here now I am probably wrong. Africans because of their racial and historical indoctrination will never regard it as an African language but quite frankly they get so few things right who gives a feck.

Answer 2

You know, that's an excellent question. A lot of people here in the US asks me what language I speak and I say Afrikaans, they immediately make the assumption "African" with "Afrikaans". But it's nothing like that, I usually just say nothing, because it's way too complicated to explain everything. I'm going to have to choose European language in Africa, but it's still a language/dialect on its own.

Answer 3

It's a Dutch-derived language spoken mainly in South Africa.

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Afrikaans is a Low Franconian variety, derived from Dutch, mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia with smaller numbers of speakers in Botswana, Angola, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Due to emigration and migrant labour, there are possibly over 100,000 Afrikaans speakers in the United Kingdom[1], with other substantial communities found in Brussels, Amsterdam, Perth, Western Australia, Toronto and Auckland. It is the primary language used by two related ethnic groups in South Africa: the Afrikaners and the Coloureds or kleurlinge/bruinmense (including Basters, Cape Malays and Griqua).

Geographically, the Afrikaans language is the majority language of the western one-third of South Africa (Northern and Western Cape, spoken at home by 69% and 58%, respectively). It is also the largest first language in the adjacent southern third of Namibia (Hardap and Karas, where it is the first language of 43% and 41%, respectively). It is the most widely used second language throughout both of these countries for the population as a whole, although the younger generation has better proficiency in English.

Afrikaans originated from the Dutch language. The dialect became known as "Cape Dutch". Later, Afrikaans was sometimes also referred to as "African Dutch" or "Kitchen Dutch", although these terms were mainly pejorative. Afrikaans was considered a Dutch dialect until the late 19th century, when it began to be recognised as a distinct language, and it gained equal status with Dutch and English as an official language in South Africa in 1925. Dutch remained an official language until the new 1961 constitution finally stipulated the two official languages in South Africa to be Afrikaans and English (although, curiously, the 1961 constitution still had a sub-clause stipulating that the word "Afrikaans" was also meant to be referring to the Dutch language). It is the only Indo-European language of significance that developed on the African continent.
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Answer 4

Afrikaans is an African adaptation of Dutch

EDIT: In reply to additional information

Afrikaans is as African as the language spoken in Argentina is South American

BOTH are European in origin
BOTH have assimilated local words
BOTH can be understood, to a large extent, by speakers of the mother tongue
BUT
BOTH are now technically different languages from that mother tongue

You wouldn't call Argentinian Spanish (or Mexican Spanish, Venezuelan Spanish, Brazillian Portugese etc) South American languages.

Are American English, Creole French or Quebecois French, North American languages, they are adaptions of European Languages.

So why try to treat Afrikaans any different

Answer 5

As usual Aliza knows dip sh!t ! It is a language that originated in Africa and is not spoken anywhere in the world !
Yes it originated from Dutch but there is very little left of that ! If I could turn back time with a hundred years not even Zulu and Xhosa people will recognize their own language ! It has changed so gradually that it sounds nothing like it used to be !

Answer 6

When the duth settled in South Africa (SA) they spoke dutch. Afrikaans is an adaptation of dutch. Its kind of a mix in dutch and english. Although decended from a european language it is generally only spoken in SA. It is african in the sense that it is spokens by South Africans but is european in a sense that it was derived from the Dutch language. Its almost like german, i figured you might have heard german before. Its become a big part of Afrikaaner identity and culture. Afrikaaners are generally white south africans.

I hope i didnt confuse you further

Answer 7

In my opinion, it's a language that originated in the Cape area and originated from the Dutch and German settlers who combined some of the language with the language spoken by the locals (Basters and Griquas), which makes it an African language spoken by Europeans.

Answer 8

Afrikaans originated from Dutch, so I guess you can say its related to an European language.

Answer 9

Afrikaans is a Dutch-based African language spoken by Afrikaners in Africa.

Answer 10

Afrikaans is an African language inasmuch as it developed from Dutch in Africa. It is an Indo-European language inasmuch as it belongs to the family of languages originating in Central Asia that spread to Europe, the Middle East, Iran and beyond the Indus Valley. It is a Germanic language inasmuch as it belongs to the Germanic language family and it is also an African language inasmuch as it has been heavily influenced by Khoe, and other African languages. It is all a question of how one defines the language. In my opinion it it an African language for the following reasons>
1. Developed in Africa
2. Contains many "pure" African words and structures
3. Is used and spoken primarrly in Africa
4. Is spoken by more "non-white" Africans than "white Africans", i.e. Coloureds, Griekwas, Basters etc.
5. It calls itself "Afrikaans", i.e. African.

Good question Bull!