Afrikaans
< Zulu | Major Languages | Akan >
Categories: Languages, South Africa, Namibia, Parts of Botswana,
Parts of Swaziland, Parts of Zambia
On this page... (hide)
- 1. Classification / Classification
- 2. Where Spoken / Localisation géographique
- 3. Number of Speakers / Nombre de locuteurs
- 4. Dialect Survey / Enquête de dialecte
- 5. Usage / Utilisation
- 6. Orthography / Orthographe
- 7. Use in ICT / Utilisation dans les TIC
- 8. Localisation resources / Ressources pour localisation
- 9. Comments / Remarques
- 10. References / Références
1. Classification / Classification
Indo-European, Germanic, West, Low Saxon-Low Franconian, Low Franconian. (Ethnologue?)
"Afrikaans is a descendent of Dutch.... 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." (Omniglot)
2. Where Spoken / Localisation géographique
South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana, Swaziland. Lesser numbers in Malawi (and perhaps other countries in southern Africa?).
3. Number of Speakers / Nombre de locuteurs
According to Ethnologue (accessed 2015):
- 6,860,000 in South Africa (2011 census)
- 89,900 in Namibia (2006)
- 41,000 in Zambia (2006)
- 20,000 in Botswana (2006)
- 13,000 in Swaziland (2006)
- Population total all countries: 7,096,810.
- 10,300,000 second-language speakers in South Africa.
4. Dialect Survey / Enquête de dialecte
Cape Afrikaans (West Cape Afrikaans), Orange River Afrikaans, East Cape Afrikaans. (Ethnologue)
Holliday (1993) discusses the history and separation of Afrikaans from Dutch.
5. Usage / Utilisation
One of 11 official languages in South Africa and its third most widely spoken language.
"In 1925 Afrikaans was recognised by the government as a real language, instead of a slang version of Dutch." (Omniglot)
6. Orthography / Orthographe
6.1 Status / Statut
Uses a Latin orthography. Same alphabet as Dutch and English. The Unicode character for " 'n " (ʼn - Unicode point 0149) is sometimes encountered.
"From about 1815 Afrikaans started to replace Malay as the language of instruction in Muslim schools in South Africa. At that time it was written with the Arabic alphabet." (Omniglot)
6.2 Sample Alphabet / Alphabet exemple
See:
- Geonames "Unicode test page...: Afrikaans alphabet - Afrikaanse alfabet" http://www.geonames.de/alphab.html#afr
- Mimer "Afrikaans Alphabet Collation Chart" http://developer.mimer.com/charts/afrikaans.htm
- Omniglot page http://www.omniglot.com/writing/afrikaans.htm
- http://unicode.org/cldr/apps/survey?_=af&x=characters
7. Use in ICT / Utilisation dans les TIC
7.1 Fonts / Polices
Standard Latin fonts include the necessary characters. The character ʼn is sometimes encountered and many fonts don't render it well. It should probably be avoided.
7.2 Keyboard layouts / Dispositions de clavier
The US (International) keyboard layout is sufficient. Translate.org.za designed the South African keyboard that allows typing in Afrikaans and other South Africa language with a single keyboard layout.
7.3 Content on computers & internet / Contenu en informatique et sur l'Internet
The South African language site "Batho Portal" http://www.sediba.org.za/ has a section on & in Afrikaans.
Wikipedia in Afrikaans https://af.wikipedia.org/ (over 35k articles as of 11-2015)
UNIVERSELE VERKLARING VAN MENSEREGTE (Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Afrikaans): http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/afk.htm
Numerous other sites.
7.4 Localized software / Logiciels localisés
The OpenOffice suite of software applications, Firefox, and Thunderbird has been localized in Afrikaans by Translate.org.za. See http://translate.org.za/content/view/17/54/ There is also an Afrikaans spell checker? for all of these programs.
Other translated packages:
- There is a project to translate Debian-Installer? in Afrikaans: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/edgy/+source/debian-installer/+pots/debian-installer
- There is a group working on localising Ubuntu. See:
As of 2007, there was is a group working on localising Drupal?. The URL for that effort - drupal.co.za - now redirects to DASA\Drupal Association South Africa? (DASA)
Microsoft has localised some of its products in Afrikaans in LIP packages: (needs updating)
- Windows XP http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0db2e8f9-79c4-4625-a07a-0cc1b341be7c&DisplayLang=af
- MSOffice
The web browser Opera? is also available in Afrikaans.
CTexT has developed a spell checker? and hyphenator for use with Microsoft Windows?. See: http://www.spel.co.za/
7.5 Language codes / Codes de langue
- ISO 639-1: af
- ISO 639-2: afr
- ISO 639-3: afr
7.6 Locales / Paramètres régionaux
7.7 Other / Autre
Google has a version localized in Afrikaans: http://www.google.com/intl/af/
Certain cell phones are available in Afrikaans, with some featuring predictive text input for Afrikaans.
8. Localisation resources / Ressources pour localisation
8.1 Individuals (experts) / Individuelles (experts)
8.2 Institutions / Institutions
8.3 On the internet / Sur la toile
AfricanLanguages.com page on Afrikaans: http://www.africanlanguages.com/afrikaans/
Open-Tran.eu supports Afrikaans: http://af.open-tran.eu/
Mailing list for the discussion of Afrikaans localisation: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/translate-discuss-af
9. Comments / Remarques
Localisation in Afrikaans seems to be well advanced in many areas. We are aware of no particular technical or linguistic problems encountered in localising this language.
10. References / Références
Holliday, Lloyd. 1993. "The First Language Congress for Afrikaans." In Joshua Fishman, ed., The Earliest Stage of Language Planning: The "First Congress" Phenomenon. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Pp. 11-30.
Omniglot, "Afrikaans," http://www.omniglot.com/writing/afrikaans.htm
SIL International, Ethnologue: Languages of the World, "Afrikaans," http://www.ethnologue.com/language/afr
SIL International, "ISO 639 Code Tables," http://www-01.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp
U.S. Library of Congress, "ISO 639.2: Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages: Alpha-3 codes arranged alphabetically by the English name of language," http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/English_list.php
Wikipedia, "Afrikaans," https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaans
______, "Afrikaans," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaans
Wolff, Friedel. 2006. "Software Localisation by Translate.org.za." Localisation Focus 5(3): 19-21.
< Zulu | Major Languages | Akan >
Categories: Languages, South Africa, Namibia, Parts of Botswana, Parts of Swaziland, Parts of Zambia