Afrikaans

[af-ri-kahns, -kahnz]

noun

1. Also called the Taal. an official language of South Africa, developed out of the speech of 17th-century settlers from Holland and still very like Dutch.

adjective

1. of or relating to Afrikaans or Afrikaners.

Afrikaans

/ ˌæfrɪˈkɑːns, -ˈkɑːnz /

noun

1. Sometimes called: South African Dutch. one of the official languages of the Republic of South Africa, closely related to Dutch

Word History and Origins

Origin of Afrikaans¹

1895–1900; < Dutch, equivalent to Afrikaan native of Africa + -s -ish ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of Afrikaans¹

C20: from Dutch: African

Example Sentences

"I was born into the language, I drank the language. As children, we never spoke Afrikaans; we only spoke N|uu," Esau told AFP.

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She only began three years ago, with a cabbage crop, and to help she uses an app called AI-Farmer, which recognises several South African languages, including Sesotho, isiZulu and Afrikaans, to help solve various problems.

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"We know a large number of Afrikaans speakers are people of colour," says Pillay.

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Their language, Afrikaans, is quite similar to Dutch.

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In a 2007 interview with the nonprofit group Democracy Now!, he called the word apartheid — which means “apartness” in Afrikaans — “exactly accurate.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times