Quote:
Originally Posted by Guymullins
Afrikaans is one of the youngest languages and is entirely made up from borrowed words. Mainly Dutch in origin, but with a strong French influence from the Huguenots who fled France for Africa. There are many Portuguese words too, because they were neighbors on both east and west sides. There was German from German SW Africa, another neighbor and of course English due to being an English Colony for some time. So, when someone say an Afrikaans word, it could have come from almost any language originally.
|
IIRC, and according to my language teachers at U. of Pretoria, about 90% of afrikaans words come from ancient ducth. And from my belgian friends, the flemish dialect has more in common (and pronunciation) with afrikaans than modern dutch.
I have sadly forgotten about 90% of the little afrikaans I learned...
I'm a native spanish speaker, but my english was pretty decent and I think actually got worse after two years submerged into afrikanerland
