Ethnologue 14 report for language code:AFK

AFRIKAANS: a language of South Africa

The following is the entry for this language as it appeared in the 14th edition (2000).
It was superseded by the corresponding entry in the 15th edition (2005). See also the corresponding entry in the current edition of Ethnologue.

SIL code: AFK

ISO 639-1: af

ISO 639-2: afr

Population

6,200,000 in South Africa (1991 Christos van Rensburg), of whom 1,000,000 are native bilinguals with English (1989 J. Holm), 15.1% of the population (1995 The Economist). 4,000,000 in South Africa use it as a second or third language (1989 J. Holm). Population total all countries 6,381,000. Including second language users: 10,000,000 (1999 WA).

Region

Pretoria and Bloemfontein are principal centers of population. Cape Malays live mainly in Capetown, with some in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, and Port Elizabeth. Also spoken in Australia, Botswana, Canada, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, New Zealand, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Dialects

CAPE AFRIKAANS (WEST CAPE AFRIKAANS), ORANGE RIVER AFRIKAANS, EAST CAPE AFRIKAANS.

Classification

Indo-European, Germanic, West, Low Saxon-Low Franconian, Low Franconian.

Comments

A variant of the Dutch spoken by the 17th century colonists, with some lexical and syntactic borrowings from Malay, Bantu languages, Khoisan languages, Portuguese, and other European languages. Their ancestors were brought from Java 300 years ago. 150,000 Cape Malays speak Afrikaans; some also speak English. National language. Cape Malays: builders, carpenters. Cape Malay: Muslim, Christian. Bible 1933-1983.

Also spoken in:

Botswana

Language name	AFRIKAANS
Population	20,000 in Botswana (1995 LBT).
Comments	Spoken as mother tongue by Afrikaners (Ghanzi District) and by people of mixed racial background (Kweneng and Kgalagadi districts). Literacy rate in first language: 100% in Ghanzi, 50% in Kweneng and Kgalagadi. Literacy rate in second language: 75% in Kweneng and Kgalagadi districts in Tswana, 50% in English; few in Ghanzi District in Tswana, most in English. Christian. Bible 1933-1983. See main entry under South Africa.

Malawi

Language name	AFRIKAANS
Comments	Spoken by people of Dutch descent from South Africa. Bible 1933-1983. See main entry under South Africa.

Namibia

Language name	AFRIKAANS
Population	133,324 in Namibia (1991 census). Used by 25% of the population in Windhoek in their homes (1995 census).
Comments	It formerly had official status. Bible 1933-1983. See main entry under South Africa.

Zambia

Language name	AFRIKAANS
Comments	Language of wider communication. Bible 1933-1983. See main entry under South Africa.