Afrikaans

Afrikaans (also called Cape Dutch) is a West Germanic language spoken in South Africa and Namibia.

The name Afrikaans comes from the Dutch word for "African." It was originally used by the Dutch settlers and indentured workers brought to the Cape area in southwestern South Africa by the Dutch East India Company between 1652 and 1705. Most of the settlers were from the Netherlands, but there were also settlers from Germany, France, Scotland, and other countries. The indentured workers and slaves were Malays and the indigenous workers were Khoi and San. Afrikaans was considered a Dutch dialect until the early 20th century. In 1925, it was officially proclaimed to be a distinct language from Dutch.

South Africa
Afrikaans is an official language of South Africa where it is spoken by 6.2 million people as a first and by over 10 million people as a second language (Ethnologue). It is taught in primary and secondary schools, and used in electronic and print media.

Before 1925, when Afrikaans was proclaimed to be a language separate from Dutch, the official languages of the Union of South Africa were English and Dutch. Dutch was replaced as an official language by Afrikaans. Today, it is once again being marginalised, this time by Bantu languages spoken by a large percentage of the population.

Namibia
Afrikaans is widely spoken in Namibia, where it has had constitutional recognition as a national, not official, language, since independence in 1990. Prior to independence, Afrikaans, along with German, had equal status as an official language. Afrikaans is also spoken in Australia, Botswana, Canada, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, New Zealand, Zambia, Zimbabwe (Ethnologue).

---

Professional Afrikaans language services

Trusted by some of the biggest names in business, we are proud to be the most quality-focused language company around. For more information about any of our language services, please contact the team or choose one of the following links:

Translation services  |  Interpreting services  |  Multilingual creative services