Proper noun

Afrikaans

1. A Germanic language descending from Dutch; the primary language of the descendants of Dutch and other European settlers, as well as many mixed-race (e.g. Rehoboth Basters) living in South Africa and in Namibia. Also, one of the eleven official languages of South Africa and until 1990 one of three official languages of Namibia.
2. A term sometimes used of people from South Africa and Namibia (who speak Afrikaans), more properly called "Afrikaans people" or Afrikaners.

Synonyms

• (Afrikaans person) Afrikaner

Adjective

Afrikaans (not comparable)

1. Of or pertaining to the Afrikaans language.

Elsewhere in Africa, notably Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland. Emigrant and expatriate communities worldwide, notably Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, the Netherlands and Belgium.

• Germanic
  • West Germanic
    • Low Franconian
      • Dutch
        • Afrikaans

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its seventeenth century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch. Although Afrikaans borrowed from languages such as Malay, Portuguese, the Bantu languages or the Khoisan languages, an estimated 90 to 95 percent of Afrikaans vocabulary is ultimately of Dutch origin. Therefore, differences with Dutch often lie in a more regular morphology, grammar, and spelling of Afrikaans. There is a degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages—especially in written form—although it is easier for Dutch-speakers to understand Afrikaans than the other way around.

With about 6 million native speakers in South Africa, or 13.3 percent of the population, it is the third most spoken mother tongue in the country. It has the widest geographical and racial distribution of all official languages, and is widely spoken and understood as a second or third language. It is the majority language of the western half of South Africa—the provinces of the Northern Cape and Western Cape—and the primary language of the coloured and white communities. In neighbouring Namibia, Afrikaans is spoken in 11 percent of households, mainly concentrated in the capital Windhoek and the southern regions of Hardap and Karas. Widely spoken as a second language, it is a lingua franca of Namibia.

While the number of total speakers of Afrikaans is unknown, estimates range between 15 and 23 million.