Facts About Africans
Afrikaans is a language spoken in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch and is considered a West Germanic language. There are about 6 million Afrikaans speakers in the world. Here are six interesting facts about Afrikaans.
Afrikaans is the third most spoken language in South Africa. It is also the second most taught language in South African schools. Afrikaans is a very versatile language and can be used in various settings, from formal to informal.
Afrikaans has been influenced by several other languages, including Dutch, Malay, Portuguese, and Khoisan languages. Afrikaans has also borrowed words from African languages such as Zulu and Xhosa. As a result, Afrikaans is a vibrant and diverse language.
Afrikaans is a very concise language and is known for its use of compound words. For example, the Afrikaans word for “airplane” is vliegtuig, which is made up of the words vlieg (fly) and tuig (device). This makes Afrikaans a very efficient language. Afrikaans is a unique and exciting language with a rich history. It is a language spoken by millions of people around the world and is a valuable part of South African culture.
Here are six interesting facts about Afrikaans that you may not know about!
1) Sesotho, Setswana, and Sepedi are the closest languages
South Africa’s southern neighbor, Lesotho, has Sesotho as its official language. Sesotho is more closely related to Afrikaans than is Zulu or Xhosa. Setswana and Sepedi are also closer to Afrikaans than they are to Zulu or Xhosa.
2) The name Afrikaans comes from Dutch
It means African. The word denotes a family of languages rather than a single language. They are derived from Dutch and ultimately from German, though they also incorporate some elements of French and English. There are six million native speakers of Afrikaans and several million more who speak it as a second language. As such, it’s one of South Africa’s 11 official languages. Read this amazing blog post to know about what are the German speaking countries?
3) A little known fact – British renamed some towns in South Africa during colonization
According to an April 2013 report in The Week, When colonizers arrived in South Africa, they renamed some of its towns to more British-sounding names. As a result, instead of calling a place Mokopane (meaning ‘the place where red ant hills are found’) or Matlapeng (‘where people dance’), South Africans refer to these places as Mossel Bay and Mahikeng.
4) Sayings you probably didn’t know in Afrikaans
Kêrel, ek voel mos soos ‘n vis in ‘n bakkie! – My, I feel just like a fish in a bucket! The literal translation of bakkie is a bucket, but it means small space. So if you’re feeling claustrophobic, say something along these lines: My, I feel like a fish in a bucket!
5) Where did the name ‘Afrikaner’ come from?
‘Afrikaner’ is often linked to South Africa’s early European settlers, whose roots originated from Holland. These settlers made their way down south during the political and social upheaval in Europe. Known as Boers (Farmers), these Dutchmen were known for their seafaring and exploration skills, which ultimately helped them find their way to Africa.
6) Reading Afrikaans is easier than you’d think
Although it’s not as easy to read as most Western European languages, Afrikaans uses simple sentence structure and only five vowels (most European languages have ten or more). Its similarities to English make learning it more accessible than some other foreign languages. Greece is one of the most mountainous countries in Europe!
Interesting facts about South Africa
South Africa is a country in southern Africa, bordered by Namibia to the north and Botswana to the west. It has an area of 1,972,000 square kilometers (744,000 sq mi) and 48.8 million. Its capital city is Pretoria, home to around 1.35 million residents. Other urban areas include Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg.
1. The first inhabitants of what we now call South Africa may have entered via the Strait of Gibraltar. This was 6 000 years ago. The oldest tools discovered here date back to this period.
2. The Voorster Affair was a military confrontation between the Union of South Africa and the Orange Free State Republic on May 22, 1852, near the present-day town of Vredefort. After defeating the Orange Free State forces, the Boers signed the Treaty of Vereeniging, surrendering control over vast amounts of land to the SA government. The treaty effectively put an end to the First Boer War.
3. The Sotho people are among the earliest inhabitants of modern-day South Africa. They share linguistic and cultural traits with the Tswana people. Their language is part of the Southern Bantu branch. Although the Sotho today number less than 2 million, they once inhabited much of the interior.
4. “Hottentot” was used to describe the San peoples, who lived along the coast and inland. Hottentots themselves referred to all non-San tribespeople as “Kaffirs”, meaning “foreign.” Later, the word Kaffir came to be used for black African people.
5. The Nguni people are among the largest ethnic groups in Africa. They initially settled in the central region of South Africa, where they intermarried with the proto-Dinka. Today, the Nguni live mainly in Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, and Mzantsi.
6. The Xhosa people are among the many ethnic groups in South Africa. Like the Nguni, they arrived in South Africa from the east. The Xhosa are primarily concentrated in the southeast of South Africa, although they also live throughout the country.
7. The Zulus are among the original indigenous inhabitants of South Africa. They are descended from the Nguni tribe and migrated southward from Central Africa. The Zulus established their kingdom in the 1830s when Cetshwayo became king.
8. King Shaka ruled the Zulus from the early 1800s until he died in 1828. He developed a regimental warfare system called Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”) which would play a significant role in later conflicts in the Anglo-Boer wars.
9. The Basuto people are among the smallest nations in the world. They are descendants of the Khoi-San. Beginning in the 16th century, the Basutos were pushed into the mountains of Lesotho and Swaziland by the mighty Dlamini Empire. In the 19th century, the Basuto people suffered greatly from slave traders.
10. The Batonga people are one of the few remaining hunter-gatherer cultures in Southern Africa. They are known as the Bushmen of South Africa. They live in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa.
11. African lion numbers are thought to have declined by over 40% in just three generations.
12. The African lion is more significant than the Asiatic lion, and it’s the second-largest big cat after the tiger.
13. Zambia is big; it’s bold and full of incredible wildlife.
14. South Africa is home to many different peoples and cultures – so much so that it’s been nicknamed the ‘rainbow nation. South Africa has emerged from a dark past to become the Rainbow Nation locals, and travelers know and love today.
FAQs
There Are About 5 Million People Who Speak Afrikaans as Their First Language. The most reliable data on this comes from the World Atlas, which estimates between 4.3 and 6.3 million native speakers of Afrikaans worldwide. This number excludes those living outside of Africa, Australia, or Europe.
These figures come from an estimate of the total population of people who speak Afrikaans as a mother tongue (first language). We can then subtract the estimated number of people who speak Afrikaners but not Afrikaans (second language) to get the number of people who speak only Afrikaans.
The word Afrikaans is derived from the Dutch language. It was used by the Dutch settlers in South Africa to describe their language and culture, which they called “Dutch” or “Nederlands” (the latter means “The Netherlands”), because they considered themselves part of the Netherlands back then.
This Dutch term eventually evolved into Afrikaans. Later, some Afrikaners began calling their language simply “Afrikaans,” but this name didn’t catch on within the broader community. Today, Afrikaans is still commonly referred to as “Afrikaans.” But it doesn’t necessarily follow that all Afrikaners call their language “Afrikaans.
According to new genetic studies regarding the golden jackal (Canis aureus), which is now assumed to be a grey wolf, grey wolf numbers in Africa are low, with small, endangered populations in Egypt and Ethiopia (Canis lupus). The Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) is also a jackal in Ethiopia. Social creatures, gray wolves have a complex communication system that involves body language, barking, growling, “dancing,” howling, and scent making.
