I am an American of European descent, and I was wondering if anyone knows about what languages are spoken by what ethnicities in South Africa? Do the coloureds speak Afrikaans? The Afrikaaners speak Afrikaans, the Native tribes speak their own languages. What language(s) do the Whites speak? And, "who" are the Whites? Are they [the Whites] mixed European ancestory (French, English, German)? And what about the surrounding countries of South Africa; what languages do the "whites" speak; Afrikaans, German, English, all of them?
Now, to tie this in with English, which "English" does SA (South African) English sound most like? Canadian, American, Australian or British? And, what influences has SA English had from other languages, if any?
From talking with people about SA English, I have heard that it resembles Australian English the most, but it sounds very "harsh" as it has had a lot of Afrikaaner/Dutch influence. Has anyone been to SA (South Africa) before? What did you think about the English language there?
Hi Big Brother,
Yes the coloureds speak Afrikaans as mother tongue (85%). Mostly everybody can speak both Afrikaans and English though mother tongue differs by ethnic group. The whites are divided into Afrikaners (mainly dutch, German, french origin) and the english mother tongue speakers (settlers from England, Scotland, Ireland); rarely do these two groups intermarry; they live in their own communities and are marked by a history of war. SA English does sound like Australian English but as u said with lots of Dutch influence.
Cheers,
Rosy
Rosalind,
Are you South African then? What is the difference between the terms Afrikaner and Boer?
Rosalind, Thaks for the information. If I wanted to go to an Afrikaans-speaking place, where should I go? I have heard Cape Town is a good place, but it is mainly English, isn't it?
No, I am American, a pilgrim from New England.LOL. I just know a lot about South Africa as my ex-beau was SAfrican. Boer and Afrikaner are interchangeable terms, white South African of mostly Dutch origin.
Actually Cape Town is mostly coloured. It is a beautiful place . Places to go include the prison colony of Robben Island where Mandela was imprisoned, The Albert & Victoria Waterfront, False Bay and Boulders Beach where you can go whale watching and penguin sighting.It really is a beautiful place ; very diverse; lots of jazz and music clubs, has a mix of Dutch architecture, British Victorian buildings ,quaint minarets and mosques by Malay slaves (incorporated into the coloured population.
I like Cape Town better than Jo-Burg; you'll just get mugged there.(JOburg)
Afrikaans is really great. It's like Dutch but without inflected verbs so they say things like "I is, you is, we is etc."
Plus their long vowels tend to become diphthongs.
www.dieknoop.co.za may interest Big Brother.
What is the story with Nambia? Is it still called nambia even? Is it a lot like S.Africa? Are there a lot of Germans/Afrikaaners?
I heard a story of a man who was staying in a hotel in Jo'burg. One night, he was heading out of the hotel to get something from the chemists on the other side of the road. Before he did so, the security guard stopped him and asked him where he was going. When he told him, the security guard answered "no you're not, not on your own". He was then accompanied across the road and back by the armed security guard...
That says a lot.
Hey! This is cool! I like South Africa too. I would like to visit Cape Town, and find a place where there are a majority of Afrikaaner speakers. Know any city where I might find this?
Big Brother, I think that there are mainly Germans in Nambia, followed by Afrikaaners (of the Europeans anyway). But, I read this somewhere on the internet, so it might not be that reliable.
I have only studied Dutch a little, and never Afrikaans, but I have heard that it is a "baby's way of speaking Dutch." Is the sentence structure much different that Dutch?
Simon, Big Brother, and anyone who might be interested, if you want to hear the South African accent and actually accents from all over the English speaking world and beyond go to the International dialects of English archive :
http://www.ku.edu/~idea/ ......All the accents of English you ever want to hear; great audio clips
Big Brother, you wrote "I have heard that it resembles Australian English the most,".
Being Australian the S.African accent sounds quite different to my ears but from a Northern Hemishpere point of view maybe they would sound alike. I was talking to a S.African friend a couple of years ago and I used the word "durry" thinking that it was Aussie slang. I was expecting him to ask me what I was talking about but to my supprise he exactly what I meant.
I think that people who are not Australian or S.African think that the two Englishes of the Australians and the S.Africans sound alike, because they are pretty different from their American, Candian and British counterparts. However, I have only heard one or two people ever speak S.African English, and I have heard a lot of Australians speak English before, and the S.Africans sound like Australians in a lot of their vowel sounds.
I think that I like the Afrikaans language more than the English that is spoken in SA. But I have heard that Afrikaans was the language of the Apartheid government, so it is falling into dissuse because Afrikaans is viewed as the language of the oppressor. This makes me sad a little bit because I think the Afrikaans language is really neat. So, is it true that the language is falling into dissuse? Are the schools in SA using the language as the medium of instruction? Are there television programmes in Arikaans?
Clark I don't completely agree with your comments about similarities between South African and Australian accents. I am Western Australian and live in Perth the capital city. Because of WA's proximity to the Indian Ocean and 8 hour flight will get you to J'Burg, and many South Africans have migrated to Perth. I have had many occasions to listen to South African accents and I like them. They are a mixture of hard and soft.
Some vowel sounds are hard and some are soft. Perhaps some vowel sounds are similar, but no more similar than Australian to Canadian or English for that matter. South Africans love pronouncing all of their consanants as well, there is no shortcuts, no silent T's for instance. I suspect Jewish migration has also assisted in this regard.
Don't just listen to what people say, listen exactly to the way they say it, and vowels are a dead giveaway. I can pick a South African within seconds of them opening their mouths, but can I tell the difference bewteen a Namibian or a white person from Zimbabwe, no I am not that practised.
But if we listen and learn we will understand each other much better.