Afrikaans, should it be preserved?
Well if you see it like that then every language was spoken by oppressors and the fact that it's a simplified form of Dutch is of relevance for linguistics because it represents the last born between germanic languages and in a new environment like Africa (yes there's also English and some people still speaking German in Namibia) and not only used for swear.
And for the previous reply...it was a bit difficult to keep in touch with Holland that was miles and miles away from South Africa, and this was even more difficult after the English took over the colony.
-Afrikaans is the only European language that developed outside of Europe.-
This is not true,
many creole languages are official languages in some countries, like Haiti, Seychelles...Kaboverdianu or Kriol is planned to be made official language of Cape Verde Islands, soon.
The "european langauges" family never existed. (That's indo-european)
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?
Apparently there are tv channels solely in Afrikaans so it can't be doing too badly.
Afrikaans is the DE FACTO LINGUA FRANCE of South Africa and Namibia. There are more non-native speakers of it than English even among black communities even though it's being viewed as the language of the apartheid. it is one of the official languages of South Africa and it cannot just be discarded because of its role in inter-ethnic communication.
Haven't you heard ad read that the number of newspaper readers in Afrikaans language increased and that of English decreased? More and more television viewers and radio listeners tune in Afrikaans programs than English and most of those are blacks.
No language should be artificially kept alive. If a language is naturally on the decline, then let it die.
Well, Afrikaans is a part of the Afrikaners heritage, so if they lost it they would losing something valuable.
Just ask how African-Americans feel about losing their ancestral languages when their forebears were bought over as slaves.
Afrikaans won't die in contrast to what the English speakers expected it's the DE FACTO lingua franca of SA and Namibia and one of the official languages of SA. English maybe the language of business but more black South Africans speak it than English. Besides the bonding between Dutch, Flemish, and Afrikaans languages collectively known as Netherlandic has grown strong. Afrikaans speakers are no longer isolated from their roots, thanks to the modern means of communication.
Let's not forget that Afrikaans is not just spoken by some whites. It is actually the mother tongue of about 90% of "Coloured" (racially-mixed) people in South Africa and Namibia.
I guess their opinion towards Afrikaans would be determined whether they identified with the oppressors or the oppressed.
Should it be preserved? That depends on the speakers. If they want to preserve it good on them, let them speak it. If they don't, that is their decision and people should stop whining.
Afrikaans in fact has more non-white native speakers than white. White Afrikaners are by no means the sole custodians of the Afrikaans language despite what they might like to think, although there is a clear division between white and non-white dialects of the language.
Well, there is an important point. IT IS NOT OFFICIAL IN AFRICAN UNION.
The official languages of African Union are English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Swahili.