Is Afrikaans Basically the Same As Dutch?

Dude   Fri Jan 15, 2010 2:24 pm GMT
<< Incidently, the website referred to by a few people here, enjoys no credibility in South Africa. The views the gentleman expresses never even gets mentioned in the Afrikaans media, it's simply not part of the public debate. His campaign is a one man show... >>

Yes, because your a true Afrikaner but in reality disguising just to get even with the people whom he lost an argument with.
kevin   Sat Jan 16, 2010 1:17 pm GMT
Afrikaans is much closer to Dutch than Brazilian Portuguese is to the Continental Portuguese, in this interview Charlize Theron can understand the Flemish interview with easy, had it been the case with Brazilian vs Portuguese, Brazilian would have made numerous: ''o que'' (what), or ''dá pra você repetir'' (could you repeat?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fYB9s0Nyzk



Afrikaans is a different language because of politics and not because of linguistic factors, as seen in this clip. Swiss German vs German German and Brazilian Portuguese vs Continental Portuguese can have much lower degree of comprehension that seen in this Dutch vs Afrikaans clip.
kevin   Sat Jan 16, 2010 1:20 pm GMT
When a Dutch programme was shown on SA TV a number of years ago, it failed dismally because people simply couldn't understand enough of it.

//
When a Portuguese soap opera ''Morangos com açúcar'' was shown on Brazilian TV a few years ago, it failed because the people couldn't understand Continental Portuguese (muffled pronunciation and different vocabulary), it needed to be dubbed after 3 days of being shown with original Portuguese voices. After that all Portuguese soap operas were dubbed into Brazilian.
Baldewin   Sat Jan 16, 2010 2:23 pm GMT
<<When a Portuguese soap opera ''Morangos com açúcar'' was shown on Brazilian TV a few years ago, it failed because the people couldn't understand Continental Portuguese (muffled pronunciation and different vocabulary), it needed to be dubbed after 3 days of being shown with original Portuguese voices. After that all Portuguese soap operas were dubbed into Brazilian. >>

That wouldn't happen in the Netherlands/Flanders as we use subtitles. In fact, we have a culture of exaggerating with subtitles. Even series from the Netherlands spoken in Standard Dutch are subtitled in Flanders and vice versa and I can tell you they're totally unnecessary. Some people think the decision of subtitling these series is political.
Baldewin   Sat Jan 16, 2010 2:24 pm GMT
Also, overdubbing Continental Portuguese? Now, talk about missing the goal of broadcasting Portuguese series in Brazil.
Hgf   Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:43 am GMT
Dubbing them is stupid. Brazilians should use subtitles since this will get them used to the European Portuguese accent. Even in Portugal they use subtitles sometimes when there are shows with Azoreans.
Kaops   Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:33 pm GMT
Dubbing is not popular in Brazil. Brazilians like promoting their own language: Brazilian Portuguese, just like Germans and the French.
Kaeops   Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:36 pm GMT
Subtitling is not popular in Brazil. Brazilians like dubbing because it's about promoting their own language: Brazilian Portuguese, just like Germans and the French.
Baldewin   Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:51 pm GMT
Yes, but do French also dub series from Quebec? Do Germans also dub Swiss German?
Negerschwanzen   Mon Jan 18, 2010 7:57 pm GMT
"Yes, but do French also dub series from Quebec? Do Germans also dub Swiss German? "

Ve Tshermanns doo not vahtschen dose programmings kahmingck AUs frahm Schvitzlaendtens. Dose Sveitzerss aren not Riel Tschermanns, dey ahr half-bloodedt, piece-of-schits Wiersions of uss Truen Tschermanns Meisterrassen.

Endt of Allen discahssionss.
Terrence   Mon Jan 25, 2010 6:19 pm GMT
It's the same as Brazilian Portuguese and Iberian Portuguese
Or the same as Qubec French and French from France.

In fact Swiss German is much futher away from standard German than Afrikaans is from Dutch.
Terrence   Tue Jan 26, 2010 2:17 am GMT
You can still watch the Dutch channel BVN on satelite in South Africa. So that person who said BVN was taken off satelite due to lack of interest is talking absolute nonesense. In fact, Dutch expats living in South Africa plus some Afrikaans people still watch it.

http://www.bvn.nl/ontvangst/regio_informatie/zuidelijk_afrika

In the 80s and 90s we had some Dutch drama series on public tv but it was all dubbed into Afrikaans. One I can remember was a hospital drama called "Hospitaal Wes-Amsterdam". Like I said it was dubbed into Afrikaans but you had the choice of listening to the original soundtrack in Dutch by tuning into Radio2000 on your radio.
boerseun   Mon Feb 01, 2010 6:33 am GMT
A few points:

1) This discussion is ridiculously anger-filled. Guys, tone it down! We're just discussing the differences between languages!

2) Dutch and Afrikaans are totally, totally different languages. No, it's not just political. Afrikaans arose because of geographical separation and environmental differences from Dutch. I don't know how many people here actually speak Afrikaans, but as a native speaker, I can safely say that listening to a Dutch person speak is extremely confusing and/or hilarious, and I think it's the same vice-versa.

3) I think trying to direct language is preposterous, anyway. A group of people have a certain mutually intelligible set of words and expressions, and a canon of literature builds up. This is spontaneous. Some ivory-tower commission isn't going to seriously control the direction of a language - that happens on the level of the individual, speaking and writing and communicating.

4) To the person who said S.A. is becoming more of a third-world country, consider that perhaps the white people are now experiencing a fraction of what the "2nd and 3rd class citizens" had to put up with for years. I didn't experience any of this first hand (too young) but I'd imagine conditions in black neighbourhoods weren't that first-world at all, despite the great infrastructure available to whites.
fraz   Mon Feb 01, 2010 11:17 am GMT
Afrikaans often gets tarred with the "Apartheid" brush but I believe the number of black speakers outnumber the whites.

Anyway, it's good to see the language thriving despite government attempts to place it on the back burner.
Baldewin   Mon Feb 01, 2010 11:30 am GMT
Totally different? I beg to differ. I can read most Wikipedia entries for the full 100% and I haven't learned Afrikaans. Also, why does this organization exist?

http://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nederlandse_Taalbeweging

I think official languages are always political. Way earlier in history they have also decided that Dutch is not German. Now, German and Dutch aren't mutually intelligible as Dutch and Afrikaans are to a great extent, but people often don't admit how similar both are (the find the idea psychologically freaky).