LL-L "Language varieties" 2010.02.09 (07) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 09 February 2010 - Volume 07
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From: Heiko Evermann <heiko.evermann at gmx.de>
Subject: LL-L "Literature" 2010.02.09 (03) [AF-EN-NL]

Hi Ron,


> This reminds me very much of a famous Afrikaans poem about Voortrekkers'
> oxen:
>
> Die ossewa

> ...
This reminds me of a question that keeps bothering me for some time:
Afrikaans has quite a number of simplifications in comparison to
Dutch. To me one sticks out:
ek is
jy is
hy, sy, dit is
ons is
julle is
hulle is

instead of "ik ben" etc.

We do have some simplifications in German in comparison to older
speech. Like in the Christmas carol "Ihr Kinderlein kommet" where we
would have "kommt" today. But the transition from "ik ben" to "ek is"
is a deep cut into the conjugation pattern of one of the most frequent
verbs.

So how did the change happen? Has history recorded any discussions at
the family table like
* Child: ek is ...
* Mother corrects child: ek BEN
* Child: but all my friends also say "ek IS"
* Mother: I do not care how your friends speak. Speak proper Dutch: ek BEN
* Child: but even you do not speak proper dutch. You do not say "IK ben".

Heiko

•

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