Is Afrikaans dead?

[Harold F. Schiffman]

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1955403,00.html

Forwarded from edling at ccat.sas.upenn.edu

Is Afrikaans dead?

Jun 21 2006 03:45:27:043PM


Alet Rademeyer

A communication strategist has angered Afrikaans-speakers by saying the
language should be taken off life support. Cape Town - A communication
strategist from Johannesburg has angered Afrikaans-speakers by saying that
the language should be taken off the ventilator and it should not be
allowed to be kept on life support. Scores of people took on Clive
Simpkins on his blog on the Moneyweb site after his statements that
Afrikaans's days are over. Despite government support for mother tongue
education, Simpkins disputed Afrikaans as an African language.

He thought there was no more room for Afrikaans in the education system.
He said he was shocked to find out that Afrikaans was still a compulsory
subject at school. Several participants in the debate pointed out that
Simpkins was wrong about Afrikaans being compulsory and that pupils had a
choice between two languages at school, one in which to receive tuition
and the other to learn as a language. According to Simpkins, Afrikaans was
totally unusable outside of the country and that it made more sense to
learn another indigenous language.


http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1955403,00.html