LL-L "Language varieties" 2007.09.08 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  08 September 2007 - Volume 01
Song Contest: lowlands-l.net/contest/ (- 31 Dec. 2007)
=========================================================================

From: Elsie Zinsser <ezinsser at icon.co.za>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2007.09.07 (08) [E]

Hi all,

I agree, Paul, but you are forgetting the fact that the first speakers of
proto-Afrikaans
were not European visitors but indigenous Khoi people and slaves from
Indonesia and
Guam (with surnames such as Badrodien), trying to communicate using the
linguistic
and dialectic mix of the new visitors/rulers and resulting in a massive
simplified tongue.

I think it was Edith Raidt who suggested that Afrikaans first developed
amongst women
and children!

By 1700, current characteristics (such as the double negative, dropping of
verb ending –en
as in 'belas' instead of 'belasten', and 'die' replacing 'de' and 'het')
were already established,
so the influence of French and German was doubtful, but for the surnames of
the new arrivals.

Regards,
Elsie Zinsser

A lot of "proto-Afrikaners" were clearly of Dutch origins, but when you see
how many Afrikaans surnames are of French, Portuguese, German and Swedish
origin (amongst many others), they obviously weren't all from the
Netherlands.

Paul Finlow-Bates
----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language varieties

Thanks a lot, Elsie. That sure needed to be pointed out.

I never heard about the Guam part before.  Has anyone ever claimed that
there is some influence from Chamorro then?

It also bears mentioning that some slaves came from Sri Lanka and parts of
India, by the way.

Intensification by means of reduplication of adjectives and adverbs (e.g.,
gou-gou) in Afrikaans may well be a Malay feature (e.g., cepat-cepat).

Since slaves from the Indonesian Archipelago came from different linguistic
backgrounds, I assume that what most of them initially had as their common
lingua franca was what is known as "Bazaar Malay" (Melayu Pasar) on which
also the (Omong) Betawi variety of Jakarta is based. If so, I would
postulate that it was in large part this Bazaar Malay that influenced
Afrikaans.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20070908/46cdab79/attachment.htm>