Afrikaans

[brute]

Afrikaans is the youngest and easiest of all the Germanic languages to learn. It evolved from the Dutch of the first settlers who arrived in southern Africa in the mid 1600s. Since its arrival it has incorpoated elements of English, German and many of the original languages. The original Dutch grammar has almost been simplified out of existance.

There is now only one gender of noun: The man the woman the child = die man, die vrou, die kind. (Easier than German der, die, das or Dutch de, het.) The indefinite article is 'n

Subject pronouns

ek, jy u, hy sy dit , ons, julle, u, hulle

I , you (informal), you (formal), he, she, it, we, you, you, they

Object pronouns

my, jou, u , hom, haar, dit ,ons, julle, u, hulle

me, you, you (formal), him, us, you, you, them

More soon

[Tomisimo]

Is Afrikaans mutually comprehensible with Dutch?

[EmpanadaRica]

Originally Posted by Tomisimo

Is Afrikaans mutually comprehensible with Dutch?

Yes. I have had friends speaking Afrikaans with me, and me speaking Dutch with them and we pretty much understand all the other is saying.

Obviously there are differences in vocabulary, but mostly they make sense and they tend to be simplified versions of Dutch grammar or vocabulary.

e.g.
' baaie mooi' = heel mooi.
' baaie dankie' = erg bedankt.
' Ek es lief vir jou' = 'Ik hou van jou' (I love you), but 'lief' means 'sweet' or 'to be sweet on' in Dutch, and 'vir' = 'voor' so this can be quite easily understood.

It will generally be harder to learn/understand Dutch than Afrikaans as Brute already correctly said, because there are quite a few grammar rules more in Dutch than there are in Afrikaans.

Afrikaans sounds very cute though!!

[EmpanadaRica]

Originally Posted by brute

There is now only one gender of noun: The man the woman the child = die man, die vrou, die kind. (Easier than German der, die, das or Dutch de, het.) The indefinite article is 'n

In Dutch this is 'een' for the indefinite article or in fact we often abbreviate it to 'n also!!

' 'n leuk huisje heb je hier' - Nice house you've got here..
' Ik had zo'n goed idee = Ik had zo een goed idee = I had such a good idea..'

Subject pronouns

ek, jy u, hy sy dit , ons, julle, u, hulle

I , you (informal), you (formal), he, she, it, we, you, you, they

Dutch in comparison:

ik, jij/je, hij/zij/ze/het/u, wij/we, jullie, zij/ze/u

Object pronouns

my, jou, u , hom, haar, dit ,ons, julle, u, hulle

me, you, you (formal), him, us, you, you, them

More soon

mij/me, jou/je, hem/haar/het/u, ons, jullie, hen/u

Indirect object second person plural = 'hun' by the way.

[Jessica]

interesting. another language I might learn when I'm not busy