How did Afrikaners come to speak Dutch, instead of some Bantu language like Zulu or Xhosa, when they arrived in South Africa?

[Nat Quinn]

Mark here: You ask, “How did Afrikaners come to speak Dutch, instead of some Bantu language like Zulu or Xhosa, when they arrived in South Africa?”

The nearest Bantu language speakers, the Xhosa, were over 900Km, 562,5 miles away, well out of reach, & it would stay that way for 132 years, until they met up at the Fish River Mouth.

By that time the Afrikaans Language was pretty well established.

South Africa is only one country by reason of (British) Imperial conquest. It is a big place. Some parts have been, & for that matter still are, seriously out of contact with much of the rest.

The actual factual Natives of South Africa were Bushmen & Hottentots. Their languages were convoluted & complicated, with click-sounds – five different ones in some cases, & tonal, four or more tones in some cases. Language like this was unknown to Europeans, & presented phenomenal difficulties learning it.

Moreover, those who spoke them had a pre-Biblical technoculture. Practically everything a Dutchman – or a Boer – needed to discuss or communicate was unknown to them, & meaningless. They had no words, no concepts, for all too many basic things, processes, institutions. They hadn’t the terminology or the language to communicate ANYTHING about all too much that was a basic part of life to a Boer..

The only option was for the local Khoi Khoi was to learn Afrikaans, which they did with speed & facility.

These became the Grikwa, the Koranna, the Nama & others, now answering to the name, the ‘Volkie’ (the Little Nation, or Our Nation). They picked up the Language & the Cape Culture, & across the Ranges, the Frontier & the Deep Interior they became major players in their own right. I have made this point elsewhere: The American Indians should be jealous of the Hottentots.

While we’re on the subject, The Bantu had much the same problems as the Hottentots, a pre-Biblical technoculture. Robert Moffat, who translated the Bible into Setswana, found himself spending a huge amount of time developing terminology for the language. This was necessary to conveying the very concepts & lessons of the Scriptures to Botswana converts.

This may cast light on the difficulties some African Countries have to this day, managing a Modern Western Infrastructure. You get intelligent, insightful Black Africans, do not doubt it. But they are few, too few.

 

source:Ruth Dreyer’s answer to How did Afrikaners come to speak Dutch, instead of some Bantu language like Zulu or Xhosa, when they arrived in South Africa? – Quora

[Author]

Posts