Re: OT: Afrikaans

Thomas Leigh scripsit:

> One important consideration in reference to lexicon and idiom is
> the pervasive influence of English. You find lost of expressions
> which are more or less translated or calqued right out of
> English, but put into Afrikaans words.
When I asked the Dutch vs. Afrikaans question on Linguist List many
years ago (when it was still worth reading), I provoked a wonderful
anecdote about a Dutch boy whose family moves to S.A. and is put in an
Afrikaans-speaking class.  He is asked to write a self-introductory essay
and read it out loud to the class.  It begins "Mij pa fok dieren", meaning
"My father breeds animals" in Dutch, but having a quite different sense,
indeed, in Afrikaans!

The summary of replies that I posted (not including that bit) is at
http://linguistlist.org/issues/4/4-221.html#1 .  I much later adapted
the Kirsner anecdote given there into the essentialist explanations I
have today.  I also note with interest that our own Dirk was one of
the respondents.

Though I did not say so at the time, I was wondering about the
plausibility of certain people being able to read Afrikaans in a certain
novel by Harry Turtledove.  (Details vague to avoid spoiler.)

--
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan  www.reutershealth.com
"If he has seen farther than others,
        it is because he is standing on a stack of dwarves."
                --Mike Champion, describing Tim Berners-Lee (adapted)

Reply