Afrikaans

Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Pronunciation	[afriˈkɑːns]
Native to	South Africa; Namibia;
Region	Southern Africa
Ethnicity	Afrikaners; Coloureds
Native speakers	7.2 million (2016); 10.3 million L2 speakers in South Africa (2011)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Weser–Rhine Germanic Low Franconian Afrikaans; ; ; ; ;
Early forms	Frankish Old Dutch Middle Dutch Modern Dutch 17th century Dutch Central Dutch Hollandic ; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Kaaps; Boeraans; Eastern Cape; Northern Cape; Patagonian; Namibian;
Writing system	Latin script (Afrikaans alphabet), Arabic script
Signed forms	Signed Afrikaans
Official status
Official language in	South Africa
Recognised minority; language in	Namibia
Regulated by	Die Taalkommissie
Language codes
ISO 639-1	af
ISO 639-2	afr
ISO 639-3	afr
Glottolog	afri1274
Linguasphere	52-ACB-ba
	spoken by a majority spoken by a minority
	Afrikaans is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento that speaks the Patagonian dialect. It evolved from the Dutch vernacular of South Holland (Hollandic dialect) spoken by the predominantly Dutch settlers and enslaved population of the Dutch Cape Colony, where it gradually began to develop distinguishing characteristics in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Although Afrikaans has adopted words from other languages including German, Malay and Khoisan languages, an estimated 90 to 95% of the vocabulary of Afrikaans is of Dutch origin. Differences between Afrikaans and Dutch often lie in the more analytic morphology and grammar of Afrikaans, and different spellings. There is a large degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, especially in written form.