Afrikaans on the Frontier: Two Early Afrikaans Dialects

Abstract

ABSTRACT The influence of Khoekhoe languages on Afrikaans on the Cape Frontier of the Nineteenth Century is considered as the cradle of Afrikaans. Two varieties of Afrikaans were used on the Frontier, the Afrikaans of cattle farmers and the Afrikaans of the Khoekhoen. Frederick Jackson Turner's theory, developed in relation to the American Frontier, is applied to the Cape Frontier. Turner argued that the American Frontier was not only a physical space, but a creator of new myths, and destroyer of existing ones. Frontiers can therefore be more than geographical spaces; they are a condition of constant transformation. Using the syntactic structure of Afrikaans verbal hendiadys we argue that the context of the Cape Frontier was the creator of Afrikaans. A closer examination of the community on the Cape Frontier suggests that it was a diverse but integrated community of Khoekhoen, Oorlams, Basters, Trekboers and European cattle farmers. They used Afrikaans as lingua franca. A syntactic analysis of the verbal connecting constructions of Standard Afrikaans suggests that Afrikaans constructions may originate from Khoekhoe languages and are not a spontaneous development from seventeenth century Dutch. Afrikaans, it is argued, is therefore less Germanic in origin and more Khoekhoe.