“Do Your Homework”: SA Annoyed as US Man Shares Some Afrikaans Words’ Origins

• A man from the United States of America who enjoys speaking different languages shared the origins of a few Afrikaans words
• He noted that some of the words in the Afrikaans language were borrowed from European, Khoisan, Bantu and Asian languages
• The American man's pronunciation and brief explanation of the words irritated a few Afrikaans speakers, who shared their honest thoughts in the comment section

Afrikaans is a fascinating language deeply rooted in our nation's history. When a man from the United States shared a brief explanation about the language's origins, many South Africans weren't convinced about what he had to say.

A small Afrikaans breakdown

A Facebook account shared a video of an American polyglot (who has quite a following on TikTok: @thepolyglotfiles) explaining where some Afrikaans words originated from.

The man noted that a majority of words come from Dutch, while the minority has borrowed words from the Khoisan, Bantu, Asian (Malaysian and Indonesian) and European (French and Portuguese) languages, to name a few.

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The American man provided a few examples of the borrowed words, which many Afrikaans speakers could find themselves using in their conversations.

Watch the explanation in the Facebook video below:

South Africans roast American man

Several local members of the online community darted for the comment section. Some seemed to be protective over their language and felt the origins of the words shared in the video were incorrect, while others thought the American butchered the pronunciations.

A proud and defensive Katherine Thirlwell stated:

"Afrikaans is my second language and is a beautiful, expressive, and colourful language. If spoken slowly, I'm able to understand Dutch, German and Flemish. Some of your 'translations' are hilarious as they simply are not accurate. Do your homework, brother."

Caryn Leigh Scott wrote in the comments:

"Dude, if you want to talk about a language, make sure you can speak it properly."

A confused Roelien Van Loggenberg said about the language:

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"It's unique, and still everybody in South Africa hates Afrikaans."

While the word 'baie' could be seen as meaning 'very' in certain contexts, an irritated Freddy Wessels noted:

"Baie means 'a lot.' Get your information right."

Unlike those who were annoyed by the American man's pronunciation, a grateful Angela Reinemo added in the comment section:

"Thanks for showing interest in Afrikaans and trying to pronounce those words."

Julian Carnow said to the online community:

"This only reinforces the fact that this language didn't belong to any one group of people."

3 Other interesting stories about Afrikaans

• In another article, Briefly News reported about a local Afrikaans teacher who shared how she taught her class the language.
• South African social media users couldn't help but laugh when a man shared with a content creator that Afrikaans was his love language.
• An e-hailing service company, Wanatu, received mixed responses after it stated that it aimed to "restore the dignity" of the Afrikaans-speaking community by hiring drivers who speak the language.

Source: Briefly News