London : English Universities Press, 1957. - 245 p.
Afrikaans, one of the official languages of the Union of South Africa, is the youngest Indo-Germanic language. It is closely allied to Dutch, from which it developed spontaneously in the course of the last three centuries. It is also related to English, both in origin—witness the many words like boek, sing and skip that are similar in the two languages—and in the simplification of the grammar, e.g. the dropping of inflections and declensions. At the same time it has, like English, acquired many idiomatic phenomena.
It has been consciously used as a vehicle for literary expression during the last eighty years only, but already it possesses a literature of no mean bulk and of a high standard. Some of the best works have been translated into various European languages and quite a number are available in English.
Not only is a knowledge of Afrikaans necessary for an understanding of South African conditions and affairs, the study of the language is also extremely interesting from a linguistic and a literary point of view.
How to use this Book
The opening Chapters (I-VIII) contain much useful information and guidance, some helpful rules, and material to increase the student's vocabulary. The student should work through these chapters quickly at first, and then begin with the graded series of lessons (Chap. IX—XXXII), retuing to the opening chapters for reference and revision.
It is important that the student should work systematically and regularly. From Chap. IX onwards there is a progressive series of double sets of exercises in translation, one (bearing a plain number) from Afrikaans into English, and one (bearing a number followed by an a) from English into Afrikaans. These exercises should be attempted immediately after working through the relative chapter and the list preceding the exercises, and the work then checked against the Key at the back of the book.
The words needed for the exercises will be found in the preceding chapters and lists, and in the Vocabulary at the back of the book. This Vocabulary has been restricted and contains mainly those words in the Afrikaans passages for translation into English, which have not been mentioned in previous
chapters and lists up to the particular point; hence the student is to consult it mainly when working on the exercises bearing only a number. For economy of space, repetitions have been avoided as far as possible ; consequently the student will find it difficult to go on, unless he has mastered much of what has gone before and memorised the Afrikaans words up to that stage.
If he is in trouble, he can either look surreptitiously at the Key (! ) or consult a dictionary. In any case the student is strongly advised to acquire a good dictionary. Two such can be recommended : the Tweetalige Woordeboek deur Bosnian, Van der Merzve en ander, published in two volumes by the Nasionale Pers, Beperk, in Cape Town, and the Groot Woordeboek deur Kritzinger, Steyn, Schoonees en Cronje, published in one volume by J. L. van Schaik, Beperk, in Pretoria.
The book as a whole includes all the words that can be considered as the vocabulary of basic Afrikaans, but it has been found impossible to provide exercises on all material included; hence some of the material in the chapters is not required for the exercises. Afrikaans is a relatively pure language with a vocabulary largely built up through inteal derivation by means of suffixes and prefixes, with the result that many words are related to one another. An attempt has been made to indicate these relationships in the chapters and lists. Naturally, the student can initially skip some of this material.
On going through the book a second time the student can use the material supplied in the Key as the exercise, and check his work against the material supplied at the end of each chapter. When working through the exercises a second time, the student should try to do without the lists and the Vocabulary. The exercises numbered 26-28a, especially 27 and 28, are considerably more difficult than the preceding ones, and may be postponed till the student has worked through the preceding exercises several times. The English in the exercises and in the Key has not always been cast into completely idiomatic form. This has been done on purpose to make the translations into Afrikaans easy. Please do not try to correct it — this is not a book for teaching English !
It should be noted that there are many words in the two languages that look alike and are spelt alike but have different meanings, e.g. slim and glad. Such words are dangerous and
demand special attention. The student is advised to make his own list of them as he comes across them, and to revise the list from time to time.
Afrikaans, one of the official languages of the Union of South Africa, is the youngest Indo-Germanic language. It is closely allied to Dutch, from which it developed spontaneously in the course of the last three centuries. It is also related to English, both in origin—witness the many words like boek, sing and skip that are similar in the two languages—and in the simplification of the grammar, e.g. the dropping of inflections and declensions. At the same time it has, like English, acquired many idiomatic phenomena.
It has been consciously used as a vehicle for literary expression during the last eighty years only, but already it possesses a literature of no mean bulk and of a high standard. Some of the best works have been translated into various European languages and quite a number are available in English.
Not only is a knowledge of Afrikaans necessary for an understanding of South African conditions and affairs, the study of the language is also extremely interesting from a linguistic and a literary point of view.
How to use this Book
The opening Chapters (I-VIII) contain much useful information and guidance, some helpful rules, and material to increase the student's vocabulary. The student should work through these chapters quickly at first, and then begin with the graded series of lessons (Chap. IX—XXXII), retuing to the opening chapters for reference and revision.
It is important that the student should work systematically and regularly. From Chap. IX onwards there is a progressive series of double sets of exercises in translation, one (bearing a plain number) from Afrikaans into English, and one (bearing a number followed by an a) from English into Afrikaans. These exercises should be attempted immediately after working through the relative chapter and the list preceding the exercises, and the work then checked against the Key at the back of the book.
The words needed for the exercises will be found in the preceding chapters and lists, and in the Vocabulary at the back of the book. This Vocabulary has been restricted and contains mainly those words in the Afrikaans passages for translation into English, which have not been mentioned in previous
chapters and lists up to the particular point; hence the student is to consult it mainly when working on the exercises bearing only a number. For economy of space, repetitions have been avoided as far as possible ; consequently the student will find it difficult to go on, unless he has mastered much of what has gone before and memorised the Afrikaans words up to that stage.
If he is in trouble, he can either look surreptitiously at the Key (! ) or consult a dictionary. In any case the student is strongly advised to acquire a good dictionary. Two such can be recommended : the Tweetalige Woordeboek deur Bosnian, Van der Merzve en ander, published in two volumes by the Nasionale Pers, Beperk, in Cape Town, and the Groot Woordeboek deur Kritzinger, Steyn, Schoonees en Cronje, published in one volume by J. L. van Schaik, Beperk, in Pretoria.
The book as a whole includes all the words that can be considered as the vocabulary of basic Afrikaans, but it has been found impossible to provide exercises on all material included; hence some of the material in the chapters is not required for the exercises. Afrikaans is a relatively pure language with a vocabulary largely built up through inteal derivation by means of suffixes and prefixes, with the result that many words are related to one another. An attempt has been made to indicate these relationships in the chapters and lists. Naturally, the student can initially skip some of this material.
On going through the book a second time the student can use the material supplied in the Key as the exercise, and check his work against the material supplied at the end of each chapter. When working through the exercises a second time, the student should try to do without the lists and the Vocabulary. The exercises numbered 26-28a, especially 27 and 28, are considerably more difficult than the preceding ones, and may be postponed till the student has worked through the preceding exercises several times. The English in the exercises and in the Key has not always been cast into completely idiomatic form. This has been done on purpose to make the translations into Afrikaans easy. Please do not try to correct it — this is not a book for teaching English !
It should be noted that there are many words in the two languages that look alike and are spelt alike but have different meanings, e.g. slim and glad. Such words are dangerous and
demand special attention. The student is advised to make his own list of them as he comes across them, and to revise the list from time to time.