Boeraans | |
Familycolor: | Indo-European |
Ethnicity: | Boers, Afrikaners |
Region: | Free State, Transvaal |
States: | South Africa |
Fam2: | Germanic |
Fam3: | West Germanic |
Fam4: | Weser–Rhine Germanic |
Fam5: | Low Franconian |
Fam6: | Dutch |
Fam7: | Central Dutch |
Fam8: | Hollandic |
Ancestor: | Frankish |
Ancestor2: | Dutch |
Ancestor3: | Afrikaans |
Map: | OVGS Network.svg |
Mapcaption: | Transvaal and the Orange Free State, the places of origin of Boeraans. |
Boeraans is a dialect of Afrikaans which is one of the 11 official languages in South Africa, and is one of the youngest Germanic languages with official status and it is only spoken in South Africa.
The website https://boervolk.co.za/wp uses the Boeraans dialect. If you are an Afrikaner, you will notice very quickly that there is a big difference between the two dialects.
We do not use the C, Q or V in our dialect. Here are a few examples of words that is different:
Afrikaans - Ons sal môre oggend om vyf uur opstaan.
Boeraans - Ons sal môre oggend om fyf uur opstaan.
English - We will wake up tomorrow at five o'clock.
Afrikaans - Die meeste Afrikaners is van die Calvinistiese kerke.
Boeraans - Die meeste Afrikaners is fan die Kalfinistiese kerk.
English - Most Afrikaners is from the Calvinistic Churches.
If you are an Afrikaans speaking person, the change looks strange, but there are a few of the Boers who adapted the spelling. Many Afrikaners will quickly point out that you are spelling wrong, and point you to the "correct" spelling, but what is the "correct" spelling? The ones that linguists teach you, or the ones that the people use?
Boeraans is a more friendly dialect in the sense that even a young child can easily master it. How do you teach a child which words should have a V and which should have an F if both letters have the same pronunciation?
It is precisely for this reason that it was decided to use the F and to use the V only in names that contain a V.Boeraans was also known as "Die Taal" (meaning "The Language). The Border Boers moved from the Western Cape to the Eastern Cape, and stayed there.
In 1820, the Boers moved to the region known as the Free State Province in South Africa and Transvaal (now the provinces of Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and a part of North West) in South Africa.
Boeraans uses the Runic alphabets (called FUTHARK) and we use the Elder Futhark as our Alphabet, while the letters from Anglo-Saxon runes and other Futhark alphabets are also used.
On the website, you will find that most of the time, Afrikaans is still used. This is because most Boers do not know the Futhark letters, and we slowly introduce this writing system to the reader, so that the Boers can get used to the language. As the website develop, you will see more runic letters in it.
Boeraanse Woordeboek https://boerania.co.za. Here you will find more information about this dialect.