Snowflakes and Sugar Cubes: Nederkaans / Afri-Dutch: Similarities

I haven't written a lot about the Dutch language, but this doesn't mean that it is not an integral aspect of our daily lives in the Netherlands. In fact, it is likely one of the biggest changes and all-encompassing challenges that our family had faced in the past year. We hear Dutch daily. We read Dutch daily. We (try to) speak Dutch daily.

The journey of learning any new language is such a complex topic that it's difficult to capture the essence in a blog post. And to an Afrikaans-speaking person, it's even more difficult to describe the surprises and emotions of learning Dutch: Dutch is so familiar. And so foreign at the same time. One moment you (think you) are speaking it fluently. The next minute, you feel like an absolute beginner. It's exciting and amazing and easy. It's frustrating and annoying and exhausting.

As an Afrikaans-speaker (or even South African in general), it is true that you already encompass a very rich Dutch vocabulary. But being able to string the words together to form coherent sentences, require you to almost forget what you know about Afrikaans at the same time.

Here are a few interesting similarities between Afrikaans and Dutch, purely based on my experiences and observations over the past year (and therefore not necessarily linguistically correct):

Many Afrikaans words starting with an "s", exist in Dutch but start with a "z" instead. Examples: see, ses, Sondag, swaar become zee, zes, zondag, zwaar.
"Sk-" words in Afrikaans become "sch-". Examples: skaap, skool, skat, skoen become schaap, school, schat, schoen.
Plurals usually end with "-en" in Dutch. Examples: eiers, skape, jasse, kinders become eieren, schapen, jassen, kinderen.
Afrikaans "y"-words become "ij" in Dutch. Examples: hy, lyk, myne, byna become hij, lijk, mijn, bijna.
Afrikaans "-lik"-words become "lijk" in Dutch. Examples: vrolik, hartlik, wonderlik become vrolijk, hartelijk, wonderlijk.
The "ë" in Afrikaans words change to "ge" in Dutch. Examples: oë, reën, spieël, vroeër become ogen, regen, spiegel, vroeger.
Afrikaans "ee"-words get an extra consonant in Dutch. Examples: leer, teen become leren, tegen.
Afrikaans "ou"-words often become "auw" in Dutch. Examples: gou, blou, nouliks become gauw, blauw, nauwelijks.
Afrikaans words ending with "ie" change to "je". Examples: vriendjie, meisie, handjie, kindjie become vriendje, meisje, handje, kindje.
Afrikaans words ending with an "a" get another "ag" in Dutch. Examples: vra, dra become vraag, draag.
Afrikaans "eeu"-words get an additional "w" in Dutch. Examples: leeu, sneeu become leeuw, sneeuw.
Where an "ow" is present in the middle of the word, the "w" often changes to "v" in Dutch. Examples: owerheid, tower, rower become overheid, tover, rover.
Where a "g" is present in the word, it changes to "cht" in Dutch. Examples: egter, regs, lig, agter become echter, rechts, licht, achter.

There you have it. My list of "rules" which will instantly provide an Afrikaans-speaker with thousands of Dutch words for everyday use!

If you are Afrikaans, you will therefore be able to recognise and read Dutch. You might even be able to understand it without being exposed to it before. Amazing, right?

Until you learn that many everyday Afrikaans words don't exist in Dutch.

Or worse: They exist, but the meaning is different.

Or the worst: They exist, but refer to objects or actions which should never be discussed in polite Dutch conversation.

Not to mention the thousands of Dutch words which don't exist in Afrikaans.

Or has a different meaning in Afrikaans.

Or refer to objects or actions which would never be discussed in polite Afrikaans conversation, but now fill the pages of children's books.

But I'll leave all of that fun for later.

For now, if you're Afrikaans, let yourself believe that you can understand and read and even speak Dutch.

We did the same. And boy, were we wrong.