Can Dutch speakers understand Afrikaans? | Part 1

Do you think Afrikaans and Dutch speakers could hold a conversation together? We run this language challenge to find out. 🤓
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, and it is one of the official languages of South Africa. It is believed to be mutually intelligible with other Germanic languages, such as Dutch and Flemish. Due to its origins in Dutch, Afrikaans has similarities in vocabulary and grammar with these languages. However, Afrikaans has also developed its own unique features over time, such as simplified grammar and a distinctive pronunciation. Can speakers of Dutch and Afrikaans understand each other despite these differences? Do let us know in the comments about your own experience with Afrikaans.
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language primarily spoken in South Africa but it's also spoken in Namibia, with smaller communities of speakers in Zimbabwe, Botswana, and other neighboring countries. It originated from the Dutch dialects spoken by the Dutch settlers who arrived in southern Africa in the 17th century. Over time, the language evolved and incorporated words and influences from other European languages, such as Portuguese, English, and German, as well as African languages like Khoisan and Bantu.
The Germanic language family is a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, and it includes languages spoken primarily in Northern, Western, and Central Europe. The Germanic languages are traditionally classified into three main groups: West Germanic, North Germanic, and East Germanic. However, the East Germanic languages, which included Gothic, are now extinct.
🤗 Big thanks to the participants of this video!
Jaco - translator and interpretor, the Afrikaans speaker from Such Africa
Esther Bevers - writer, editor and writing teacher from the Nedherlands → www.terratekst.nl
Stijn - a journalist, editor and podcaster from Flanders
Sebastian - videographer and tech KZbin from the Netherlands @RedFrameTech
📝 Volunteer your language skills for future videos → forms.gle/aZeSFSsFexbmxE7UA
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🤗 Big hug to everyone reading my video descriptions! You rock! 🤓💪🏻
#afrikaans #germanic #languages #languagechallenge

[@Skullk_]

As an Afrikaans person, I understood everything the Afrikaans guy said

[@break1146]

Insane how that works! xD

[@leikind]

lol

[@MrAssegai]

Uitstekend! 😂

[@bamereg]

wauw, goed zeg!

[@merlin5420]

Mindblowing 😂

[@RedFrameTech]

Thanks for having me! It was a lot fun to explore the differences and similarities between Afrikaans and Dutch

[@Delzaan]

I as a Cape coloured would love to have a discussion with a Dutch speaking person, to see how much can be understood between the two of us, but I guess I'm too shy to ever do something like that on KZbin.

[@RedFrameTech]

@@Delzaan Just do it 🙂 it’s a lot of fun!

[@sabrinaandhusband7791]

Because Afrikaans has both Dutch & German, and some English, while obviously Dutch is a unique language on its own, though has too many words a cross between English and German.

[@proinsiasbaiceir6580]

@@Delzaan Ik ben Nederlander en heb een paar keer met Afrikaanstaligen gepraat. Wij konden elkaar goed verstaan. Maar pas op voor valse vrienden! Zo is het Afrikaanse 'stoep' NIET hetzelfde als het Nederlandse 'stoep' (=sypaadjie). Soms is een modern Afrikaans woord ouderwets Nederlands. Eén keer was ik een beetje verward. Mijn Afrikaanse gespreksgenoot zei: 'Ek gaan huistoe, ek gaan stort.' Het Nederlands kent wel 'storten', maar niet in de Afrikaanse betekenis. Ik moest diep nadenken en toen was het mij duidelijk: het Nederlands kent 'stortbad', een ouderwets woord voor wat wij nu 'douche' (Engels 'shower') noemen.

[@Delzaan]

@@proinsiasbaiceir6580 Yep... Daai valse vriende, soos ek al uitgevind het deur die kyk van vele Afrikaans en Nederlandse videos. Ook die outydse (ouderwetse) woorde

[@Esther-fu8en]

Filming this was really fun, thanks for having me, baie dankie!

[@deancameronkaiser]

I could understand what you said by listening and watching the subtitles when you spoke in Dutch. Afrikaans is my second language and English is my first. Afrikaans is second nature to me to speak, read and write.

[@lavre8045]

Hi Ester - sou jy graag meer in Afrikaans wou gesels?

[@tiernanwearen8096]

my baas is 'n Suid-Afrikaanse afrikaner met die naam Trevor. as ek nie hard of vinnig genoeg gewerk het nie het hy my moffie genoem😂😂😂​@@deancameronkaiser

[@Cloggie1967]

I'm a Dutchman living in Scotland and have a SA friend here. I speak Dutch and he speaks Afrikaans when we talk to each other which is quite funny when you see the reaction of the Scots. 🙂

[@888Winkler]

Ha ha that sounds entertaining 😂

[@sakkievanzyl2983]

😂

[@Cloggie1967]

@user-fq2hk2gt5c Och aye the noo! I have no problems understanding them .

[@sakkievanzyl2983]

Mengelmoeskardoes Kan jy dit verstaan 😁

[@Cloggie1967]

@sakkievanzyl2983 Mengelmoes means a mix of maar ik weet niet wat kardoes is.

[@onemorelight9366]

This was so interesting. As a Dutch speaker myself, I could understand 95% of the Afrikaans (with the Afrikaanse subtitles). I knew that Afrikaans is similar to Dutch, but it was much easier to understand than I expected.

[@jadensmit9127]

Same with Dutch man💪🏼🇳🇱❤🟧⬜️🟦

[@alexderpyracc4053]

Makkelijk

[@rankz.6474]

Because you're the same people. Why is it a mystery. The one's is SA moves via conquest. They didn't magically sprawn up as white Africans. Let's be real

[@angiemono8539]

Well Afrikaans is a dialect, not a language. It's hardly a surprise.

[@PluvioZA]

@@angiemono8539 It's an official language of South Africa, you have to learn English and Afrikaans in school and pass them both.

[@TheCarlScharnberg]

I'm Norwegian, and I didn't use subtitles/the translation, and understood most of the Dutch without any formal training. Also a lot of the Afrikaans, but Dutch was easier.

[@GustavSvard]

I'm Swedish (who obviously also speaks English, and also took some German & Spanish in school) and at least the introductions were fairly easily understandable without subtitles. They were all speaking quite slowly and clearly tho, I'd say. Had it been a few friends speaking Afrikaans/Dutch/Flemish in a relaxed everyday manner about something like what happened on a reality tv show last night? I'd probably be completely lost instantly.

[@fckwful]

Prata du tyska ocksa? För might som tysk är det enklast att första Dutch, lite tuffare är det med Afrikaans...

[@Jila_Tana]

@@GustavSvard Now there is a language .. Swedish.. During the wild fires in Sweden, I wanted more informaton then the Dutch news was reporting.. I read also English and German news, it didn't satisfy me. The only way to go, to get what I really wanted, was to read Swedish news. Well, I don't speak or understand Swedish. Yet, knowing German, English and Dutch, while knowing the topic and context, I was able to take news directly from a Swedish source and understand what was said.

[@Luredreier]

Yeah, I live in Norway too, and the introduction was easy. The rest...

[@Luredreier]

​@@GustavSvardYep, there's no way I'd be able to keep up with normal speech...

[@lourensweyer15]

What is amazing is that 4 people spoke 3 different languages without talking in English. Really underrated

[@ClosestNearUtopia]

Actually yes that is quite cool if you say it like that. I wonder how much an Indonesian would have understand.

[@__Timmerman__]

4 people spoke 2 different languages

[@brendangordon2168]

“Flemish” is not a language

[@Marcoldnia]

Being dutch it is always fun when you meet someone that speaks Afrikaans

[@iceomistar4302]

I speak Dutch and I hear Afrikaans around me quite regularly and I always get confused by the grammar and lack of Verb conjugations.

[@nixm9093]

I dated a Dutch guy and he used to ask me to speak Afrikaans just to have a laugh 😂

[@shadowsir]

As a Flemish speaker from Antwerp, this was actually pretty easy to understand. A lot of the vowel sounds are very similar to the Antwerp dialect :)

[@thedude1866]

Especially the "Uitveër" as the Afrikaans word for eraser makes so much sense if you know some West-Flemish dialect. In that part of Belgium the G gets basically entirely substituted for an H or even made silent. Like how in Dutch I say "Brugge" but a West-Flemish speaker would say "Bruhhe". So you can see the progression of uitveger -> uitveher > uitveër.

[@FirehorseAntwerp]

yeah Antwerp dialect 👍

[@haddenindustries2922]

Inderdaad 😉

[@hendrikbreed7253]

Ek kan gemaklik ń gesprek voer met mense wat Flaams praat. Vir Nederlads moet ek fyn luister, en julle het dialekte ook.

[@Agentsmith-qm6yt]

😂

[@phineastshabalala6585]

I'm a black South African who speaks partial Afrikaans, understood most parts of the guests responses. Thank you for the lessons🙏🏽

[@ax4178]

Tsek

[@elijahmaja4651]

​@@ax4178tsek nawe jou bloody moegoe

[@MosesMatsepane]

@@ax4178 hahahahaha! Ware rekisa this one.

[@HasufelyArod]

I'd love to hear your amazing accent, dear Internet Stranger 🇲🇽🤝🇿🇦

[@trevoroutim8519]

I was amazed at how well we understood each other, when I spoke Afrikaans to a Dutch tourist who was visiting South Africa. Dutch sounds different, but I somehow understood what he was saying. We could just converse, or gesels, with no problem.

[@jordyv.703]

As a Belgian I understood the Afrikaans for the most part.

[@wilhelmsteenkamp2276]

Ons almal hier in Suid Afrika sê dieselfde ding.. Dat Flaams die naaste is aan Afrikaans!

[@gsw977SoekarnoNederlands-Indie]

Heel leuk video. Ik woon in 🇸🇷Suriname. In Suriname spreken we ook de Nederlandse taal. Suriname bevindt zich in Zuid Amerika. Mijn opa en oma kwamen rond 1950 vanuit de voormalige Nederlands-Indië (huidige Indonesië) en vestigden in Suriname. Suriname was toen nog onderdeel van de Koninkrijk der Nederlanden.

[@mbahkopi3584]

Wkwk iso basa jawa brarti😂😅✌

[@latelijken]

Nee in suriname praten we surinaams

[@reandisubardi4704]

@@latelijken Ik denk dat sommige Surinamers, Javaans kunnen spreken.

[@ikbintom]

@@latelijken Hindoestaans, Saramaccaans, Surinaams, Javaans, Nederlands.. Suriname is een land rijk aan talen

[@Shamanicus]

@@latelijken De officiële taal in Suriname is Nederlands, maar in de basis spreekt iedereen Sranan Tongo (Surinaams, maar Surinaams bestaat officieel niet). Verder wordt er ook veel Sarnami (Hindoestaans Surinaams) gesproken. Voor de rest Chinees, Portugees, Javaans, verschillende Marrontalen en natuurlijk de inheemse talen.

[@Leviwosc]

Afrikaans is 'n baie lekker taaltjie om in te gesels. Ek is 'n Nederlander en jare gelede het ek Afrikaans geleer. Vir my was hierdie video glad nie moeilik om te begryp nie. Baie dankie vir hierdie video. Afrikaans is a wonderful language to chat in. I'm a Dutchman and years ago I learnt Afrikaans. For me this video wasn't difficult to understand at all. Thank you very much for this video. Afrikaans is een heel fijne taal om in te babbelen. Ik ben Nederlander en jaren geleden heb ik Afrikaans geleerd. Voor mij was deze video helemaal niet moeilijk om te begrijpen. Hartelijk dank voor deze video.

[@penniesshillings]

Ek is Afrikaans... was dit moeilik om Afrikaans aan te leer aangesien dit so naby aan Nederlands is? ...of makliker? Raak jy nie deurmekaar met die twee nie?

[@Delzaan]

One can see your Afrikaans writing and I assume speech as well, still looks a bit how would I phrase it in Afrikaans, (oh yes krom) and appears to be constructed more in a Dutch esque way

[@DizzleEdits]

@@penniesshillings Als Nederlander kan ik dit best makkelijk lezen, echt tof! Ik kan me inderdaad ook voorstellen dat je de twee talen makkelijk door elkaar haalt. Leuk dat je Afrikaans hebt geleerd!

[@OGKanyeWest]

@@Delzaan i was wondering what was off about it

[@ronald3836]

I know "glad niet" from my own Dutch dialect 😅

[@baasbothal769]

mooi video! As a duits person I understand 90% of everyone but learning Afrikaans for a year now I have to say its the easiest of all 3! and the mooiest :-)

[@somethingliken]

It's mooiste not mooiest.

[@baasbothal769]

@@somethingliken dankie

[@eisbeinGermany]

i had to do a German language course before I could apply for my German visa and being able to speak Afrikaans, being born in South Africa again battled to learn German because of the Afrikaans, as many words sound the same in german but in Afrikaan have a different meaning, and other way around, like the word Chef, in Afrikaans its a cook, but in German its a boss ,

[@lavre8045]

Dankie ( Danke). Ek leer weer Duits. I still think I must be German in my ancestors.

[@SavageSaffa]

Mooiste 😜

[@carved_cuts]

As a Dutch person, I love Afrikaans so much. It's fascinating and there's something, kind of endearing about it. There's a song by Johnny Clegg called "Thamela / Die Son Trek Water." Which is sung in Afrikaans, with Zulu backing vocals. I recommend giving it a listen.

[@g.v.m7935]

Vergeet niet zuid afrikaans. Niet alle afrikanen spreken nederlands afrikaans.

[@carved_cuts]

@@g.v.m7935 Ah thanks sorry. I thought that was already clear. But at least it is now.

[@deancameronkaiser]

Die son trek Baie water my maat, dit is die waarheid. Maar ek verstaan wat jy se.

[@deancameronkaiser]

​@@g.v.m7935 Baie Dankie 🙏, ons is trots aan ons taal en ons land. God seun vir Suid Afrika.

[@davidzwitser]

@@g.v.m7935 Zijn er meer talen die "Afrikaans" heten dan? Ik dacht dat dat gewoon de naam van de taal is, los van het land.

[@Ksandur]

Maar allee Stijn! Als Vlaming vond ik het Afrikaans super goed te begrijpen, zeker de associatie "uitveeër" uit + veger was snel te maken! Veger, Veër. Makes sense!

[@VoidUnderTheSun]

Afrikaans often drops the 'g' out of the middle of words like that. Tegen -> teën, regen -> reën, tegel -> teël, hoger -> hoër, etc.

[@beetheimmortal]

As someone who speaks German and English, but not Dutch, Afrikaans was the easiest to understand, normal Dutch was more difficult. I can also hear a tiny bit of French when Stijn speaks, I guess because of the belgian influence. Interesting watch.

[@nowave7]

Speaking English, German, and also currently learning Dutch, I found Afrikaans quite difficult to understand...

[@beetheimmortal]

@@nowave7 Interesting. For me, Afrikaans featured quite a few words more I could recognise from either English or German than european Dutch.

[@Nekotaku_TV]

Interesting. I haven't really put it to the test or researched it but it seems to me as a Swede it seems like Afrikaans is easier to understand than Dutch for me. And German would be the easiest.

[@BobWitlox]

Flemish tend to incorporate more French words into their speech. Almost half the country speaks French, so it rubs off I guess. Not the other way around I suspect :)

[@BobWitlox]

It's interesting to read how much Germans and Scandinavians can understand of Dutch and Afrikaans. The grammar of Afrikaans is a bit more simplified compared to Dutch, such as verb conjugations. For example "written" is "geschreven" in Dutch and "geskryf" in Afrikaans, which is closer to the verb stem "schrijf". As if in German it would be "geskreib" instead of "geschrieben".

[@matthewvanrensburg3824]

Afrikaans actually helped me in Japan of all places. Got me further than English did, all the Dutch, Belgians, Austrian and Germans. Enough similiarity to understand eachother just enough, blew my mind🙈

[@vladimiradoshev5310]

Afrikaans in Japan, how come?

[@matthewvanrensburg3824]

@@vladimiradoshev5310 Alot of foreign nationals from other countries mentioned working/living there and they didn't speak English/struggled with it alot and found myself communicating with Afrikaans with them as heard them talking to eachother and I was actually able to understand, pick up enough to understand just enough and vice versa when I tried speaking back in Afrikaans.

[@weddingwiththewhitedove]

vladimeradoshev5310 "ja maar waar id die kakhuis ,dringend?(understood by belgians and Dutch)

[@matthewvanrensburg3824]

@@weddingwiththewhitedove You have a typo. 'id' should be 'is' :P

[@pharmacist5884]

Afrikaans is actually very easy to understand if you know the ancient archaic dutch words, not being used nowadays.

[@eisbeinGermany]

yes because its derived from Dutch, but it has many French German Dutch words in, Afrikaans is a self-made language, it was only in 1932 that it was made or recognized as an official language in South Africa, I will never understand why they stopped speaking Dutch in SA

[@joshuaswart8211]

⁠@@eisbeinGermanyNo-one “stopped speaking Dutch”. It evolved into Afrikaans. It’s a natural process that happens all the time. Afrikaans existed long before 1932. That was just the year it was officially recognised. Conservative Afrikaners of the day pushed back hard against recognising Afrikaans, even as Afrikaners struggled to understand what was written in their (Dutch) Bibles.

[@thembakhumalo-li7bl]

Thats becsuse its Dutch

[@llaStricaGiirllx3vii]

I'm from belgium from the flamish side and i understood everything what he was talking in't afrikaans it's very similar to our dialect from where i'm from 😊 loved it so much

[@two_motion]

Afrikaans: "Hey Dutch, can I copy your homework?" Dutch: "Okay... just change it up a little". Afrikaans:

[@PetraStaal]

First the Easy Dutch channel made a video about Afrikaans and now you. I feel spoiled and happy! Dankie/bedankt! ❤️ Oh, and I can't wait for part two.

[@lukeliebenberg3230]

Same here. 😂 I was so happy when I saw Easy Languages video and now we get a treat from EcoLinguist. 😁

[@robinboyes8749]

When on business in Brussels, I spoke Afrikaans to the Flemmish speaking folk, we got on extremely well 🙂

[@yt-nx1qm]

It's just called Nederlands, also in Belgium . Only the dialect of west Belgium, is called Vlaams.

[@geojelly9830]

@@yt-nx1qm That's not really true though. Vlaams is a collection of multiple different regional dialects that they speak in Vlaanderen. What someone from Limburg speaks is as much Vlaams as someone from De Panne

[@MustardSkaven]

@@yt-nx1qm "Vlaams" is a collection of dialects. Although people colloquially also use "Vlaams" to refer to the unofficial standardised version of Dutch spoken in Flanders.

[@MustardSkaven]

@@geojelly9830 Limburgish is a separate language so that's not exactly the best example.

[@geojelly9830]

@@MustardSkaven People from Limburg nowadays speak more Vlaams than Limburgish, that language is probably as good as dead

[@proinsiasbaiceir6580]

The Dutch equivalent of Afrikaans 'baadjie' is the Dutch word 'baadje' (both from Malay 'baju'). I only know 'baadje' because I heard it in an old Dutch folksong. Apart from that, I don't know if I ever heard it before. However it still can be found it in the modern big 'Van Dale' Dutch dictionary.

[@magisterhpp]

Inderdaad. Ook wel eens gehoord/gelezen. Een baadje.

[@FritsBoelema]

Volgens Wiktionary is baadje: 1.(kleding) Indisch kledingstuk (dat in het Maleis en Javaans badjoe heet) 2.(kleding) kledingstuk van zeelieden

[@basdegroot7318]

Baadje wordt bij de marine nog steeds gebruikt. Het is de "jas" van het nette avond tenue

[@basvolkers1932]

Toen ik het woord hoorde dacht ik aan badjas, dus voor mij was de associatie met jas wel aanwezig maar op een totaal verkeerde manier kennelijk. TL: When I heard the word I thought it was "badjas" which literally translates to bathcoat, bathrobe in English. So I did have a link between the Afrikaans word and the dutch word for coat, "jas", but it turns out for all the wrong reasons...

[@nazirbhikhoo2006]

Dutch:Afrikaans like English:Scottish

[@KuromixLara]

I think the most natural cousin of Afrikaans is West Flemish. There are plenty of words that seem to occur only in Afrikaans (AF) and West Flemish (WF). For example, "iewers" (AF) and "ievers" (WF) both mean "somewhere". Even the word "baadjie" (AF) and "baaike" (WF) sound and mean pretty much the same. The "oo", "aa", "ee" sounds are almost completely identical. And so on and so on.

[@Delzaan]

Perhaps conservatism in this case... Might have been more widespread and times gone by in more Dutch dialects, who knows 🤷

[@KuromixLara]

@@Delzaan There are so many similarities, and the distance between the two regions is so big. I suspect a lot of early Afrikaner came from West Vlaanderen (BE) and Zeeuws Vlaanderen (NL). The West Flemish are proud of their unique dialect, so you're probably right about conservatism playing a part.

[@somethingliken]

​@@KuromixLara Jan van Riebeeck's wife was Belgian.

[@Venaticorum]

@@KuromixLara i'm West Flemish and when i went abroad last year (Rome,Stockholm,Warsaw) with a friend alot of people thought we were from South Africa. And yes indeed Afrikaans is so easy for us West Flemings to understand that it's scary similar, your points are spot on.

[@clavichord]

Een groot gedeelte van de vroege kolonisten op de Kaap waren Franse hugenoten, Duitstaligen, Hollanders en Zeeuwen (vooral uit de VOC steden Enkhuizen en Vlissingen). De VOC bracht bijna uitsluitend Europese Protestanten met zich mee... en aangezien er zeer weinig Vlaamse Protestanten waren/zijn is het aannemelijk dat de hoevelheid Protestantse Vlamingen die met de Hollandse VOC emigreerden, zeer gering zal zijn geweest. De overeenkomsten in uitspraak en woordgebruik tussen West Vlaams en Afrikaans heeft te maken met de vermenging van Hollands dialect met Frans, Duits, Maleis, Engels en inheemse invloeden, niet met het feit dat West Vlamingen in de 17e eeuw naar de Kaap emigreerden.

[@Filufilu]

As a person living in Flanders and learning Dutch , this is amazing. The oortjies van die seekoei discussion will change my life forever (omdat 'n mens gewoonlik net die oortjies sien utsteek)

[@3762302]

it is 370 years of proof how language slowly changes from Dutch into Cape Dutch (Afrikaans). I remember learning at school how Latin changed over a few generations into Spanish, Portuguese, French etc. Where someone from old Rome could notice the change the further they went from Rome, but those in say Spain thought they were still speaking Latin where in reality they spoke a new language that wasn't Latin anymore.

[@bri1085]

Wasn't Latin pretty much exclusive to the higher echelons of Roman society, while commoners spoke vulgar Latins. Also you should remember a lot of these romance languages are only fairly recent standardisations, with regions all having their own directs, which are unfortunately waning in most regions.

[@nymusnymusnymus85]

But Latin changed during a time when people did not exchange people and information on such a large scale. I think it's more likely both languages will grow together than apart.

[@warb635]

Dutch and Afrikaans have both evolved in these 370 years of course.

[@iceomistar4302]

​@@bri1085Vulgar Latin is no longer a term used by linguists.

[@qksf1645]

As a person who studied German for 3 years and who is fluent in English, Afrikaans was easier to understand for me than Dutch 😄

[@marsukarhu9477]

Yes! I agree. I used to study in The Netherlands and took a few months crash course in Dutch, but I found out it was easier to understand the Belgian news & Belgian TV in general and Afrikaans movies than the actual Dutch ones.

[@e.gonnermann4646]

No expert, Afrikaans is said to follow the German sentence structure... also, unique, Afrikaans has a double 'no'.

[@tebogomohanoe5443]

lol

[@simonevanmuiswinkel9464]

​@@e.gonnermann4646 But German and Dutch have the same lamguage structure.. so Afrikaans follows the Dutch language strucure, since it's simply a form of old Dutch.

[@simonevanmuiswinkel9464]

I can imagine, that could be because Afrikaans derived from old Dutch, which was really a form of Frisian at the time (17th cent.). And Frisian/Old Dutch is even closer to English than Dutch is. Could be interesting to look up Old English. It is like a bridge between English and Dutch (and Frisian), so nice to read.

[@frankrault3190]

Thanks a lot for this video, being a Dutchman I think both Dutch and Afrikaans are mutually quite intelligible once the Dutch learn more about the expanded vocabulary. Like Afrikaans also Dutch language knows a number of Malay words and phrases, but probably just a different set. I enjoyed watching very much, hoping for a #2 ! Thanks a lot!!!

[@jjbankert]

I'm curious, which Dutch words have Malay origins? I know words with Indonesian origin, but not Malay.

[@frankrault3190]

@@jjbankert Malay and Indonesian are, to a considerable degree, mutually intelligible. So, they know differences but have way more in common. So, here are some words that were and often still are in use in Dutch: Babi, barang, bouw, kali kampak, kati, nangka, poesaka, rehab, sembah, tali, toko, totok, pakkie-an(=bagian), Most of them spelled in phonetic Dutch.

[@user-ee6oq8uv6d]

@@jjbankert Malay and Indonesian are basically the same language with some local variations just as British English differs from American English. In fact almost all native English speaking people use different words for the same thing. In South Africa we English speakers use bakkie for pick-up truck but Australians say ute, short for utility vehicle.

[@williamwilting]

Written Afrikaans is definitely easier to understand than its spoken counterpart. The way words, especially vowels, are pronounced makes it more difficult. Doubled vowels are the best examples for this, and it seems that doubled vowels in Afrikaans have less characteristics in terms of digraphs than Dutch does. For example, the word 'twee', which means the same in both languages, is pronounced quite differently. In Dutch it sounds like 'twééj' , while in Afrikaansit sounds more like 'twieje' (Dutch vowel sounds for explanation; in English it would be something like 'tway' for Dutch and 'tweeye' for Afrikaans).

[@simonevanmuiswinkel9464]

Exactly. That way of pronouncing vowels, esp. doubled vowels, is quite similar to nowadays Frisian. It is said that this is because Afrikaans stems directly from 17th Century Dutch (or rather, Hollands), which was at the time, a form of Frisian. On the other hand, there are also claims from people from West- Flamings that say they have the same pronounciation, and there were many migrants from there that went to South Africa.

[@a_diamond]

Uitveger *is* a Dutch term that is much closer also meaning eraser. Most people say "gum" though. Afrikaans seems to use a lot of "older" sounding language.. which probably makes sense because it was "current" when those folks went to Africa. They tried to hang on to the language and heritage in a foreign land, while in the Netherlands the language modernized..

[@Kamilxd]

That's exactly what I thought. Afrikaans sounds like an older version of Dutch.

[@mlambrechts1]

@@Kamilxd Not really. It's like evolution in biology. Afrikaans also changed, but in another direction bc the countries were separated. So Dutch also has old words, but they are just not the same as the Afrikaans old words.

[@Kamilxd]

@@mlambrechts1 That makes sense. Yeah, I wasn't really sure what I was talking about. I speak neither of these two languages, but I just thought Afrikaans sounded like an older and less developed version of Dutch.

[@bradleyheissmann4538]

@@mlambrechts1 Afrikaans does retain more "Dutch origin" words because of purisms and isolation. Afrikaans is lexically conservative. What is thought of as "old words" by the Dutch are usually words usurped by loanwords, which Afrikaans didn't allow as much, especially since the Boer Wars.

[@mareksicinski3726]

well it is more so that the separation came in the 17th and 18th centuries, so developments in dutch were different, so similarities tend to be with old fashioned stuff, with differen stuff not changing in the same ways but in different ones

[@christoduplessis8177]

Well it is the same language, it just diverged over 300 years. I was just in the Netherlands for the first time. When you speak slowly and in basic words you can have a full conversation. What surprised me most is how many idioms are exactly the same. I also went to Belgium and boy could we have full on conversations there.

[@vHindenburg]

I am German, I live relativly close to the Dutch border, I am kind getting confused when people dont understand Dutch at all and they are are just 60km or further away. I live near Düsseldorf where Plaat/Pläät is still spoken at times, very close to the Dutch language.

[@richardsbargelife2564]

I'm Dutch and i always getting cofused when Dutch people say that they can't speak German, our languages are so much simulair! For me the German language is almost like a Dutch dialect, or is Dutch a German dialect 🙂

[@chavoux]

@@richardsbargelife2564 I speak Afrikaans, and can understand some German (written easier), but the grammar is beyond me.

[@leroywitbooi7238]

Ek is n Kapenaar en tussen die tale/speke is Duits mees ingewikkeld. Maar meeste Germaanse tale is verstaanbaar. Al die woorde wat Europiers nie begrip nie is afkomstig van Indonesië. Vele settlers in Suid Afrika kom van Westfalen en België.

[@EmmaVZ]

@@richardsbargelife2564 I'm dutch too and have always lived in either Zeeland or Zuid-Holland, the furthest from Germany basically. I get no german exposure at all. I definitely struggle with understanding german, altho there are def similarities too. I am however not gifted in languages either, so i'd say that these 2 factors may play an important role in dutch ppl who say they can't speak german.

[@kenninast]

I'm fluent at both German and Dutch. (Though my Dutch is even a little bit better still, but it's hardly noticable). The obvious connection between Northern and even Central German and Dutch is obvious. :) There's even Niedersächsisch in Germany and the very closely related Nedersaksies in the Netherlands. Also in the border region "Maasmechelen (B) - Maastricht (NL) - Heelen (NL) - Aachen (D)" the dialects are so close to each other, that I heard them talk to each other in their own language and dialect, and they just conversed as if this were the very same language (which is... like... not really the case). What is less obvious: I lived in the "Schwabenländle" for four years. I was confused to hear that some words in Schwäbisch, that are different in German, actually are like Dutch. It flabbergasted me because the Schwabian region is nowhere close to any Dutch speaking region. Stoopit me only remembers two examples: Hundert (German) -> hondert (Schwäbisch) = honderd (Dutch). But this might be a false equivalent and pure coincidental. But!!!! Bald (German) -> gau (Schwäbisch) -> gauw (Dutch). That's NOT a coincidence. And there were more, but... memory... gah... :(

[@Weissenschenkel]

I spotted two words that were "imported" to Portuguese: _gilet_ as "colete" (waistcoat) and _kombuis_ as "convés" (deck). As always, thank you for the video, Norbert!

[@JosBlomsma]

Nice. 'Convés' probably also through the Dutch skippers, I can imagine.

[@richardsbargelife2564]

Super leuke en interessante video, het meeste Afrikaans verstond ik direct en ik vond het erg leuk om te zien/horen hoeveel Afrikaanse woorden hun oorsprong hebben in de "taal" van de zeevaart... Het is eigenlijk ook heel logisch zoals Jaco het ook verklaard.

[@Delzaan]

Hoop om meer hiervan te sien... Langer video met meer uitgebreide gesprekke. Sal seer/baie cool wees 👍🏼 Hope to see more of this... Longer video with more elaborate conversations. Would be very cool 👍🏼

[@ross6753]

I'm Belgian. I understood everything perfectly, but I realized I read the subtitles while listening, and that made it much easier. So after the hippotamus, I closed my eyes while You were talking, and yes, then it was a bit harder... But I really understood it all. By the way: "pull" is short for "pullover", which is English. And "Boi" is dialect for "baai", which is some sort of woollen cloth. In Western Flanders, there are plenty of very ancient words that originate from the Middle Ages. Baai is probably one of those, nobody produces baai cloth anymore, not as far as I know... And in France, across the border with Flanders, a sweater is really called a "gilet".

[@Ralesk]

This was a lot of fun, I didn't expect Afrikaans to be this understandable even with my mediocre Dutch :D

[@bamereg]

Dit was echt leuk, ik kon er best veel van verstaan. Grappig hoe een nijlpaard in het Afrikaans seekoei heet, het zou mij niet verbazen als ook dat woord uit de oost komt. De mensen die naar de Kaap voeren voeren ongetwijfeld ook naar Nederlands Indië (nu Indonesië), waar natuurlijk zeekoeien te vinden zijn.

[@proto-germanicsongsandtexts]

Nice to see Germanic languages being confronted once more :)

[@Hrng270]

Afrikaans have a pratical conection with dutch, flemish,. limburguish,english, saxon and german 👍👍👍👍🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂

[@Hrng270]

dit is 'n wonderlike, globale en inklusiewe taal.😘💐💋🥂🫂

[@D.pietertje]

dit is zo leuk om naar te kijke, want er zit echt een mooie link tussen elk afrikaans en nederlands woord. Echt leuk!!!!!

[@mlambrechts1]

In Flemish we very often use the word "pullover", which is "trui"; it comes from English and it means that you "pull" it over a shirt or other underclothing. So we say "een pull" of "een pullover". It's made out of one peace of (mostly) wool, but it has no zipper or buttons.

[@mareksicinski3726]

in French you do too right?

[@PetraStaal]

I think you mean buttons not knots.

[@Eugensson]

​@@mareksicinski3726 yes, "pull" is certainly used in Belgian French as well

[@Welbru1]

In English a pullover has no sleeves, but a French pull is what we would call a jumper in English.

[@annettemeyer1393]

@@PetraStaal I think the Afrikaans word for buttons is "knope".

[@mhlave2440]

I studied Afrkaans and English as "second" languages at school (primary and high school) even though realistically they were probably both fourth and fifth languages for me. It is interesting that I could understand the Dutch without subtitles and because of the Afrikaans description I could understand even such words as Nijlpaard for a Hippo. Guessing it comes from Nile-Horse. I also find it interesting the Afrikaans word for "jas", "baadjie", comes from Malay. We call it "Baji" in my first language, One of the South African languages and I used to thing it was a loan word from Afrikaans. Now I am no longer so sure because it could have come directly from Malay (or from Portuguese sailors) because of my people's close proximity with Madagascar. My people occupie the east coasts of Mozambique and South Africa and historically used to trade with people from the orient (China and India) before Europeans landed in these parts of Africa.

[@siyabongamviko8872]

even pringi (pierieng) for a saucer is from Malay, also baie and other words. There are some words from local languages in Afrikaans like dagga (canabis) but this word is related to the Zulu/Sotho words dakwa/taoua and ultimately came from Arabic Dakh... It's interesting

[@ryanbotha9775]

The Afrikaans word for jas? The Afrikaans word for jas is jas.. Jas is also an Afrikaans word for jacket.

[@adamlouw9575]

@@ryanbotha9775 lees vir begrip

[@ryanbotha9775]

@@adamlouw9575 ek doen altyd, dalk moet jy..

[@ryanbotha9775]

@@adamlouw9575 the Afrikaans word for jas,(comma), makes me correct.. so read my previous comment, I love it when someone makes the mistake of trying to get clever with me (of all people they could choose 😂).

[@user-ee6oq8uv6d]

I am British and emigrated to South Africa 20 years ago. I decided I would learn Afrikaans so enrolled in a course at Wits University in Johannesburg. At the end of 3 months I failed miserably and was quite upset as I am a linguist and speak several other languages. Many years later I visited Amsterdam and found, to my surprise, that I could understand almost everything that was written in Dutch but hardly anything spoken. I came home delighted that although I still could not understand spoken Afrikaans I could at least read most of it and Dutch too. Perhaps my tuition fees were not completely wasted after all.

[@keanancupido]

Ah wow. I love that there are more videos with Afrikaans! Baie dankie julle❤

[@kennytrcka7085]

Spanish speaker here. I had thought Afrikaans was just a Dutch dialect just like Flemish is, but seeing this video I realised it's another language. Maybe it's like contrasting Spanish and Portuguese.

[@Tenshi_ZA]

It has a lot of maylaysian words. So Dutch mostly with some malay

[@mijmerdingen]

This was interesting to watch. I am Dutch and I have lived in SA for a year in 1995. Once I got used to the pronunciation I could understand a lot, but there were some words that caused confusion. It took me some time to figure out the meaning of words like opdraand, afdraand, gesels, kuier, oulik. There are also words that have a different meaning, like net and amper. I like languages so this was all very interesting to me. I never spoke Afrikaans while I lived there (I guess I was easily embarrassed) but I changed the order of my Dutch sentences and threw in some Afrikaans words so people could understand me. Someone even complimented me on my Afrikaans towards the end of my stay 😂 Nou kan ek net so bietjie Afrikaans spreek en ek kan eintlik alles lees. Dit is 'n wonderlike taal 😊

[@Gardureth]

super leuk! Vooral die extra info over de herkomst van woorden.

[@ConqueringCaffeine]

I am a native speaker of English and a fluent, near native speaker of German, having spent my childhood in Germany. I understood all of this with a little bit of mental effort!! Having the subtitles in Dutch and Afrikaans also helped!

[@simonevanmuiswinkel9464]

You should be able to learn Dutch real fast, since it could be placed linguistiquely in between English and German.

[@malkenkaas7510]

The word "gilet" pronounced the way Stijn said is used in French, but is of Arabic and Turkish origins (jalikah/yelek) which would make sense given that French is one of the languages spoken in Belgium, as well as Flanders bordering France. Very interesting video.

[@moladiver6817]

Indeed although it's interesting that in Flemish it's a regular jacket (as in a jacket for cold weather) whereas in The Netherlands a gilet is rather a thin sleeveless garment usually worn over a shirt as part of a somewhat more classy outfit. Something a waiter for example could wear as the lady mentioned.

[@moladiver6817]

I looked it up. A gilet in The Netherlands is a waistcoat.

[@iceomistar4302]

Flemish has a lot of French words, when I visited Antwerp I didn't realise that Patat is Friet in Flemish and that Schoon means beautiful not clean like in Standard Dutch.

[@gevoel8293]

You forgot to bring someone from South America (Suriname) into this video too. If we are going to compare Dutch allow all Dutch speaking countries to contribute, including Suriname and the Dutch Carribean like Curacao and Aruba.

[@Nekotaku_TV]

I love this, as a Swede I can understand both Dutch and Afrikaans a little from no studying. Sometimes I understand a lot, sometimes nothing. I didn't use the English subs and tried to guess. I could not guess any of the words though, just a few words from the descriptions. orz

[@marinapretorius5163]

Van Suid Africa is baie bly dat jy in Afrikaans belang stel sommige mense hier wil nie meer Afrikaans praat nie😀

[@charlvantonder6285]

Im Afrikaans and two things I have picked up from Swedish that is almost similar to Afrikaans is words like Svart which is Swart in Afrikaans which means black. And also in Swedish you would say "Jag heter Charl" or something like that if you wanted to say "My name is Charl". Imn afrikaans (in the old days), one would say "Ek heet Charl".... So yes, I'm interested in the similarities between Afrikaans and Scandinavian languages...

[@Nekotaku_TV]

@@charlvantonder6285 I think I've heard these, but I think they are just as close in German and/or Dutch. I wanna find out if Afrikaans is closer to Swedish than Dutch, from the little I've hard I get that impression but I don't know yet. It's even more interesting then why that would be the case.

[@tijnaltena5718]

@@Nekotaku_TV it is in noway closer to Swedish than to Dutch, hoe kwam je tot die conclusie?

[@Nekotaku_TV]

@@tijnaltena5718 Haha. Did you ask "isn't Norwegian closer to Swedish than Dutch"? Yes very, Norwegian is almost like a dialect of Swedish and vise versa. How can I do the what? (Trying to understand without translation, I could guess a few things)

[@davidmaclennan5925]

Fascinating podcast! Thoroughly enjoyed and informative

[@marckdan2508]

As a Cape South African, living in close quarters with the Malay culture, it's interesting how our language developed as a mix of Dutch & Malay.

[@patrickandries7412]

very little in fact.

[@marckdan2508]

@Patrick Andries. Perhaps, but significant in its cultural significance, especially in AfriKaaps.

[@bradleyheissmann4538]

@@marckdan2508 maybe with Kaapse Afrikaans there's slightly more Malay influence, but in regard to standard Afrikaans, Malay really didn't play a significant role. There's like a handful of words from Malay. The only two Malay words most people can think of is piesang and baie.

[@mnmeskc848]

​@@bradleyheissmann4538 the standardisers of Afrikaans consciously used European Dutch as a yardstick for formality. The salient influence of non-Dutch speakers on the language in the Cape Colony is rapid changes in Cape Dutch grammar more than just contributing vocabulary. Weird little things Afrikaans does that Dutch speakers trip over listening to it are the invisible influences of historical Malay, Khoe, Portuguese creole speakers etc. at the Cape. Without that it may just have remained Dutch.

[@bradleyheissmann4538]

@@mnmeskc848 "salient" is definitely an exaggeration given it can't even be demonstrated at all really. It's wishful on the part of the many as to fit some sort of narrative. They used "European" Dutch as the yardstick because that's the parent language; should they have used Malay or Khoekhoe?

[@maidenekker]

Dit is erg leuk om te zien en vooral te horen. Als Nederlandse vind ik het taalgebruik en de uitspraak van Stijn, het Vlaams heel mooi om te horen en het Afrikaans is een heel aantrekkelijke taal voor het gehoor. Ik zag tegelijk een ondertiteling in het Afrikaans, waardoor het wel makkelijk werd, weet niet of ik alles had kunnen volgen als ik alleen maar had geluisterd.

[@rossmelland]

As an English South African living in NL this was awesome to watch. I spoke very little Afrikaans in South Africa but now, after learning Dutch, I understand almost all the Afrikaans and Dutch

[@gevoel8293]

Strange you had to go abroad to learn to understand Afrikaans.....lol

[@rossmelland]

@@gevoel8293 Right? I grew up in Durban as a true soutie - very English Natal. I now regret not learning it better when I was in South Africa

[@simonevanmuiswinkel9464]

​@@rossmelland Will nice however, if you're back in SA, esp. in regions where more Afrikaans is being spoken, and you understamd all if a sudden, right?

[@simonevanmuiswinkel9464]

​@@rossmelland Sorry for the typo's, I tried to edit it, but somehow it doesn't take it

[@danieleyre8913]

@@rossmelland Isn’t there a lot of animosity and social isolation between the Anglo South Africans and the Afrikaners? Because of the Boer war, the Afrikaners taking over the politics and government in the 1940s & 50s, etc?

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

In italian we have the word "cambusa" (the kitchen on ships). This word comes from Dutch, via French (cambuse). The first to adopt it were Genoese sailors.

[@hunchbackaudio]

In Dutch it’s a Kombuis. But a lot of youngsters wouldn’t know what it is, no more.

[@Mariusmjvr]

Very interesting. I'm Afrikaans

[@user-ee6oq8uv6d]

In English the kitchen on a ship is called a galley.

[@AlastorTheNPDemon]

I'm an American, and when I hear these people speak, I think it's English and my brain tries to make sense of it, but then I get a headache. LoL

[@kwesiraheem6358]

I am from Antwerp and i can say its not difficult to understand afrikaans at all. A flemish person and a south african person would have a full conversation without asking to repeat them selfs

[@hildeschmid8400]

Yes, when I was in my mother's home town Turnhout, Belgium and speaking some Flemish, one man asked me if I was Afrkaans! I said no, just speaking with an American accent!

[@iceomistar4302]

Ik heb in Nederland gewoon en ik begrijp goed wat de man van zuid afrika gezegd, dat is heel interessant voor mij.

[@annettemeyer1393]

I'm Zimbabwean so the Afrikaans is more familiar to me. I think I would find written Dutch (or is it called Nederlands?) easier to follow. Tthe pronunciation differs. It was a very interesting video to me.

[@barrys72]

Inderdaad een van die interessantste videos wat ek in 'n lang tyd gekyk het. Dankie vir die deelname aan almal

[@e.gonnermann4646]

Funny story... I'm from SA and ended up working for a Dutch TV station from 1991. Everytime president FW de Klerk had something to say, I had to translate Afrikaans to Dutch. A real twister came when FW stated de 'leer' will do this and the 'leer' will do that... I was probably one of few who could understand. The dutch had no idea what de 'leer' was... the 'leer' could be one of several things... it could be a ladder, it could be a somebody teaching, or the leather on your belt... in FWs speech it was all about the army... het leger. Groetjes

[@gevoel8293]

NL = ZA regen = rëen / spiegel = spieël / regels = reëls en leger = leer! Eintlik is dit heel eenvoudig om van Nederlands na Afrikaans oorteskakel as jy die reëls ken!

[@johann.m.gottlieb8975]

Baie dankie vir die program. Dis tegelyk genotvol en leersaam en ek sou graag heelwat meer hiervan wou sien. Baie geluk - dis hoogs suksesvol! Waar kan ons meer hiervan kry? Ek het op besoek aan Nederland soms gesukkel met verskeie dialekte en as hul net stadiger praat, verstaan 'n mens meeste van die gesprek. Daar is ook wel woorde wat ek heel onverstaanbaar gevind het. Nogmaals baie dankie.

[@bembs0256]

Interesting. As an Indonesian who don’t speak Dutch nor Afrikaans, I can understand some of these words. First example is “potlood” (pencil) at 2:00, many Indonesian who live in rural areas/villages still pronounce “potlot” for pencil, same as in Dutch and Afrikaans. Another example is “toestel” at 6:27, as elderly in Indonesia (like my grandparents) still call any electronic devices as “tustel” (although here it mainly refers to “camera”). Another is “rits” (zipper) in 12:12, as we Indonesian also called the zipper as “rits” or “ritsleting”, very similar. Also “jas” (coat) at 12:33, because we called the coat as “jas” too in Indonesian (although we spelled the j letter differently).

[@moladiver6817]

Yes there are so many Indonesian words from Dutch. I'm Dutch and have lived in Bali for about 6 years. There's a long list and these are just a few examples I can remember: Handuk - handdoek Kulkas - koelkast Asbak Knalpot Kamar pas - paskamer Direksi - directie There are also quite a few Dutch words that were imported from Indonesian or Malay: Klamboe Makken - makan Senang Toko Lots of food of course: nasi goreng, pisang, sate ayam, staple foods in The Netherlands. Most Flemish people don't really know these words but in The Netherlands they are all used quite frequently.

[@ryanbotha9775]

Those are the words the Dutch settlers gave to you.

[@gysgijsbers4202]

In Afrikaans we use a few words with Indonesian (Malay) roots like: Blatjang (chutney), kampong, pondok/pandok, piesang (banana), borrie (tumeric), baie (alot / plenty), lemoen (orange fruit), spanspek and the Indonesian banjo instrument became an important part of "boeremusiek" together with the accordian.

[@yt-nx1qm]

Morgen het Nederlands weer invoeren daar in de oost, ik zeg doen!

[@hennies9509]

Baie mooi om so 'n program te sien en met my voorvaders die van De Vries is van Flanders is. Die boek is geskryf oor die van wat teruggaan tot die 14 de eeu. My oupa het nog uit die Hollandse Bybel gelees vir ons. Dis mooi om jou gaste sien en ek stuur groete aan hulle.

[@BobWitlox]

Indeed quite easy to understand as a Dutch speaker. I understand roughly about 80-90% of what was said in Afrikaans. So guessing the word is easy.

[@peterfireflylund]

His clues are also unusually clear! I am Danish and I don’t officially understand Dutch but I got them all (with the help of the written Afrikaans). Knowing German really, really helps.

[@yves2348]

Ik wist onmiddelijk waarover het ging, maar het Afrikaanse woord ervoor was toch weer iedere keer grappig 😄. Prachtige taal is dat, een paar jaar in Zuid Afrika en ik schakel volledig om, zeker weten. ( terzijde: Gilet komt recht uit het frans, zoals ontzettend veel woorden in het west-vlaamse dialect. Pull komt uit het engelse pull-over. )

[@Stroopwafe1]

I would say it's mostly a difference in pronunciation that's most difficult for Dutch/Flemish speakers yeah. If a Dutch person were to know the shifts in pronunciation to Afrikaans, then it would be even more mutually intelligible. I'd say Dutch and Afrikaans speakers have a lot easier time with written messages/texts. I guess a different comparison is between Norwegian (Bokmål) and Danish. Mutually intelligible. But mostly through writing as the pronunciation is different between the two languages.

[@mareksicinski3726]

probably easier for a danish speaker than the other way around

[@daughter_of_eve04]

Yes for me as a native Dutch speaker it was quite easy because I could read the African language. Without the text it would be more difficult because the pronunciation is so different

[@ymmv99]

If as a Dutch speaker you're hearing Afrikaans for the first time, it can be difficult to adjust at first, but I think you'd be able to read most written Afrikaans in a day and adjust to spoken Afrikaans in a matter of days/weeks. All in all Afrikaans is a creole language based on Dutch with a much simpler grammar. It's the easiest foreign language for Dutch speakers to learn.

[@ronald3836]

​@@ymmv99indeed Frisian is harder to understand than Afrikaans

[@jessicakruger7]

When I visited Netherlands, they only understood our basic words. I couldn't understand them because they talk very fast and I was lost. Lots of english and french words in their mix as well.

[@SionTJobbins]

Afrikaans and Dutch - such cool languges! And, da iawn Esther am siarad tipyn bach o Gymraeg - gwych! Lekker!

[@Esther-fu8en]

Sion Jobbins, diolch! I'm really proud that I understood your Welsh sentence 😀

[@Welbru1]

I am curious why you are learning Welsh Esther.

[@Esther-fu8en]

@@Welbru1 I'm going on vacation in Wales this summer, so I thought it might be a good idea to learn some basic sentences. Now I've dived into the Duolingo course and I'm enjoying it very much. Dw i'n mwynhau dysgu cymraeg 🙂

[@Welbru1]

Gwych

[@SionTJobbins]

@@Esther-fu8en hyfryd. 👍

[@010Flappie]

Leuke video! Ik begreep bijna alles.

[@rogerelzenga4465]

This is sooo freaking interesting! :D

[@phillipcollins9290]

Interesting is that "Kombuis" comes from Latin "comburo", meaning "to burn up" - a possible reflection on the quality of food served on their ships - in contrast to "keuken" which is said to come from "coquo" to cook (also Latin).

[@mareksicinski3726]

eh it is mostly arbitrary, it is not based on ships alone

[@M1NDCR4WL3R]

In Germany ist would be "Kombüse" for the small kitchen on a ship and "Küche" for a kitchen in a house. And the word "kochen" which for me is similar to "keuken" means to cook.

[@misterkami2]

I guess that is probably related to terms like combustion engine

[@RECAMPAIRE]

In French, « cambuse » is in a ship a room where food and drinks are stored . But in informal French it is also used to name a small and bad restaurant .

[@deancameronkaiser]

As an English speaking guy with Afrikaans as my second language I understood the majority of what the other people said along with having subtitles as well. Hearing and reading it helped me understand a lot of what was said. As for Afrikaans well that's second nature to me.

[@saiyachan]

I’m from the Netherlands and I can understand alot! Heel leuk om te horen hoe vele van de woorden zo netjes en schattig zijn.

[@julian.kollataj]

This was really interesting for me when it came to the explanation of the history/ etymology of the Afrikaans words, revealing the circumstances of the Dutch arriving and mixing with others in South Africa; hearing the explanation/story of words probably would have made my Afrikaans learning more enjoyable! 🤔😊 Thank you for this game, considering that I left South Africa over a decade ago, and hardly used Afrikaans during the decade before that, and yet I could still understand quite a lot of Afrikaans now, and hearing the others speak revealed I could make out quite a bit of what the Dutch speakers said, though hearing the Afrikaans before them probably made it easier; I think that had I heard a Dutch person presenting the 5 clues to Afrikaners, I probably wouldn’t have felt so confident in my understanding… Will be watching part 2!

[@M1NDCR4WL3R]

this was so much fun to listen to. I am from germany and some words I was able to know what they meant just by listening and some from reading the transkript.

[@break1146]

That reminds me, one time I was on my way to Bremerhaven for work and was stopped in a checkpoint by the police. I had to get out of the car and he started asking me all kinds of questions and what not. Whether I had any illegal stuff with me, drugs, weapons, tobacco. I understood what he said just fine, but being Dutch it really depends on how similar the words are for me to understand. Then at the end of his story he asked if I even understood him, while me having complied with any and every question. It was quite funny. I used to work at Lidl and a German tourist asked me for spülmittel... I know that word but he said it rather quickly and I didn't even realize he wasn't speaking Dutch. It's afwasmiddel in Dutch, but it dawned on me when I finally got him to slow down and articulate a little more. Or a few times I have had conversations where both party spoke their own language respectively. Those are so interesting.

[@LarsvanderHeide]

In the netherlands we use the word "pully'" for the second layer of sports clothing used in winter, mostly when skiing. First you got the base layer (thermal clothing), on top of which you wear the "pully" and on top of that you wear a ski jacket. I think pully derives from "pullover" in English. In the Netherlands pullover is used by fashion brands to mostly indicate a neat sweater, but I feel like "trui" (sweater) is used more often in everyday conversation.

[@moladiver6817]

I'm Dutch and I remember pullovers as zipperless jackets back in the 80s. Where we left them luckily because those things were ugly haha. But they were definitely a fashion item. If memory serves me well they were simply called pullovers. Never heard of a pully but I'm also not into sports.

[@brianjacobs8839]

I speak Afrikaans but am fluent in Dutch. I learned Dutch back in 2005 in about 4 months. Was more difficult than I initially thought. I have many Dutch friends. I speak to them in Afrikaans though and they speak Dutch.

[@SarahConnor618]

Dit is gewoon 100% te verstaan als Nederlander. Ik snap niet dat deze 3 kandidaten zoveel moeite hadden.

[@yt-nx1qm]

Anders was de video wel heel snel afgelopen😂

[@Drago1995]

i can actually understand it more than i thought, but reading it is even better

[@jonasv.c.8924]

Als Nederlandstalige moedertaalspreker (uit Vlaanderen) die twintig jaar geleden een uitwisselingsjaar in Zuid-Afrika volbracht heeft en vloeiend Afrikaans spreekt, merk ik dat Nederlandstaligen het Afrikaans vaak niet goed verstaan omdat ze onvoldoende moeite doen om naar de volledige zin te luisteren en nalaten de spreker te vragen de zin te herhalen als ze die niet goed verstaan hebben. In mijn ervaring loopt het met vele Nederlandstaligen mis omdat ze een paar losse Afrikaanse woorden herkennen en vervolgens op basis daarvan een nieuwe zin fabriceren die niets met de oorspronkelijke zin te maken heeft. En dan loopt het natuurlijk mis 😉 Dit illustreert zich perfect in het verkeerde antwoord van Stijn als Jaco een nijlpaard omschrijft. Stijn zegt "everzwijn" omdat hij een paar losse woorden herkent die hij met everzwijnen associeert (gras, modder, snork en gevaarlik). Hij heeft dus niet naar de volledige zin geluisterd en vraagt ook niet dat Jaco de volledig zin nog eens herhaalt. Het gevolg is dat hij een verkeerd antwoord geeft. Ik ga ervan uit dat Stijn slim genoeg is om te weten dat je in de Belgische Ardennen geen everzwijnen ziet met alleen hun oortjes boven de waterlijn. Het enige zoogdier dat dit doet, is volgens mij een nijlpaard. Welnu, had hij aan Jaco gevraagd om de zin nog eens te herhalen, dan had hij gehoord: "Met sy lang tande is hy die dodelikste groot soogdier in die wêreld. In die water sien jy gewoonlik eers die kleinste deel van sy liggaam." En dan had hij geweten dat "nijlpaard" uiteraard het juiste antwoord was. Omgekeerd zie je dat het bij Esther veel beter gaat van zodra zij Jaco vraagt om bepaalde zinnen nog eens te herhalen. Als je als Nederlandstalige systematisch aan een Afrikaanstalige vraagt om zinnen die je niet goed begrepen hebt, nog eens te herhalen, dan zal je zien dat je na 2 weken bijna perfect Afrikaans begrijpt. En na 2 maanden heb je voldoende zelfvertrouwen om zelf een gesprek in een zeer correct (maar nog niet 100% foutloos) Afrikaans te voeren.

[@Delzaan]

Ook net n spelling korreksie, dodelikste👍🏼 en nie doodlikste 👎🏼

[@jonasv.c.8924]

@@Delzaan Heeltemal korrek! Ek het dit intussen reggemaak! Baie dankie!

[@stijnderudder2527]

Om een of andere reden had ik het woord 'water' niet gehoord, of onthouden, anders zou ik ook 'nijlpaard' gezegd hebben. In elk geval zou vragen om iets te herhalen zeker helpen, uiteraard. Maar dat was een deel van de uitdaging vond ik: iets proberen te begrijpen zonder hulp te vragen. Het was trouwens een hele leuke video om aan mee te werken.

[@alfonsstekebrugge8049]

Correct, maar het was ook Jaco die klaagde dat hij moeite had met het begin van zinnen. Het vereist enige gewenning om die kleine klankverschuiving die het Afrikaans toch heeft eigen te maken. Zonder dat is de eerste helft van een zin voorbij voor je er lekker in zit en dan mis je die paar declaratieve woorden in het begin en dan zal het een zware opgave zijn. Ik ben zelf ook niet erg gewend aan het Afrikaans, maar ik had dit probleem niet. Als een zin begint met 'Hierdie dier' en je mist dat, nu ja, ga het maar doen, wordt lastig.

[@yt-nx1qm]

Ze hadden het nooit moeten splitsen. Maarja dat is bijna 100 jaar geleden gebeurd (in 1925), dat zal niet gemakkelijk terug te draaien zijn.

[@taniavdwalt5034]

I once had a conversation for almost 9 hours on a 13 hour flight with a Dutch speaking person sitting next to me, we talked slowly but managed to understand each other :-) Here and there a word will throw you completely off track, but with sentences and context you can figure it out.

[@grantoosterwyk1135]

As an Afrikaans speaker, this was fun to watch! Thanks for the share.

[@lboston4660]

I don't speak any of these languages but I like how well the speech seems to match the spelling, at least compared to english (low bar I know)

[@alfonsstekebrugge8049]

Dutch and Afrikaans are largely phonetic. Of course there are always parts where it breaks down a bit, but if you see a Dutch word and just follow the rules you will either arrive at the actual pronunciation or make a mistake so common that the listener will still understand. Even if not, as they can sort of write it out in their minds, the listener can still arrive at the word you meant. It is quite baffling that English turned out to be such a spectacular mess when it is really not hard to just change a couple of spelling rules and just fix things.

[@break1146]

@@alfonsstekebrugge8049 It's not so baffling for English and I'd say a lot of it even makes sense, just not for the learner's perspective. I think in English (with limited effectiveness) you might be able to get more comprehensive spelling rules if you take into account when a word was introduced into the language or modified for a reason specific to a philosophy or time period. Doesn't make it much simpler, though, I admit. Seems we are all managing in English anyways, but who knows what the future brings.

[@Wasserkaktus]

I never studied Dutch (other than a few Duolingo lessons), but being a native English speaker who learned German, Dutch is quite easy to understand.

[@iceomistar4302]

I stayed in Amsterdam for a while and I find Afrikaans very easy to understand when written or spoken slowly, it's definitely derived from Hollandic dialects similar to those in Schiedam, the vowels especially are very similar to West Flemish or Southern Hollandic dialects.

[@iceomistar4302]

Also I noticed a feature it seems to share with a lot of Dutch dialects is the loss of the final dental stop in words like Worst and Rood, it also seems tp habe completely omitted the final n which is another feature common to many varieties of Dutch, like in the Netherlands and Flanders they might say Boerenworst but in Afrikaans they say Boerewors. I'd say that despite centuries of evolution the Afrikaans language remains pretty similar to Dutch.

[@geraldsnijders4150]

Heel leerzaam en voor 95 % te verstaan of te begrijpen. Zeker als je de context begrijpt. Ik word er erg blij van om dit te zien.

[@maritzadevries1960]

I love language and thoroughly enjoyed the video. Thank you

[@raven4291]

Baie interesant dat ek almal kon verstaan as 'n Afrikaans sprekede. Lekker video om te kyk, dankie.

[@deancameronkaiser]

Sele hier en eks Engels lol 😂

[@yehodrago2873]

Judging by people's comments in social media I conclude that there isn't a straight answer to this. It might come down to the dialects you speak. Some Dutch speakers claim to not understand a word of Afrikaans (and therefore deny the links between the two languages) while many others (most) say they understand a lot of Afrikaans. Knowing Afrikaans I can understand and read a lot of Dutch - even carrying out a conversation with standard Dutch and Flemish speakers on an occasion and we understood each other. Was really interesting.

[@granthollins7]

I really enjoyed this, thank you. I think it would also be quite interesting to compare some idioms.

[@anjuju2]

as a Southern Dutchman I basically understood about 95% enough to string together an understandable sentence

[@Hilltycoon]

Leuke video 😁😁

[@johanfagerstromjarlenfors]

I’m Swedish, understood most of what was said but Afrikaans was by far the easiest to understand

[@heinvosloo45]

Baie interessante program. Baie dankie!

[@AdolfvanRensburg1]

As a South African and Afrikaans speaker living in the Netherlands and understanding both languages, it was really awesome seeing this interaction and how similar but at the same time how different these two languages are. Really enjoyed it! 😉