Why was the first Afrikaans written in Arabic Letters?

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language spoken by around 13.5 million in South Africa, 60% of white South Africans, and 75% of the country's Coloured population. It is closely related to Dutch with which it shares 90-95% lexical similarities though several other languages have contributed to the development of Afrikaans. In this video I'll be looking at the Cape Malay minority, and the first written record of Afrikaans which was done not in the Roman Alphabet but rather in the Arabic script brought over by the servants and slaves of the Dutch from modern-day Malaysia and Indonesia.
Further reading:
file:///C:/Users/hilbe/Downloads/Arabic-Afrikaans_Literature_at_the_Cape.pdf
web.archive.org/web/200606260...
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[@naboegrainger1132]

I'm a Cape Malay Muslim and can say that I had only a vague idea of Afrikaans in the context of my Cape Malay heritage. Because of course, during Apartheid we weren't thought anything about our history and heritage. Sadly, even in a post-Apartheid South Africa, this remains to be the case in schools. Thank you for doing this video. It means more than you can know.

[@jovanblom7742]

Glad you know now that Afrikaans is YOUR language too!

[@user-vv1do1wg1j]

​@@jovanblom7742 afrikaans is the language of the boer.

[@greedlike]

​@@user-vv1do1wg1j Agreed

[@jovanblom7742]

@@user-vv1do1wg1j Kak, man! Het jy ooit gehoor van kombuistaal? Dis waarvandaan Afrikaans gekom het.

[@TolerantAcceptingModernCommuni]

Are you a slave? Why would Afrikaans be your language, South Africa has many languages, if you are Malay, you should speak Malay. Afrikaans or corrupted Dutch, is for Dutch farmers. Malay is for Malaysians.

[@jasoncreamer5747]

As a South African I had no idea about the Islamic/ Malaysian influence on the society even though I was surrounded by muslims and Cape Malay in Cape Town. I did always wonder why the racial slur for black people was so similar to the arabic word for "non believer" now I know why. Also what is the Dutch word for banana because I assumed piesang was Dutch.

[@thegamingwolf5612]

Banaan is the dutch word for banana

[@florisvansandwijk6908]

In Dutch it's banaan, although piesang also exists, but is used much less.

[@shelby6019]

It really does make sense

[@bapo224]

@@florisvansandwijk6908 The only time I have ever heard piesang in my whole life living in NL is when people talk about Pisang Ambon (which is Indonesian).

[@frank4976]

Had a similar time wondering what the word meant after watching Blood Diamond

[@Artur_M.]

Really cool! This reminds me of Arabitsa (Arabica, Арабіца), known today as the Belarusian Arabic alphabet - a modified form of the Arabic script, developed by the Muslim Tatar community of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, or Lipka Tatars, to write primarily in the form of Ruthenian from which modern Belarusian developed (later also in Polish).

[@AbdullahQecibegCH]

Interesting would like a video about that

[@joshuataylor3550]

The world is a transient place.

[@Dima-px6pr]

I heard throy about the name of Belarusian in Arabic "Bela" mean without and they mean by the people without Russia or the land without Russian

[@Artur_M.]

@Dima Nah, I think that the simpler explanation and the more popular etymology is right - it is the White Rus' (or Ruthenia in the latinised form), which originally referred just to the eastern part of modern Belarus, while the western part was Black Ruthenia, and modern western Ukraine was somitimes known as Red Ruthenia. I believe that the origins of these colorful names of various East Slavic lands are unclear, but there are some theories linking them with the Mongol/Tatar cultural influences. If I'm not mistaken. Of course, it should be obvious that Rus' is not the same as Russia, even though the word Russia (Rossiya) is obviously derived from Rus'.

[@Dima-px6pr]

@@Artur_M. Thanks for information man

[@savgy17]

Im Cape Malay. Thanks so much for bringing part of our history to light. My grandfather still has some Afrikaans manuscripts/books on islam written in the arabic script. I also think there might be a lot more of these manuscripts/books around today.

[@nessunodorme3888]

It sounds like you may be doing scholarship a huge favor if you collected some of those manuscripts even if they're only partial!

[@khairinaafifah4800]

Apa khabar kepada sahabat cape melayu.

[@safuwanfauzi5014]

it called 'JAWI', the architecture called "balai adat melayu", or balai besar melayu', the traditional mosque "multi-tiered pyramidal roof" mosque for example like "masjid agung demak, masjid kg hulu melaka and masjid agung banten". Jawi have additional sound for cha, ga, nga, pa, etc

[@incogb6696]

BU anthropologist Fallou Ngom discovered Ajami, a modified Arabic script, in a box of his late father's old papers. He could be interested since he deals with African arabic.

[@zenkygeorgecleanton8139]

@@safuwanfauzi5014 in Sumatra it's called Arab Melayu, not Jawi

[@mrttripz3236]

As a South African I would like to say that “Cape Malay” (a catch all phrase for the mixed group of people descending from Muslim countries and South Asia) history and culture is very interesting. I look forward to the video

[@mrttripz3236]

@Black Lesbian Poet and I am assuming that you yourself are South African?

[@tristangamz2679]

Mostly South east Asia not really South Asia

[@splashafrica]

South african here they are mostly ethically Javanese the java island is located in Indonesia not Malaysia so cape Malay is misleading

[@mkay187]

@@splashafrica The malay originally referred to the language they spoke and eventual shared culture, but then became a lazy term to describe muslims of the cape

[@Fenditokesdialect]

Kind of the reverse of the situation in Malta with Maltese, an Arabic derived language with a ton of Romance influence, written in the Latin alphabet, and spoken by a Christian population.

[@adrianwhyatt1425]

Second table at 18.49

[@manofwar2354]

Well this is not new palmyria and ghassanids both were arabic and used latin

[@user-cg2tw8pw7j]

​@@manofwar2354 Jesus is the best language because it is very close to mine

[@manofwar2354]

@@user-cg2tw8pw7j what ? From when jesus was a languese ?

[@user-cg2tw8pw7j]

@@manofwar2354 Jesus was speaking Aramaic, one of the Semitic languages, and Arabic, one of the Semitic languages

[@saskloppers1]

Dit is van kardinale belang dat hierdie tipe kultuur-historiese inligting vir die nageslagte bewaar word. Ek is seker dat baie van die Afrikaners van sowel Maleisiese asook Europese afkoms hierdie inligting behoort te sien. Dankie dat dit met ons gedeel is!

[@crankedbaconjumps1786]

As a Cape Coloured, it brings a smile to my face to see someone from overseas notice and spread info about my people's contributions to our beautiful language. It would be amazing if you made a video going deeper into Afrikaans' development.

[@oscarosullivan4513]

It certainly disproves the notion that Afrikaans is a white language

[@meinolfwestig9463]

And an early exposure to German (lower german) Plattdeutsch=plattduits as well. I read once the history of the "Steenberg family" in South Afrika. They started of with Steinberg, a German who arrived with Jan van Riebeeck. He had 4 wives in his life, 2 dutch and 2 freed slaves. Not together, he remarried as a widower. So later the name changed to Steenberg, and from the start that family had a "white" and "coloured" , Malay branch.

[@nessunodorme3888]

Here's another Afrikaans fan from the middle of the United States! While getting a degree in Germanic languages decades ago, I managed to create my own single credit course in Afrikaans at my University. It was the first since the late 1960s when they stopped teaching the language for political reasons. Back then I was happy enough to find a detective novel written in Afrikaans or just someone to clarify my questions about pronunciation. But, Afrikaans has obviously survived worse situations and, now, thank God for the internet!

[@Hannodb1961]

As a white Afrikaner, I take pride in _all_ of our language's history, and have no problem recognising the Malay contribution. It makes the language just that much more interesting and unique. While I love the fact that my language gives me greater access to Europe, I also love the fact that Afrikaans is a _different_ language from Dutch, not just a carbon copy of it.

[@alexmckenzie8491]

Are you able to comment on the disclaimer shown early in the video? I wondered who was supposed to be being shown as a stereotype. I didn't notice anything offensive. What is your opinion please?

[@chantellsmith410]

"Knap gedaan, jy het jou goed van jou taak gekwyt.". As an Afrikaner and as a teacher, that was extremely informative and interesting. I always enjoy your videos covering topics of my country and my language, and I appreciate the effort you put in to pronounce the words correctly. I can not be the only one who enjoys your videos and would like to see more content covering Afrikaans. The comments you made about the written and spoken Afrikaans is spot on, as I often have trouble understanding texts out of older Afrikaans books that I have.

[@coinderoux]

hoe oud is jy? Knap gedaan en gekwyt klink nogals archaic

[@chantellsmith410]

@@coinderoux 36, my onderwysers het dit baie gereeld gebruik in die klas. Dit het net gepas geklink. Boonop is daar so baie suiwer Afrikaanse terme en woorde wat nie meer gebruik word nie, dit sal dalk vreemd klink vir die wat jonger is.

[@xanderehlers1589]

@@coinderoux Ek is in my laat 20s en dit klink vir my normaal

[@coinderoux]

@@xanderehlers1589 dit het ook te doen met waar jy groot word, ek het al gesien dat mense in die ooste praat nogals verskillend, hulle gebruik meer idiome, hulle doen nie ontronding met hul klinkers nie.

[@adrianwhyatt1425]

22.22 - table 3 - letters and diacritic marks, etc. used to write Afrikaans in the Arabic script.

[@Wolf-hh4rv]

My grandfather (born 1903) schooled in the Cape was educated in Dutch, which he found quite foreign as a young child. For me the most interesting thing is the lack of French and German influence given that I believe they made up 35% of European immigrants to the Cape up to 1805.

[@SJokes]

Yeah especially because there are so many Aftikaans people with French surnames like Le Roux, Pienaar, Du Plessis etc

[@jsb7975]

@@SJokes the French last names come from french hugenots who fled to the Netherlands (the Dutch republic) and integrated in Dutch society. Still there are French names existing after so many generations in the Netherlands.

[@caseclosed9342]

@@SJokes not to mention some prominent Afrikaners were of French origin. One that comes to mind is Eugène Terre'Blanche, who ran a far-right group of Afrikaners trying to resist the end of apartheid. As his name suggests he was of French decent. (Not saying what he did was great but he was a part of history.)

[@seamonster936]

It is not surprising at all, the VOC required their employees to speak Dutch, including those from the German states and they mainly came from those bordering or near the Netherlands where they would be in a language continuum between Hollandic through to Low Saxon (Low German). Furthermore The Company only provided education and religious services in its territories in Dutch, although Simon van der Stel did grant the Huguenots initial use of their own ministers for French religious services eventually they had no option but to make use of Dutch amenities and full integration into the Cape Dutch population.

[@Wolf-hh4rv]

@@seamonster936 I read that many of the German men were unemployed mercenaries that had fought with the Protestants in the 30 years war (ended 1648). A history of a wine estate in the Stellenbosch area written early last Century by the Lady of the estate - She wrote that the authorities allocated land to a number of French settlers, in a manner such that they would all have Dutch neighbours.

[@ryanmorganchristison786]

“ilms” comes from the Arabic “ilm (علم)” meaning knowledge and “dalil” comes from the Arabic “dalīl (دليل)” meaning evidence.

[@user-28qhfk65]

In Malay, some words were borrowed from arabic is mostly because of religion (Islam). Dalil and ilmu comes from arabic language as well as kitab/buku (book). As you can see we also borrowed words from english like buku (book) and the way it is used is buku refers to most books that we use while kitab USUALLY refers to islamic religion or arabic written books, though if used to refers normal books is not wrong either.

[@gamingthisera6339]

I'm sabahan christian, it's fascinating that even us use some of the Arabic words, like the word Allah for God, even our Bible we call alkitab

[@user-28qhfk65]

@@gamingthisera6339 Huh I didnt know that. Interesting, I wonder how that words makes it into christian translation, thanks for sharing!

[@hamdilehnid2603]

@@user-28qhfk65 Hebrew: the old testament language (Elohim, Ketuvim) (sefer is more used now) Aramaic: the new testament language (Elaha/Alaha, kethabh) Arabic: the Quran's language (Allah, Kitab) Are all semitic languages and use basically the same roots with different pronunciation and conjugation

[@hamdilehnid2603]

@@user-28qhfk65 Although since the comment is from a Sabahan Christian I think its more of the language spoken in Malaysia having an effect on all religions. As is the case for Arabic speaking Christians having most of their prayer in Arabic.

[@aimanmarzuqi4804]

As a Malay from Malaysia, the story and existence of the Cape Malays has always been fascinating to me. I even have a classmate in my school who was a Cape Malay from South Africa.

[@MohamedHassan-ui1cq]

Aiman I would not be surprised if you are Malay of Arab Yemen origin. Many Malays were of that stock too.

[@aimanmarzuqi4804]

@@MohamedHassan-ui1cq I mean, you are right, my family did trace their lineage back to Muslim merchants from Yemen.

[@JorgeGarcia-lw7vc]

I learned Persian and the Persian, Arabic-based alphabet while I worked in Afghanistan. I ended up studying and learning quite a bit of Afrikaans over there from having a number of South African friends and colleagues. I had learned Indonesian more than 15 years ago, and although I had become quickly fluent, I forgot a lot of it. It was fascinating to see a lot of this knowledge coming together so beautifully in this video. I had trouble reading the A. Afrikaans text but did get a good chunk after some deciphering. Beautiful, fascinating video, bringing together such gorgeous languages and cultures. Dankie, terima kasih, tashakur!

[@nunosilva7505]

@user-xu7rk1uf2u,cape coloured here,this is known to us,mostly the local Muslims,various words exists to this day,me,I’ve been personally to indonesia, I was shocked at the similarities that exists to this very day…terima kasih

[@adrianwhyatt1425]

More videos please!

[@TheJohnnyJohnny]

I'm from Malaysia 🇲🇾 and the fact we have this kind of influence in other country is utterly mind blowing🤯. I never knew we have ever adopt Arabic script(Jawi as we called it) in another language that is not us 😂.

[@Zim___]

Dutch conquered Melaka and Indonesian archipelago for a long time. They displace a lot of Malays to other part of the world that are Dutch colony to become slave. I've known the existence of Cape Malay as it was aired in TV3 show, Majalah Tiga, before. But to my surprise they were once play a huge part in Afrikaans language.

[@dofinoah]

​@@Zim___most of them were expelled to south africa was scholars, royals and fighter against the ducth coloniser.

[@daddyshrek7376]

Wait till You hear about Cocos and Keeling Island ;)

[@TheJohnnyJohnny]

@@daddyshrek7376 I already knew about that, and in fact I knew about Malay community in Africa but never knew about using Jawi in Dutch Afrikaan language. Sure, Malay has a long history of abandoning our own original writing (the Rencong script) in favor of adopting writing system of another advance civilization, but never knew about this stuff until right now 🤓.

[@jirachi-wishmaker9242]

@@TheJohnnyJohnny you also traded advanced names. Is there any malay local names?

[@lordofdarkness4204]

Can I just say that I appreciate how respectful and understanding you are in general? You never come accros as dismissive and derogatary towards any culture or language group or people, and your just very respctful in general. I say this as someone who is brown and always worries just a little about the possibility of someone being overtly racist, so seeing this is nice and very uplifting. I also like seeing how much effort you put into trying to pronounce everything correctly.

[@user-cg2tw8pw7j]

The Romans, what do you say, my brother? This is the message of the greats

[@rohankishibe8259]

You see, this is a true neutral researcher, they're not blinded by hate but enlightened with their passion to learn.

[@tahirrizwan6759]

omg this is so fascinating to see. As a native Dutch speaker, I was always fascinated by Afrikaans and our lexical similarity. As somebody that can read both the Arabic script and knows Dutch, this was such a crazy linguistic adventure. Interesting that Malay-Afrikaans has letters to sound out Dutch like the -ng sound. Since I’m muslim, the arabic words were no issue for me XD. I always speak Dutch to Afrikaners when I meet them and we have no trouble communicating. Unfortunately, there’s been times where we had to switch to English because of fluency issues with Afrikaans. I love how Afrikaans keeps words so unnessarily pure especially with new coined terms or technology like in Dutch we’d say homepage, they’d say thuisblad, or tosti becomes braaibroodje loool. I worked in customer service and we had lots of Afrikaanse customers. It’s always fun to hear and read Afrikaans because it’s exactly written how we speak in Amsterdam minus the Afrikaans grammar. Het was echt een interessante video om te kijken. ان فر ده منسن دي دت كونان لايسن ان فاينه دخ نح حه lol

[@poppinc8145]

_"Since I’m muslim, the arabic words were no issue for me"_ Being Muslim does not mean automatically knowing Arabic script, and likewise knowing Arabic script does not automatically mean being Muslim (there's always been Christian Arabs). If your point is that every Muslim should know how to read the Quran, that is false. The Quran wasn't mechanically printed until the early 20th century and mass printed until the late 20th century (prior to that it was considered insulting to reproduce a Quran other than by hand). Most Muslims in pre-modern history did not own or personally read the Quran, that was largely the domain of Alims. Mass literacy in general is a 20th century phenomenon with the exception of the Protestant World, where Sola Scriptura meant they leaned towards mass literacy first.

[@tahirrizwan6759]

@@poppinc8145 I did not in any way imply that that being Muslim meant knowing Arabic script nor did I mean that knowing Arabic script means being a Muslim. It doesn’t even make sense. Just as you said, there are Arab Christians and Jews whose first language is Arabic. Language has no religion, but can be highly associated with one. My point was neither that every Muslim should know how to read Quran. The reason why I said what I said is because the words as a Muslim who speaks Dutch these words are recognizable even though my first language is not Arabic because these words are a common ocurrence either through religious incalcation or through loanwords which are also present in Malay. Apologies, if I gave you the wrong idea. Also thank you for the insight :)

[@marciano5368]

Kijken is a baby chicken in Afrikaans 🤣😂

[@tahirrizwan6759]

@@marciano5368 spreken jullie de ‘ui’ niet uit? haha grappig in plat Amsterdams klinkt het ook als “kijken”

[@LMvdB02]

Jij ook een fijne dag gewenst

[@cocodell]

Please do a video on the origins and development of the Afrikaans language. I had no idea about the Arab-Afrikaans history! I’m so impressed at your Afrikaans accent. Fascinating video, thank you.

[@blujay2282]

Please do a video about the Afrikaans language, it is so in-depth and complex ❤❤

[@dannyarcher6370]

No, it isn't lol. It's one of the most simplified languages on the planet due to creolisation.

[@blujay2282]

@@dannyarcher6370 of course I’m just saying random shit so this ou makes the video

[@Somebodyherefornow]

@@blujay2282 😂😂

[@AbdulKareemAbdulRahman]

as a malay Malaysian this is astounding! subbed!

[@kykale]

Some interesting facts: the South African skewered meat dish, sosatie, takes it origin from sate. Also, the first islamic school was founded by Sheikh Yusuf, who was from Makassar in Indonesia, but was exiled to South Africa. When he died in South Africa, the location was named after his place of origin: Macassar.

[@wolfieinu]

Yep, sosatie = saus (sauce) + sate, because it's marinated :)

[@safuwanfauzi5014]

Cape Malay are mixed Malay(Melaka/Malaccan, Johor, Riau, Jambi), Minangkabau/West Sumatran, South Sulawesi Bugis and Makassar, Javanese and Ambonese. because of lingua franca of Malay, the Malay become unified language, same with Sri Lankan Malay except in Cocos and Christmas island which 100% Malay from Peninsular/Penang, Melaka, Johor, Singapore and Riau archipelago/Kepulauan Riau). Sri Lankan from Bugis, Makassar, Aceh, Minangkabau, Javanese and Malay from Sumatra exile by Dutch, and British time Malay from Peninsular as solider(British Malay regiment) and exile. Sri Lanka and Cape Town/South Africa are 2 place where British exile Malay rebel. Jawi script are used by Malay and Malayic people like Banjar, Kutai, Minangkabau, also closed related like Aceh and Cham they called Jawi. and culturally Malay and closed culture like Tausug/Sulu, Maranao, Maguindanao, Iranun, Melanau , Rejang and Lampung. in Sulu archipelago and Sabah called Jawi, but in Mindanao they called 'Kirim", while Javanese, Madurese, Sundanese called Pegon. Bugis, Makassar, Luwu, Buton and Mandar called it 'Serang'. because of Malay langauge as lingua franca, the Javanese, Bugis, Makassarese mixed with Malay(Peninsular, Singapore, Sumatra and Kalimantan) becoming Malay. in Cocos Island, they are mostly from Peninsular, but Riau daratan dialect become dominant. the Johor-Lingga(Kepri) do not become dominant but Riau, that why Cocos Malay very similar to Indonesian, and Christmas Island Malay more similar to Malaysian(Johor, Selangor, KL, Melaka, Singapore, Kepulauan Riau/Batam, Karimun, Lingga)

[@motorola9956]

Hello ky kale, I recognized you from The Present Past :)

[@mkay187]

Even bobotie and boeber has roots in indo/malay lands.

[@nawhaal2069]

As a Cape Malay I’m familiar with this history but found your detail fascinating and insightful/ sharing widely 😀.

[@stixfiddles7919]

Same here..read some research by the late Ahmat David's so it makes a lot of sense!

[@cannonf_odder3041]

Out of curiosity how prominent is bahasa melayu among the Cape Malays if you guys even speak it at all

[@OsamasStory]

4:44 I love the fact that you used the flag of Majapahit, an Empire based on the island of Java from 1293 to around 1500 also known as Wilwatikta, and their flag is one of the oldest flag with red and white stripes, older then the flag of US and flag of the EIC and flag of Malaysia.

[@kebman]

*But seriously now:* Afrikaans: Verstaan jy my? Dutch: Versta jij mij? Norwegian: Forstår du meg? Danish: Forstår du mig? Swedish: Förstår du mig? Afrikaans: Dan kan ons saam praat. Dutch: Dan kunnen wij samen praten. Norwegian: Da kan vi prate sammen. Swedish: Då kan vi prata tillsammans. Danish: Så kan vi tale sammen.

[@Arazhul12]

German :verstehst du mich? Bavarian: verschtest mi? 😂

[@masonharvath-gerrans832]

German: Verstehst du mich? Dann können wir zusammen sprechen!

[@xeon39688]

@@Arazhul12 Bavarian trying to be Austrian be like

[@xaverlustig3581]

German doesn't have "praten", so we're the odd man out. Or I should say, standard German doesn't; Low German has "praten".

[@masonharvath-gerrans832]

@@xaverlustig3581 to compound it, English has the word “to prattle”, though it is a manner of speaking that is rambling and directionless.

[@johanbarnard3435]

"Baie goëie geskiedenis stuk van ons unieke taal". I'm a Afrikaner so Afrikaans is my home language. Love these kinds of videos really doing proper research on the language history. Afrikaans has Arabic, German, French, Dutch, Portuguese and even native African languages influences. Yes it's base language is Dutch but it used all the others to develop its structures and words over time and truely grown to be unique in itself

[@richardmccallister1382]

When learning Afrikaans in the 1960s (by shortwave radio), I remember being told that the first thing written in Afrikaans was a poem written in response to the second seizure of the Cape by the British. A few years later, I heard that there were Afrikaans documents written in Arabic script. Glad to hear more of the story.

[@WayneKitching]

There is a guy who inherited his grandfather's early Afrikaans books who did a dramatically reading of that poem KZbin. The author was mocking the way the defenders spoke and ended up writing the first Afrikaans poem. 😂

[@twitteringothers5059]

@19:37 Dalil and Ilm are also Arabic words which went into Malay. In Malay, Ilm is always written as ilmu and pronounced as it is spelt ' ill-moo ". And Ilmu means knowledge.

[@1chrisluyt]

As an Afrikaner (from Voortrekker stock) I enjoyed this very much. The Afrikaans language is so rich and influenced by so manny cultures that a consideration of the Koi-San influence on the Afrikaans language or the comparison to Flemish might be of interest to make a video on. Lastly hank-you for keeping our language interesting.

[@jovanblom7742]

I might be funny like this, but as an Afrikaans-speaker, I understand Flemish better than I understand Dutch.

[@mkay187]

That's why I'll always vouch for Afrikaans as a unifying truly diverse language x

[@splashafrica]

@@jovanblom7742 Flemish is closer to English then german the base for all germanic languages all Afrikaners speak English to some degree so it's a perfect in between language for Afrikaners and Dutch speakers

[@jovanblom7742]

@@splashafrica On another vid I made a similar comment, saying I thought Afrikaans was closer to Flemish because I understand it better, and a Dutch-speaker took issue with it saying Afrikaans was mostly Dutch (which it is). I ended by saying I don't know then why I understand Flemish better. But your explanation makes sense. Thanks, I'll explore Flemish further...

[@splashafrica]

@@jovanblom7742 there are words in Afrikaans that also occur with in dutch but the meaning would be different for example I've seen an afrikaans person use "klaar kom" to finish a task the Dutch translation is “klaarkomen” to have an orgasm the literal meaning in dutch is still too finish so im surprised they took it this way but it is what it is i guess its like gay in English people avoid the use for happy but it could still be understoodas happy... or another example could be "bromponie" the Afrikaans word for scooter will translate to snoring pony or the dutch word Eekhoorntjesbrood it was supposed to be understood as Porcini mushrooms but instead translates as “little squirrels’ bread”.

[@albertjanvanhoek294]

Inherited from my father-in-law (he was from the Moluccan archipelago): I still have one of his textbooks "Beberapa Tjeritera Melajoe" / "Maleisch Leesboek" (1920:7) - both titles in Dutch and Malay of old (now: “Maleis” and “Beberapa Cerita Melayu”) - with the stories themselves printed in an adapted Arabic script. There was already a long-standing tradition, at least in what is now Indonesia, to write the Malay language in “jawi”, the adapted Arabic script. Many words in Malay (and nowadays Bahasa Indonesia) come from other languages (Arabic - in the video "dalîl" and “'ilm” are called Malay words but they are purely Arabic - Persian - “pasar” from Farsi “bâzâr”, English: “bazaar” - Portuguese, Dutch, Sanskrit - "agama", mentioned in the video, is Sanskrit - Chinese, et cetera). The first word of the previously mentioned reading book in "jawi" is "hikâyah" - the Arabic word for “story”. There is currently a lot of talk in the Netherlands about slavery. But almost exclusively about the - horrible - Trans-Atlantic slave trade (in which Dutch traders fully participated), almost never about the horrific things that Dutch colonists did in what is now Indonesia and South Africa. For example, the Moluccan Banda Islands were almost completely "depopulated" by Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the founder of Batavia (now: Djakarta): most inhabitants were slaughtered. The others were taken away as enslaved people. In the eastern Dutch colonies, slavery was just as bad as - if not more horrific than - in the western Dutch colonies. And if there is one original Dutch word known worldwide (an infamous word, rightly so), it is "apartheid". And the “architect” of “apartheid”, Hendrik Verwoerd, was born in South Africa … oh no: in Amsterdam.

[@meinolfwestig9463]

"Apartheid" was basically started by the English. The Afrikaners later gave it a name and enforced it more strict as "petty Apartheid".

[@nessunodorme3888]

That's all very fascinating information about the somewhat schizophrenic Dutch character, at least when comparing their behavior at home with behavior in its colonies. I believe there was a similar history of brutality in Surinam. It's not very well known history at all.

[@enchemimpi4360]

Dude,there is no Malay(nowaday Indonesian)..Malay is still here,in Malaysia yet in Indonesia

[@albertjanvanhoek294]

@@enchemimpi4360 I do not quite understand what you mean. Today, the official language in Indonesia is Bahasa Indonesia, a partly "constructed" post-independence language. In the "Dutch era" there existed a very simplified language (with some regional differences: for example "I" is: "beta" or "aku" or "saja") that was used for basic communication between the different peoples of the many islands. In Dutch this language was called "Maleis". My father-in-law also used that language after he was "transported" to the Netherlands by the Dutch government and spoke about "Moluks Maleis" (Moluccan Malay). In addition to that "language of communication", he also spoke his own language that had nothing to do with Classical Malay or with the simplified "communication Malay". I have no knowledge of the situation in (present-day) Malaysia.

[@enchemimpi4360]

@@albertjanvanhoek294 Moluccan Malay?Sounds like Malaccan Malay which is one of the greatest Malay Kingdom in the Malay Archipelago which is currently in Malaysia..You can't just say that Malay just referring to Indonesia,while Malaysia even still now still use Malay as National Language,still have the Malay Rulers(Raja/Sultan).It's like you're talking about English and you just mentioned America without The United Kingdom/England specifically.

[@Troyless]

As an arabic speaker, I can tell you that dalil is also a word in arabic and it means "evidence". I'm halfway thru the video and it's really interesting!

[@saidultima]

Yeah, also ilm is from Arabic which means religious knowledge

[@mohamedr1164]

Can also mean catalogue

[@bonzaisamurai4072]

Hi I'm an afrikaans speaker, the video was fantastic and would love to see more. I would like to add tho, cape afrikaans and boer afrikaans do differ still to this day. With the cape afrikaans dialect being closer to Dutch phonetically and the Afrikaner or Boer dialect being closer too it grammatically ( I see grammatically but I'm unsure... It's more that larger words are used etc... I think this might be the effect of having the Statenbijbel as only reference guide to grammar when we were on trek and settled in the transvaal) It would be interesting to see a video on this. As the Boers or Afrikaners were quite separated from the Cape for a hundred odd years or soo with more old Dutch influence. Whereas the cape got more English influence because the British colonized it.

[@Waldemarvonanhalt]

The only difference I can notice is in accents and how certain words are pronounced.

[@bonzaisamurai4072]

@@Waldemarvonanhalt that's true... But in my time I have lived on a farm in limpopo tzaneen area (its where I grew up) then moved down to the karoo on a farm near calitzdorp. And I can say there is a very clear difference in how the people talk in regards to grammar, the best example I can give is that in the cape I heard the word "seg" a lot more instead of "sê". For example "Ek seg dan vir die man!" Instead of "ek sê vir die man!". The klem is used a lot differently, similar too Dutch in a lot of words. There are many such examples especially the more rural you go, and it's more under the coloureds than whites in my opinion. I would recommend Adam small, a famous poet that spoke with more cape grammar and accent, but even he does not speak like that what I heard on the farms

[@jamesbotha2422]

@@bonzaisamurai4072 Afrikaans spoken in the Karoo can be said to be a dialect of Cape Afrikaans, but Afrikaans spoken in Cape Town compared to the Northern Transvaal (now Limpopo) are EXACTLY the same apart from minor pronunciation differences such "ek" and "hek", i.o.w. the 'e' sound (being flatter the more north you go and more rounded and back of throat in the south). Grammatically they are exactly the same. However, you do find differences in speech, as noted already, in the Karoo as well as the West Coast, where it is still very much Afrikaans, but with some Dutch words and pronunciations

[@bonzaisamurai4072]

@@jamesbotha2422 yes you are correct... I think this is because close to Capetown isn't as "rural". But you are spot on with the west coast similarities with the karoo accent. Or rather rural karoo, I don't hear it as often in Oudtshoorn as I would De rust or Calitzdorp but also the west coast has more pride in their accent I would say.

[@hrenes]

Ik lees Afrikaans en vind dat het klinkt als mijn opa uit Friesland. Ik vind het gewoon een Nederlands dialect, dat door de politiek niet als zodanig werd/wordt erkend. Leuk als bijleesliteratuur is 'die swye van Mario Salviati" van Etienne van Heerden. Bedankt voor deze leuke leerzame video.

[@mauritsvanoranje6725]

Yes, if arikaans is not Dutch, then neither is any other dialect spoken in the Netherlands.

[@Nafeels]

As a Malaysian I was blown away by the very existence of a small Malay community in South Africa when I first found it out a few years ago, complete with similar cultures like the wedding rituals. This documentary just adds more interesting knowledge I’ve never even thought of. Turns out, colonization had bigger effects to the society more so than what our History textbooks had portrayed. I would also like to highlight the lexicons used to compare the modern Malay and Afrikaans language side by side, since a few of the words were either old school or just borrowed from our neighbour Indonesia, which surprise surprise, is another former Dutch colony. Words like Jepun (Jepang), anting-anting (kraboe), perompak (rampok) are just some of the immediate things I noticed. Great video nevertheless! We learn something new everyday.

[@Jobe-13]

The Middle East’s influence on the west is so cool and interesting imo.

[@omargerardolopez3294]

22:01 It was still called Constantinople then (Konstantiniyye), the name Istanbul came after the Turkish War of Independence

[@rogerwilco2]

Ah thanks, I was unsure but hadn't looked it up yet.

[@ibrahimmohammedibrahim9273]

Original name is islambul

[@omargerardolopez3294]

@@ibrahimmohammedibrahim9273 What? No, after Atatürk it was named Istanbul, not even Islambul

[@ibrahimmohammedibrahim9273]

@@omargerardolopez3294 It was the nick name by the locals Atatürk is just made a official

[@omargerardolopez3294]

@@ibrahimmohammedibrahim9273 Eistánpolis was the "nickname", it simply meant "to the city" in greek

[@JVmz0]

Great video! For a moment I thought you were either an Afrikaner that studied overseas or a Muslim revert. FIY the current Afrikaans spoken by colored people in Cape Town is officially known as Kaaps. Another interesting fact is that new Muslims or Muslim children in Cape Town who speak Afrikaans are taught to read Arabic transliteration (Latin text) but pronounce the words in Afrikaans, so for example: the word حرام haraam (forbidden) is more accurately pronounced GARAAM if the latter is read as an Afrikaans word. The correct Arabic pronunciation for the name Adam is the same as for in Afrikaans, ءادم AADAM... Oh one last thing... In Arabic there is a letter called ج JEEM, but in both Arabic and Afrikaans Jesus' name is not pronounce with a Jay sound. In fact there is no Jay sound in Aramaic (Jesus' mother tongue) so I wonder where the name change came from and what is the most accurate pronunciation? Please do a video on that! 🙏 P.S. You pronounced all the Arabic, Afrikaans and Malay words correctly, great job!

[@noyota]

Anglicized, of course. The Angel told Miryam to call Him Yeshua and din't tell Mary to call Him Jesus. And this ineptitude would eventually stand in the way to Salvation of millions.

[@jovanblom7742]

For interest: Arabic = Issa Chinese (Cantonese) = YeshSou Chinese (Han) =耶稣 = Ye Su Ay Wo Dutch = Jezus French = Jésus German = Jesus Hebrew = Yeshua Hindi = yīśu Italian = Gesu Japanese =イエス・キリスト = Iesu kirisuto Korean = 예수 = Yesu Portuguese = Jyesus Russian = Иисус Spanish = Jesus

[@Juiceeway]

As a person who can speak, read and write Arabic, English and Dutch. This is tbh wholesome. Gonna bring A. Afrikaans back people! 😂

[@harrispinkham]

It still kind of lives on if you look at the Cape Coloured community. They speak a different version (or dialect I suppose) of Afrikaans than what is now Standard Afrikaans. It sounds a lot like this Arabic Afrikaans still 😊

[@mkay187]

@@harrispinkham The muslim cape coloured community particularly.

[@christopherellis2663]

I knew the son of an Imam from Cape Town in Sydney NSW. I knew that Afrikaans had been written in adapted Arabic (there's a Jawi ng in there). Your Arabic flowed

[@ultroytheroy34]

I love learning more about my South African heritage.🇦🇺💛🇿🇦

[@wolraadwoltemade3275]

Shit flag though

[@ultroytheroy34]

@@wolraadwoltemade3275 Yeah the watermark can be weird sometimes

[@christiandevey3898]

For context my grandfather was a white Anglo Canadian. My grandfather was an inorganic chemist (metallurgist I think) and some time during apartheid (but before the sanctions), he and some of his colleagues went on a business trip to South Africa, one of his colleagues, who went was either Indonesian or Malay, was confused about which bathroom to use, but he was told that because he was Canadian he would use the white bathroom. Just an interesting story relating to the complicated race politics of South Africa, in particular concerning Malay people

[@rogerwilco2]

That is an interesting story showing how insane the whole idea was/is.

[@crqf2010ruler]

@@rogerwilco2 Except it's not since it was an idea socio-politically based, on the interests of a class of rulers that did not deal with any active health or biology related questions but merely administrated wealth, finance and economic matters. In short/sum, it wasn't used in the exact same sense of any rational-natural law, thus, of course it seems insane, precisely because it superficially looks to be grounded in an easily identifiable reality. The problem isn't the law, it's interpretation and application, which is wholly made by people. And since people have each different views in regard to utility, virtue and such, exactly due to a lack of a unified, common education and lessons on how to think and behave, you end up having stupid situations like that.

[@billclinton912]

Chemist? Breaking bad?

[@loreman7267]

Yeah, they made the Chinese exempt as well. The current govt, however, classes them as 'black' for their own discrimination purposes!

[@RenegadeShepard69]

What a fundamentally and essentially disgusting country. Should've left it alone to the actual natives of that land.

[@PaulVegan]

Thank you for this video. The history and the development of the Afrikaans language is indeed a bit complicated, it would be absolutely wonderful to see you create and release more content about this.

[@Sparhawk77]

Wow as an Afrikaans speaker this was really interesting. Your Afrikaans have improved lol

[@mccoyfleming6664]

PLEEAAASE do that video about the development of Afrikaans. I went to South Africa this summer, and it was one of the most politically and historically fascinating places on Earth.

[@Alrik.]

At 16:48 the standard Dutch shouldn't be written "verheve" but rather "verheven". This mistake is easily made however because most (modern) Dutch speakers don't pronounce this -n. I always find it funny to see how Afrikaans has standardized this in their spelling. Thank you for this interesting video and I would certainly like to see more videos about the history of Afrikaans!

[@ripple123]

haha im from south africa and i was learning a bit of dutch (having done afrikaans in school for 12 years) and I kept pronouncing the -n but in videos from Politievlogger Jan-Willem, they almost never pronounce the -n and figured thats where it comes from, found it quite amusing

[@Alrik.]

@ripple123 indeed! In German the transition to not pronouncing it is actually visible in regional dialects. In the standard High German the -n is pronounced clearly but in the (south-)western dialects (bordering the Netherlands) it isn't pronounced.

[@TJ-cj7en]

Love this video and I love your commitment to pronouncing things correctly! Dalil and ilm also come from Arabic (perhaps they were borrowed into Malay first and then into Arabic Afrikaans). Also, in the Arabic script you've written 'aalam instead of dunya (which I get is because you can't read the script but they pretty much mean the same thing anyway) and jannat instead of jannah. When talking about paradise by itself you would say jannah but when using it in the possessive grammatical construct (known as idafa in Arabic) i.e. 'paradise of something' you would say jannat e.g. jannat ul-firdaws meaning garden of paradise. Btw, many other languages used to use the Arabic script as well like Bosnian and Swahili.

[@nessunodorme3888]

I saw that discrepancy with the words for, "world". Are the two words more or less interchangeable? I thought _dunya_ had a more religious, ethereal meaning as in, "of this world" or "earthly". What is the difference if you don't mind explaining. Also, how do you spell _dunya_ in Arabic script? Thank you so much in advance!

[@MultiAmmar2000]

@@nessunodorme3888 Dunya would be spelled دنيا In the arabic script. This is without diacretics. With diacretics it would be دُنْيَا

[@nessunodorme3888]

@@MultiAmmar2000 Thanks very much, I appreciate that.

[@sonofamortician]

verskriklik interesant! I knew some of this, but had no idea about the Arabic script early writing, we also have a few Arabic words in Afrikaans, mainly due to the Cape-Malay influence, some of the most famous I cannot repeat as it is a racial slur but means Pagan or heretic in Arabic, of course the most interesting words in Afrikaans is from local African languages, too numerous to mention, but I especially love all the onomatopoeic ones for animals which sound like them like Kudu (the sound of the hooves when they run) or Hadidah (literally what they sound like), anyway love it, great research, so glad you mention the Cape-Malay Cuisine, it is the best, and also worth a shout-out is there architectural influences, compared to the dutch style (kaapse Duitse gewels) compared to the colourful houses of 'Bo Kaap' the Malay area, and the Cape Malay Carnival known locally as the 'The Kaapse Klopse' highly recommended to visit during this time. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jHWrlJiFi9GKg6s

[@sonofamortician]

@Philby Iasgair exactly that word

[@noyota]

Daardie is eintlik Kaaps-Hollandse gewels....

[@TheIndogamer]

0:24 Me a Formula 1 fan: "OH GOD MAKE IT STOP" F1 jokes aside, well researched video, man! As an Indonesian, I'm fascinated with the connection of Indonesian/Malay language and dialects with others, and it surprises me to find out just how influential Malayan influence was to this Dutch dialect of Afrikaans. If only Malay had more influence in Afrikaans, it could've been a Dutch-Indonesian/Malay bridge language Extra: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eYe4maeIlLySmrs I found a video of an Indonesian deciphering an Arabic Afrikaans text. Perhaps this would be interesting

[@meowiguess903]

Post Dutch Anthem Disorder... IT'S EVERYWHERE 😔

[@tunahan4418]

I speak Dutch and can read the Arabic script and know some Arabic yet really struggled with reading that lol.

[@patrickdegenaar9495]

Fascinating! Well done Hilbert.

[@HBon111]

Your graphics and presentation are always so well done. It's a pleasure, really.

[@pieterrossouw8596]

Some of this information is represented well in the French Hugenote museum in Franschhoek, Cape Town. There's artifacts and images of some of the earliest written Afrikaans there. The focus there is more on the oppression French people faced from the church before Hugenotes fled to South Africa, US, etc. If you're ever in Franchshoek, I'd recommend going - the history is fascinating.

[@Hannodb1961]

_Ofcause_ I would love to see more videos on our language. I _always_ respect it when foreigners show an interest in my language, and I love the outsider perspective they bring to it, which is not very common. You have gone in more depth into the Arabic Afrikaans than I as a native speaker ever did, and I think you did a better job reading that Arabic Afrikaans than I would've. I do not really care if its a "creole language." Technically, isnt English also a "creole" language, with influences from German, Gallic, Danish and French? Isnt _all_ languages creole to some extend? And while it is similar enough for me to understand Dutch, I do believe its also different enough to be regarded as a language rather than a dialect.

[@matewis222]

UIeindelik! Thank you for making this video. It was much needed. Vertel vir die mense.

[@ingevankeirsbilck9601]

As a Flemish woman who has lived in Malaysia I really enjoyed this video!

[@systemreset9410]

enjoyed the video a lot. keep finding interesting stuff like this.

[@nomanahmed9930]

Pretty cool story indeed. I lived in NL for some time and picked up Dutch. As a native Arabic speaker, it is fascinating to learn about such interconnections.

[@MohaMoha-dq5qj]

Thanks to all who prepared and broadcasted this great report

[@sumtingwong665]

I'm honestly shocked to see my people's story actually being told on the internet. Normally this is just something learnt in Cape Town history classes in school. Jyt n baie goeie video gemaak 🙏

[@cobus5841]

What an interesting and informative video! As an Afrikaans speaking individual, I can commend you for your efforts. You didn't "butcher" it. In Afrikaans culture we really appreciate it when people make the effort to learn and speak our language and will never take offense! Afrikaans truly was a "kitchen language" that got a mish-mash of vocabulary even from the local tribes. As it originated here in South Africa, we regard it as truly indigenous and representative of the history of South Africa as it is so intertwined with our development as a country. We do not however regard Afrikaans as a pidgin or creole language, as the language has also developed further and formed its own vocabulary and style or prose to be sufficiently distinguishable from all the languages which it originated from. You've touched on the subject of the Dutch and slavery of non-Christians. A point to consider was that over time the Dutch Settlers - who came to South Africa as "Free Burghers" started disassociating with Dutch- and later English rule and already referred to themselves as "Africaanders" in 1707. These "Africaanders" were regarded as low-class by the Dutch, French and English. They were not as wealthy and worked in close contact with the slaves and indigenous people. There were also reports of interracial offspring and marriages. These "Africaanders" had already started converting slaves and indigenous people to Christianity before the amelioration laws of 1808. I am just glad we didn't retain arabic writing!

[@michaelbotha4176]

Absolutely loved watching this! As a "boer" living in the UK.. And doing business in The Netherlands,I love to say Afrikaans is the most modern language on the planet! As for Cape Malay cuisine- 200…%.best food in the World!! Keep up the great work!💕

[@HermesSonofZeus]

Fascinating subject, wonderfully researched. Thank you!

[@misterbacon4933]

This is a mind-blowing episode! Afrikaans in Arabic script!! 😳

[@wesmat78]

Ah this is excellent Hilbert! Ek het beslis baie by jou geleer in hierdie video, dankie. Please do tell us more about Afrikaans. I speak it daily and never knew any of this. Baie insiggewend!

[@RonFer1945]

My previous comment may have sounded a bit critical but it wasn't. I found the video excellent and would love you to go deeper into the development of Afrikaans. I also love your burst of the Wilhelmus near the start. I think this is one of the most stirring national anthems as well as being the oldest.

[@rogerwilco2]

The burst of Wilhelmus is a standard thing that Hilbert does every time the Dutch get mentioned.

[@Mo-zb2dy]

Great video. Well researched and so informative. Had no idea about this. Really amazing

[@al-amiyr1523]

Hi Hilbert. And Excellent program you have made. The text you analyzed is the beginning of the Afrikaans introduction of the book by my great grandfather - The Shaykh of Knowledge Abuw Bakr Effendi (1814 - 1880). This book was written in 1869 and 1500 copies were printed in Istanbul in 1876. I am in possession of the original manuscript as well as the printed version. If , ever, you would need or like I can send you copies. The original consists of about 800 pages and is only one of the books that were printed as one volume.

[@kuroazrem5376]

Kitab and Dunya are Arabic words that were later incorporated into Malay. Same thing for dalil and ilmu.

[@fatimakay9488]

And also into farsi urdu

[@revinhatol]

In everything we do (especially in the scripts, Latin or non-Latin), Rasullullah SAW tells us that no one creed is superior to another except in piety and good deeds.

[@amandao.]

Thank you for your time and research , A follow up video will be great to further expand on the History of this beautiful language .

[@ebeibraheem]

SubhanAllah.. as a south African I never knew any of this.. thanks again, most appreciated

[@pokerface7840]

What an interesting video! I had no idea Islam or the Arabic script reached South Africa before the 20th century. I found your pronunciation of Arabic words to be very good. I just wanted to point out that both "ilmi" and "daleel" are derived ultimately from Arabic even though they might also be Malay words. Thumbs up 😊

[@thelibraryismyhappyplace1618]

Islam and Arabic script didn't come to South Africa just once. From 1860 onwards, the British brought Indians to SA as indentured labourers. Many were Muslim, as were many traders and artisans who paid their own way to SA. Religious leaders came too, to serve their flock.

[@tysonplett3328]

I would love more Afrikaans videos, it's a very fascinating and unique language origin-wise.

[@anneeq008]

Wow what a video!!! Great and FASCINATING topic!! Well done sir!!

[@cronjevanwyk1328]

love this! thank you. interestingly, your pronunciation is so good that I can clearly distinguish two distinct accents in your tutoring. there is some northern influence, I'm guessing Pretoria and some Southern, Northern suburbs of capetown.

[@corvandervyver8037]

Very interesting video. Please do another video on the early development of Afrikaans as it's also unclear how and where it started to deviate from Dutch.

[@BoerChris]

Fascinating and erudite video! Thank you. My own feeling was always that the Afrikaans language may already have been fairly highly developed even before 1652 as the voertaal on board ships of the VOC. After all, a ship's crew with a mixture of Dutch and non-Dutch speakers would generate their own argot with a simplified grammar. The transcription of these texts are a fascinating indication of how pronunciations had changed by the early 19th Century (e.g. 'iek'). I'll share it with some South African friends.

[@themanfromnam8446]

Yes, we would like to see more videos on Afrikaans Awesome video

[@ahmednurra8558]

Wat een leuk stukje geschiedenis!

[@StMiBll]

That was excellent. I was not aware of a lot of what you covered; though, I am very fond of South African history. I look forward to your next video on Afrikaans. Also, do you have it in the works to do a video on the Afrikaner who left after the Boer war and settled in Argentina?

[@morriskaller3549]

0:54 as a swede im suprised by how much i can understand of those sentences

[@kebman]

Skål!

[@frida507]

Ja det var lätt att förstå.

[@rogerwilco2]

All Germanic languages are still pretty close if you have a good ear.

[@loekruger2031]

Hi I am Afrikaans and did my school years a very long time ago.... We learned about the Afrikaans language origins and history and the influences of other languages on the development of Afrikaans. The video was very informative and I quite enjoyed it. Thank you so much! 😀

[@Ronaldthefarmer]

Hoedan. Dit vindt ik echt heel bijzonder. Leuke video

[@jean-paulkrooneman1021]

As an Afrikaans speaking South African I have learned something today. Very interesting video and you are right Cape Malay food is amazing.

[@hanytelfah7069]

Side note, Dalil and Ilm are both Arabic words. They may exist as loanwords in Malay (I don’t know), but both are Arabic words.

[@EmileTheart]

It is absolutely fascinating. Would love to hear more about the development of Afrikaans.

[@Raponsie_Raps]

During my high school years I read a book which referred to this (Afrikaans in Arabic script) , and tried to find more information about it. At the time (before the Internet) I could not find any works of reference that mentions this, and even started doubting my memory. Thank you so much for this video!

[@alansmithee8831]

Hello Hilbert. I found this interesting, as South Africa was significant in British history, but also because the way that language gets adapted is fascinating. As well as this, most of my classmates at one school were Muslim. Lastly, I may have Indian ancestry and someone actually asked my grandmother how she would let her daughter marry a black man, meaning what you referred to as coloured. I commented before that my Royal Navy father missed his army brother in Singapore by one day, just after WW2, the latter being sent to Dutch East Indies, whilst my dad was sent out with a barefooted Sikh driver to help with medical needs in the British controlled area for a short while.

[@TheStickCollector]

This seems interesting to learn fully

[@DMPearson91]

Very interesting history! Thank you for sharing 😀

[@RobertMurphy-sx8lc]

A very interesting piece. Please bring us some more on the development of Afrikaans. I was born in Australia but have lived in South Africa & Namibia since 1970 and speak fluent German as well.

[@lol-iv1ft]

Me and my afrikaner friend were having a conversation about this and I mentioned that it was first associated in Arabic since we were trying to find out when Dutch became afrikaans (became official in 1925) while just 25 years prior during the boer war everything was in Dutch

[@aleskandrani7831]

At 18:33 or so, all of the Malay words here are also derived from Arabic. Agama likely comes from جماع, which refers to a gathering of people, ostensibly for the purpose of worship. Dalil (دليل) also means evidence in Arabic, but can also mean details or specification. Finally, ilmu is derived from an Arabic root (علم) meaning knowledge, and from which one can derive words for science and religious studies, as well as those who undertake such things. One last note is that in a lot of Arabic dialects, the letter ج often makes a hard 'g' sound, even though it makes a 'j' sound in more standard Arabic, and it is likely that some Malay speakers were exposed to these dialects. Hope someone finds this interesting :)

[@rishabhrox1]

the word 'Agama' is not Arabic in origin. It is from the ancient Indian language called Sanskrit. The word literally means 'system of beliefs dealing with soul, deity and/or life after death', which is commonly understood as 'religion' nowadays.

[@EdwardCotty]

Really enjoyed this! If you are a non South African your contribution is extremely appreciated! Well done! And yes would love to know more about the history of Afrikaans and South Africa in general. Pronunciation is absoluut uitsteekend!

[@catherinechristiansen2699]

As a Brit who grew up in Durban, South Africa, and returned to England before the end of Apartheid, I found your video fascinating. Just to note that Afrikaans is more like Flemish. I discovered this when visiting my English uncle in Ramsgate, Kent, and his Belgian wife. I was visiting them with another friend from SA who also lived in London. My Aunt received a phonecard from Belgium and my friend and I looked at each other in awe - because we realised we could understand Flemish! We discovered that the Duntch spoken by the early settlers was closer to Flemish as Belgium was once part of the Netherlands.

[@IanSwart]

Thanks for the interest in Afrikaans. Interesting fact, did you know there's still large Dutch immigrant communities living in South Africa, they mostly speak Afrikaans now with a Dutch accent. They gather in the "Vrye Gereformeerde Kerke in Suid-Afrika" (there's churches in Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg). Search that in KZbin and you'll find their accents hilarious.

[@rogerwilco2]

Thanks, I found some videos and they are indeed very interesting.

[@ingevankeirsbilck9601]

Various West-Flemish relatives of mine have lived in South Africa, I would love to hear them speak Afrikaans!

[@JeeWeeD]

Hilbert, wat een vertrouwen dat je ons toegang tot je computer geeft, maar ik zou nog even de "Further reading"-sectie nakijken X-D En ja, een video over het Afrikaans zou ik waarderen.

[@wardieleppan8443]

Great video! Love to get your take on the development of Afrikaans. I knew there was a strong Malay influence but would love to hear more as well as the influence from other African languages (and the French settlers).

[@nikok.6479]

ah yes, another history with hilbert video. excellent. i’m going to enjoy this

[@ahmadmustaqim7091]

Very interesting indeed. As a Malaysian Malay, would love to learn more about the cape malays

[@MonsieurDean]

Fascinating!

[@temporaryfluke]

I've never heard a foreigner pronounce the word "Afrikaans" correctly before today. Good job my guy ✌️