Afrikaans Translations
POZENA’s professional human translations from Afrikaans to English and any other language or from English and any language into Afrikaans are reliably performed by formally qualified native-speaking translators, assuring their consistently high quality.
Why choose professional Afrikaans translations?
- Afrikaans is the native language of 7 million people worldwide (ca. 0.1% of the world’s population) and is ranked outside the top 100 most spoken languages by native speakers.
- Afrikaans is one of the 11 official languages in South Africa, and also has official status in Namibia. It is spoken as the first language primarily by Afrikaners and Coloreds, an ethnic group of mixed origin descended from Khoisan and Bantu peoples as well as Malays.
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POZENA’s professional Afrikaans translations
- Assurance of professional quality
- Business-class reliability
- Translators who are native-speakers of Afrikaans
- Translations for a broad range of industries and disciplines
- Document translations of any type and format
- Certified Afrikaans translations
- Specialist translations and non-standard requirements
- Translations from Afrikaans to English or any other language
- Friendly and professional client service
- Contact POZENA to discuss any multilingial project
Africaans – basic information
- Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, which is a branch of the Germanic languages family. Its history dates back to the 17th century, when it began to develop from the southern Dutch dialects spoken in the Cape Colony in southern Africa. The Afrikaans language was also heavily influenced by other languages, primarily Portuguese, Malay, Khoisan and Bantu languages (in the latter period, also by English). Until the early 20th century, Afrikaans was regarded as a dialect of Dutch. In 1925, a parliamentary act made it one of the official languages of South Africa.
- Afrikaans and Dutch are considered to be mutually intelligible languages. Despite lexical influences from other languages, more than 90% of Afrikaans vocabulary is derived from Dutch. There are three major dialectal varieties: Cape Afrikaans (Kaapse Afrikaans), Afrikaans of the Orange River (Oranjerivier-Afrikaans), and Eastern Cape Afrikaans (Oosgrens-Afrikaans). Another dialect that deserves mention is Oorlans, which has a number of unique features that are said to have originated from the Bantu languages. By some researchers, Oorlans is considered to be an Afrikaans-based creole.
- Afrikaans is regulated by Die Taalkommissie (the Language Commission), which is part of the South African Academy for Science and Arts.
Specialist industry translations from and into Afrikaans
Certified translations
Legal translations
Translations for the energy sector
Military translations
Business translations
Marketing translations, localisation and copywriting
Translation of agreements and power of attorney
Translations of user guides and service manuals
Basic words and phrases – English-Afrikaans translation
yes - ja
no - nee
please - asseblief
thank you - dankie
sorry - jammer
good morning - goeie môre/goeie middag
good evening - goeie naand
goodbye - totsiens
good night - goeie nag
hi - hallo
How are you? - Hoe gaan dit?
good - goed
My name is… - My naam is....
I don't understand - Ek verstaan nie
I'm from the UK - Ek is uit die Verenigde Koninkryk
Interesting facts about Afrikaans from translators
- Verb forms in Afrikaans are less complex than in Dutch: they are not conjugated for person or number. The equivalent of the English verb be (wees) has the same form (is) regardless of the sentence subject.
- What also distinguishes Afrikaans from the remaining Germanic languages is the presence of double negatives in sentences.
- An interesting function word in Afrikaans is the indefinite article 'n, which is the equivalent of the Dutch een. The article remains lower case even if occurs at the beginning of sentence.
- Probably the best known Afrikaans borrowing which occurs in a number of modern languages is apartheid. In the English lexicon there are at least two other common borrowings: trek and aardvark.
- In South Africa there are two monuments that commemorate the Afrikaans language. Unveiled in 1975 to commemorate the semicentenary of Afrikaans being recognized as an official language), the Afrikaans Language Monument symbolizes the influences of foreign cultures and languages on Afrikaans.