Did you know there's another country where they speak Afrikaans?
There's a version of Afrikaans spoken deep in South America.
Deep in the heart of Patagonia, Argentina, lives a community of about 650 descendants of Afrikaners.
This community once made a life-changing move across the Atlantic Ocean in the early 20th century, resulting in Patagonian Afrikaans.
According to News24, the community originally left South Africa following a tense period of expansion by the British Empire, which eventually led to the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902).
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Seeking a fresh start away from the conflict, they settled in the Chubut province between 1902 and 1907.
While they have spent over a century in South America, the language has not completely vanished.
According to News24, it is mostly the older generation, those over 60, who still speak the original dialect.
For the younger descendants, Spanish has become the dominant language, leaving "Patagonian Afrikaans" as a fascinating linguistic relic.
Social media content creator, polyglot and writer @thepolyglotfiles made a video about this unique version of Afrikaans and shared a few interesting differences.
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Because this version of Afrikaans evolved separately from the "standard" version we speak today, it has some pretty cool differences.
Since they left before the language was standardised back home, they kept some old-school pronunciations and borrowed heavily from their Spanish neighbours:
- The Teacher: Instead of an "onderwyser", they call them a "leermeester".
- The Airport: Forget "lughawe". In Patagonia, it is a "vliegtuigstasie".
- The Government: They use the term "goeverment" instead of "regering".
- The Judge: Instead of “regter” they use “juts”.
@thepolyglotfiles Have you heard of Patagonian Afrikaans, a dialect of Afrikaans spoken in South America? After the British victory following the second Anglo-Boer war, 600 Afrikaans-speaking Boer left South Africa and settled in Argentina. As such, this dialect has some retained historical pronunciation features and unique vocabulary. #afrikaans #southafrica #namibia #language #fyp ♬ original sound - ThePolyglotFiles
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