The Origins of the Afrikaners and their Language, 1652-1720: A Study in Miscegenation and CreolePosted in Africa, Anthropology, Articles, History, Media Archive, Slavery, South Africa on 2011-09-23 02:12Z by Steven |
The Origins of the Afrikaners and their Language, 1652-1720: A Study in Miscegenation and Creole
Race & Class
Volume 15, Number 4 (April 1974)
pages 461-495
DOI: 10.1177/030639687401500404
Ken Jordaan
We are a bastard people with a bastard language. Ours is a bastard nature. That is good and fine. And like all bastards, uncertain of their identity, we have begun to cling to the concept of purity.
— Breyten Breytenbach, the Afrikaner poet
Introduction
The purpose and scope of this paper may be summarized as follows: 1. From the middle of the fifteenth century to the end of the seventeenth, Portuguese was a world language, having been spoken in the Caribbean and Latin America, Africa and Asia, consequent upon the expansion of the Portuguese empire. It was used as literary or High Portuguese, but mainly as Creole or Low Portuguese, the lingua franca. Europeans spoke it among themselves when they could not communicate with one another in their own languages. It was also spoken among slaves and between master and slave. Dutch officials, sailors and soldiers as well as African and Oriental slaves introduced the lingua franca into the Cape of…
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