Dutch is generally considered closer to English because both are West Germanic languages with shared ancestry, vocabulary, and structure, while Afrikaans, though derived from Dutch, has simplified grammar and significant influences from other languages, making Dutch the closest major relative to English.
The Closest Major Language To English: Dutch.
Although Afrikaans is very similar to Dutch, it is clearly a separate language, differing from Standard Dutch in its sound system and its loss of case and gender distinctions. Afrikaans was adopted for use in schools in 1914 and in the Dutch Reformed Church in 1919.
Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English, and is colloquially said to be "roughly in between" them.
Although Dutch and German are related, it is very difficult for speakers of the two languages to understand each other.
Consequently, the impact of various languages has transformed English into a distinctive blend of Germanic and Romance tongues. Dutch, Frisian, and German stand as the nearest kin to English, with Frisian holding the strongest resemblance.
Afrikaans descended from Dutch dialects in the 17th century. It belongs to a West Germanic sub-group, the Low Franconian languages. Other West Germanic languages related to Afrikaans are German, English, the Frisian languages, Yiddish, and the unstandardised language Low German.
The more words you already know in Afrikaans, the easier it will be to grasp Dutch. Thankfully, Afrikaans is still taught as a First Additional Language in most schools across South Africa, so most South Africans will be full capable of using their knowledge of Afrikaans to latch onto the Dutch language.
Top 10 Easiest Languages for English Speakers to Learn
Afrikaners predominantly stem from Dutch, French and German immigrants who settled in the Cape, in South Africa, during the second half of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th. Although later European immigrants were also absorbed into the population, their genetic contribution was comparatively small.
UNESCO is giving credit where credit is due: Chinese is officially the most difficult language in the world.
The most widely spoken languages of Africa, Swahili (200 million), Yoruba (45 million), Igbo (30 million), and Fula (35 million) all belong to the Niger-Congo family.
Afrikaans is still very widely spoken but pretty much everyone speaks English so that's all you need to get by. English is perfect. Most people speak more than just English, but English is understood and spoken as one of our main languages in our beautiful rainbow nation.
Common responses include “Baie goed, dankie” (very well, thank you), “Dit gaan goed” (it's going well), or “Nie te sleg nie” (not too bad).
I am well. Ke teng. Goodbye! Stay well! (to one person) Sala sentle!
Former South African President Jacob Zuma commented in 2009 on Afrikaners being "the only white tribe in a black continent or outside of Europe which is truly African", and said that "of all the white groups that are in South Africa, it is only the Afrikaners that are truly South Africans in the true sense of the word. ...
An estimated 90 to 95% of Afrikaans vocabulary is ultimately of Dutch origin, so there are few lexical differences between the two languages, however Afrikaans has considerably more regular morphology, grammar, and spelling.
There are 4 distinct layers of English: Anglo-Saxon, French, Latin, and Greek. All 4 layers have resulted in unique spellings in the English language. As teachers, we should explicitly teach the prefixes, suffixes and roots associated with Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and Greek.
Some Frisians are Dutch in terms of their nationality today. Frisians, however, are a Germanic tribe with their own cultural and linguistic identity, separate from Dutch.