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Afrikaans is the youngest language in the world, having only been in existence since the seventeenth century. It began as the Dutch spoken by working-class farmers and mariners settling at the southernmost tip of Africa. During this era, Africa was a melting pot of cultures from all over the Eastern Hemisphere – from Western and Central Europe down to the Cape of Good Hope – and many representatives of these diverse cultures found themselves intermingling with the Dutch settlers. By the middle of the nineteenth century, an entirely new language had emerged – one that was dependent on Dutch, but had Afrikaans grammar and characteristics.

Let’s take a look at Afrikaans grammar, and see what makes sets it apart from Dutch. For one thing, it’s much simpler than Dutch in many ways. Dutch has two definite articles, while Afrikaans only has one. Afrikaans has only one indefinite article as well.

But it is in the treatment of verbs that Afrikaans grammar displays its sublime simplicity. In Afrikaans, verbs don’t decline; in the present tense, the same verb ending is used regardless of person. To indicate the future tense, just use the word “sal” (shall) and the verb’s infinitive form. Afrikaans also uses fewer tenses than most Germanic languages – another factor which makes Afrikaans easy to learn.

One of the most puzzling aspects of learning a new language is word order. Again, Afrikaans grammar comes to the rescue! In countries where Afrikaans is spoken, schoolchildren are taught the STOMPI rule, which dictates that the words in a proper sentence should appear in this order: “Subject, First Verb, Time, Object, Manner, Place, Second Verb, Infinitive.” Few Afrikaans sentences are actually this long, but the STOMPI rule provides for every possible situation.

Unquestionably Afrikaans’ borrowings from other languages have contributed toward transforming its Dutch origins into a unique and separate tongue, with a distinct Afrikaans grammar. But, given that the two languages’ vocabularies share so many words in common, can Dutch people understand Afrikaans, and can Afrikaners understand Dutch? Because Dutch is in many ways more difficult, an Afrikaner would have a harder time picking up Dutch than a Dutch speaker would Afrikaans. But the learning curve would be fairly short in either case.

The good news for students of the world’s youngest language is that the structure of Afrikaans grammar makes it easy for anyone to learn, regardless of your native tongue. Give it a try – you’ll be amazed at how quickly you’ll be speaking Afrikaans!

If you are planning to visit South Africa soon, then it will be wise to learn to speak Afrikaans with the highly recommended Afrikaans Byki Deluxe language course starting now. So don’t wait, learn a language like Afrikaans today.