Afrikaans

As a Noun

As a noun is refers to the language Afrikaans. It is one of the 12 official languages in South Africa, and is derived from 17th century Dutch, English, and many of the indigenous African languages. Today it is spoken to some degree by an estimated total of 15 to 23 million people in South Africa and Namibia.

Though it is often considered one of the key identifying markers used to identify the so-called "Afrikaners", but is not no means exclusively spoken by that group, but is widely used in the country and has a strong literature and is used for all purposes, including the academic, artistic, publishing, economic, political, religious, sporting, and other spheres.

The issue of enforced study of Afrikaans in schools under the Nationalist Government was of course one of the catalysts for the initial uprisings of 1976.

As an adjective

When used in conjunction with a noun it usually refers to work in the language Afrikaans. Thus Afrikaans theatre would refer to the large body of work written and/or performed in the language Afrikaans (or at least predominantly in Afrikaans, as the late 20th century saw the rise of multilingual plays). (By the same token, English theatre would be work created and staged in English.)

The same would apply to terms like Afrikaans music, Afrikaans university or school (where the language of teaching would be predominantly Afrikaans).

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