Afrikaans

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Afrikaans is a West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia, and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and also in Argentina, where a group in Sarmiento speaks a Patagonian dialect, and among the South African diaspora (particularly in Australia, New Zealand, North America and the United Kingdom). It emerged during the late 19th century as a fusion of Dutch dialects (mainly Hollandic and Zeelandic) spoken by the Dutch settlers in South Africa since the 17th century and the Dutch-based creole languages spoken by the Khoisan, Nguni and Coloured peoples. Afrikaans is the third most spoken home language in South Africa, out of the country's 12 official languages. In 1996 it was spoken by 14.5% of the population, an estimated 5.9 million people. By 2022 that had fallen to 10.6% (6.3 million people), with Afrikaans gaining roughly 480,000 speakers overall. Although Afrikaans has adopted words from other languages, including German, Malay, and Khoisan languages, an estimated...

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