Afrikaans and Dutch as closely-related languages : a comparison to West Germanic languages and Dutch dialects

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dc.contributor.authorHeeringa, Wilberten_ZA
dc.contributor.authorDe Wet, Febeen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorVan Huyssteen, Gerhard B.en_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2020-08-21T07:25:06Z
dc.date.available2020-08-21T07:25:06Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.descriptionCITATION: Heeringa, W., De Wet, F. & Van Huyssteen, G. B. 2015. Afrikaans and Dutch as closely-related languages : a comparison to West Germanic languages and Dutch dialects. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 47:1-18, doi:10.5842/47-0-649.
dc.descriptionThe original publication is available at http://spilplus.journals.ac.za/
dc.description.abstractFollowing Den Besten’s (2009) desiderata for historical linguistics of Afrikaans, this article aims to contribute some modern evidence to the debate regarding the founding dialects of Afrikaans. From an applied perspective (i.e. human language technology), we aim to determine which West Germanic language(s) and/or dialect(s) would be best suited for the purposes of recycling speech resources for the benefit of developing speech technologies for Afrikaans. Being recognised as a West Germanic language, Afrikaans is first compared to Standard Dutch, Standard Frisian and Standard German. Pronunciation distances are measured by means of Levenshtein distances. Afrikaans is found to be closest to Standard Dutch. Secondly, Afrikaans is compared to 361 Dutch dialectal varieties in the Netherlands and North-Belgium, using material from the Reeks Nederlandse Dialectatlassen, a series of dialect atlases compiled by Blancquaert and Pée in the period 1925-1982 which cover the Dutch dialect area. Afrikaans is found to be closest to the South-Holland dialectal variety of Zoetermeer; this largely agrees with the findings of Kloeke (1950). No speech resources are available for Zoetermeer, but such resources are available for Standard Dutch. Although the dialect of Zoetermeer is significantly closer to Afrikaans than Standard Dutch is, Standard Dutch speech resources might be a good substitute.en_ZA
dc.description.urihttps://spilplus.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/649
dc.description.versionPublisher's version
dc.format.extent18 pages ; illustrations
dc.identifier.citationHeeringa, W., De Wet, F. & Van Huyssteen, G. B. 2015. Afrikaans and Dutch as closely-related languages : a comparison to West Germanic languages and Dutch dialects. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 47:1-18, doi:10.5842/47-0-649
dc.identifier.issn2224-3380 (online)
dc.identifier.issn1726-541X (print)
dc.identifier.otherdoi:10.5842/47-0-649
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/108753
dc.language.isoen_ZAen_ZA
dc.publisherUniversity of Stellenbosch, Department of General Linguistics
dc.rights.holderAuthors retain copyright
dc.subjectLanguage and technologyen_ZA
dc.subjectAfrikaans languageen_ZA
dc.subjectDutch language -- Dialectsen_ZA
dc.subjectGermanic languagesen_ZA
dc.titleAfrikaans and Dutch as closely-related languages : a comparison to West Germanic languages and Dutch dialectsen_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA
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