The Influence of English on Afrikaans
(1991)–Bruce Donaldson–
Auteursrechtelijk beschermd7.3 NeologismsIn the quest to avoid English loanwords, or international words which are felt to be English, Afrikaans has created new words, for example: where the Dutch use pullover, squash and weekend, Afrikaans prescribes oortrektrui, muurbal and naweek. Whereas muurbal and naweek are totally original creations, oortrektrui could be regarded as a Lehnübertragung or possibly a loan translation. Sometimes the distinction between a Lehnübertragung, a loan translation and a neologism is rather subtle, for example: babawagter and kinderoppasser should probably be regarded as Lehnübertragungen rather than loan translations, whereas kroostrooster is a neologism.
Where Dutch uses lift, Afrikaans has a variety of synonymous neologisms - hyser, hysbak, hystoestel. The word skyfie, for example, has a double (or even a triple) puristic function, replacing what the Dutch call chip, patat and dia. Such purisms can lead to ambiguity, as HAT's definitions of huurmotor and waenhuis indicate, for instance, (cf. p. 154)
Some of the words given below (marked *) do exist in Dutch, but with a different meaning, for example: grimeren is used in Dutch but only with reference to theatrical make-up. In such cases it is not the word as such which is a neologism but the meaning given to the word (cf. semantic shift 7.13).
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[pagina 192]
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[pagina 193]
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