The Influence of English on Afrikaans
(1991)–Bruce Donaldson–
Auteursrechtelijk beschermd
[pagina 205]
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7.8 Word formationThere are various facets of word formation in Afrikaans where it seems that English may be playing a role in the choice of formations opted for, either because of a similarity to English devices or because of a dissimilarity to English (i.e. puristic avoidance). Word formation is, however, a category where it is even more difficult than usual to be sure that one is dealing with anglicisms. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
7.8.1 Compound nounsThe rules for compounding nouns in English defy description according to H.W. Fowler (1965: 255). Afrikaans traditionally has a conjunctive pattern of word formation whereas English has a disjunctive one, to use Botha and Van Aardt's (1978: 35) terminology. The rules for losskryf and aanmekaarskryf in Afrikaans are set out in the AWS and yet daily one is confronted with transgressions of these rules. It is quite possible that inconsistencies would have arisen without contact with English but the fact that English differs markedly from Afrikaans in this regard, must have contributed to the apparent confusion that now seems to exist and which seems to be increasing. Botha and Van Aardt (1978: 35) refer to it as grafiese steuring and Combrink (1968: 18) calls it Anglisistiese skryfwyses.
Confusion exists as to whether to write a compound noun as one word, two words or to hyphenate it. The decision as to which of these three options is to be applied in Afrikaans would often seem to be influenced by what English would do in such a case, even at the cost of this being against the recommendations of the AWS, for example: straat vullis, hitte golf, hakke kroeg, meubel en toestel afdeling; boot-eienaar, karavaan-park, wêreld-kampioenskappe. In the last three cases English would write such compounds as two words so the hyphen seems to be a compromise between the English and the Afrikaans systems. Confusion in all these cases can be all the greater when for example hakke kroeg and ‘heel bar’ occur side by side on the same sign. Only cases such as these can possibly be seen as examples of graphic interference from English; this does not necessarily apply to recognised problems such as na-ure and rehabilitasie-aangeleenthede where clusters of vowels could be confusing to the eye if a hyphen were not used; nor does it apply to other recognised difficult cases such as Barclays-Nasionale Bank and hoof-administratiewe amptenaar.
The confusion even extends to compound nouns that incorporate a medial s, in which case one would expect it to be obvious that joining of the | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
[pagina 206]
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elements is called for, for example: besigheids ure, streeks kantoor. Compared with Dutch, where the following issue is only rarely uncertain (e.g. geluidhinder or geluidshinder), Afrikaans is much more inconsistent in its application of the medial s in compound nouns. At times I have got the impression that the absence of such a medial sound in English compounds has contributed to its being omitted in Afrikaans, for example: Gesondheids Departement - Reiningafdeling (transcribed literally from a public sign), kwaliteit diens versus kwaliteits wonings, Pietermaritzburg Stad Vervoer Departement. In the final example I am referring to the question of stadvervoer versus stadsvervoer, quite apart from the whole expression being a rather un-Afrikaans construction.
It is often difficult to isolate possible English influence by comparing Afrikaans with Dutch in these matters, because it is obvious that Afrikaans has developed its own system that is often quite at odds with the norms of Dutch, for example: vissersman, weeksdag, werkswinkel. (cf. Basson, i.a. 1982: 101) Nevertheless, Hiemstra (1980: 115) points out, the frequent insertion of s in compounds incorporating verkoop- (= English ‘sales’) is undoubtedly in imitation of the English plural, for example: verkoopsman (compare also buiteverkope which contains a plural of the same word in imitation of the English ‘off sales’.)
There are also the many cases of compound nouns where Dutch requires a medial e or en but where Afrikaans now forms compounds as in English but where one would seem to be dealing with a spontaneous simplification rather than English influence, for example: boerbeskuit, dierwêreld, peerboom, sonskyn and wolkloos. Hiemstra (1980: 103-4) refers to such compounds as stompstertvorme and suspects English influence for example in skolierpatrollie, giving preference to skolierepatrollie.
Compounds that are themselves loan translations from English constitute a particular difficulty, for example: Checkers-personeel, 'n een-keer-in-leeftyd kans, 'n drie jaar waglys, in-diepte besprekings, indiepte-studie. (cf. 7.28.7) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
[pagina 207]
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7.8.2 Nominal -ingThere are several nominal -ing endings in Afrikaans, (cf. Kempen 1969: 513-529) Under discussion here are only those derived from verbs, in which case -ing is still a productive suffix and ‘De betekenis van de afleiding op “-ing” is vergelykbaar met die van gesubstantiveerde infinitieven.’ (Geerts i.a. 1984: 96) The following list is also restricted to -ing forms not found in Dutch (except for mobilisering and motivering, cf. note 2). Both the homophonous and semantic similarity of these words with English gerunds in ‘-ing’ possibly accounts for the greater frequency of this ending in Afrikaans than in Dutch (Cluver 1982: 85). Puristic neologisms such as bemarking and beplanning may not have been coined had it not been for the English precedents ‘marketing’ and ‘planning’ - bemark and beplan could have served the same purpose. Nevertheless, the potential to employ -ing in such cases also exists in Dutch.
Hiemstra (1980: 58) makes no mention of English influence in his discussion of the suffix. Kempen (1969: 520), in his extremely detailed account of the functions of the ending makes only one brief mention of English influence with regard to the origin of lysting, the absence of this word from Dutch contributing to this conclusion of his. Van der Merwe and Ponelis (1982: 91-92) discuss at length the tendency to use -ing derivatives in Afrikaans where infinitives would have sufficed (e.g. roking, spoeging) without actually referring to English having played any role at all, but it does seem to be implied:
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[pagina 208]
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7.8.3 Feminising suffixesBarnouw (1934: 23) wrote ‘The tendency to eliminate distinctions of gender is also affecting the suffixes which in Holland Dutch differentiate female from male agents, such as -es, -in, -ster, -e, which are no longer heard in spoken Afrikaans.’
Afrikaans differs from ABN in this respect where an utterance such as Zij is (een) Hollander is impossible. Afrikaans virtually never makes the distinction with nationalities and with most professions seems to be indifferent, for example: Sy is 'n onderwyser/onderwyseres. This practice coincides with English usage, but is admittedly beginning to occur in Dutch too. I have not read a single work which has postulated that English has had anything to do with this development in Afrikaans, but it does seem possible that it could at least have played the role of a contributing factor. However, it is interesting to note the following quote from C.B. van Haeringen which Kloeke (1951: 48) repeats: ‘Men noemt deze vrouwelijkheids-e [in presidente, typiste] kunstmatig, daarmede bedoelende dat hij in de levende taal geen grondslag had.’ - written by Van Haeringen in 1937. If this is so, although it is no longer the case in Dutch, Afrikaans may have preserved a former Dutch convention. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
7.8.4 Adjectival use of place namesThe English forms ‘Pretoria's university’ and ‘the University of Pretoria’ have direct equivalents in Afrikaans, namely, Pretoria se universiteit and (die) Pretoriase Universiteit, the latter form involving an issue of word formation. However, one frequently sees such place names uninflected before a noun; for example: ons Bloemfontein winkel, die Pretoria Universiteit. The form die Universiteit Pretoria strikes me as a rather forced puristic avoidance of the anglicism and die Pretoria-Universiteit is also merely an attempt (but a common one) to disguise an anglicism. The rules for the use of hyphens in the AWS do not cover cases such as (die) Pretoria-Universiteit, implying that the Taalkommissie does not recog- | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
[pagina 209]
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nise them. Steyn (1976: 34-5) looks at this issue in the light of probable English influence. He also mentions the possibility of Die Universiteit van Pretoria, the official name of the institution. (cf. 7.26.13) Le Roux (1952: 46) too discusses the matter and Nienaber (1940: 60) quotes the following examples from the writings of Meurant: ‘De Colesberg byeenkomst, de Kaapstad/de Kaapstads mense, de Colesberg Parlements mense.’ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
7.8.5 Adjectival -ies versus -iek (cf. 7.12.6)7.8.6 Adverbial -likHiemstra (1980: 72-3) warns against the excessive use of -lik to create adverbs from adjectives. There is after all no formal distinction in most cases between adjectives and adverbs in Dutch and Afrikaans although Hiemstra refers to an archaic practice of adding -lik to certain adjectives to distinguish them from adverbs. If this is so, English ‘-ly’ may simply have acted as a contributing factor to the frequency with which adverbs in -lik are encountered in Afrikaans compared with standard Dutch. Those adverbs below which are followed by an asterisk are included in HAT; the others are not, but this is not to say that the frequency of those that HAT recognises over the forms without -lik is not ultimately due to English influence. Hiemstra cites, for example, the case of seker/sekerlik where he prescribes the latter only where special emphasis is implied; in other contexts he apparently regards it as an anglicism. Verhage (1965: 310) regards -lik as a formal suffix ‘wat blykbaar aan die verhewe Bybeltaal ontleen is.’
In his detailed analysis of -lik, Kempen (1969: 534-39), makes no mention of English influence but comments ‘Tog is die gebruiksfrekwensie van likwoorde hoog in Afrikaans, sodat 'n nuwe vorming hier en daar 'n mens nie te erg moet verbaas nie.’ (p. 539) Gous (1974), whose M.A. deals exclusively with this morpheme, makes no mention of English influence either.
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[pagina 210]
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In addition to the above there are the adverbs grootliks (largely), kortliks (briefly) and kwartaalliks (quarterly) which HAT recognises but where English influence cannot be excluded. They do not exist in Dutch; there is a form kortlijk, but it means ‘in short’. Is it also not possible that the abverbial use of vierkantig (where HAT gives vierkant) in expressions such as iemand vierkantig in die oë kyk is a subconscious attempt to render English ‘squarely’? HAT does in fact give one example where vierkantig is used adverbially: jou vierkantig verset teen and Van Dale gives vierkantig as an archaic variant of vierkant. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
7.8.7 Puristic word formationHAT gives boikot, homoseksualiteit and kampering whereas the forms boikotteer, homoseksualisme and kampeerdery also occur, as does flirteer. Presumably the latter are puristic attempts to avoid legitimate forms which resemble English. This phenomenon could also account for motivering having survived in Afrikaans while motivasie has not according to HAT (cf. p. 207-8) as well as accounting for the formation of words such as prospekteerder and koördineerder where Dutch uses prospéctor and coördinator. |
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