The Influence of English on Afrikaans

7.19 Stress

Changes in the stress pattern of the international vocabulary of Afrikaans have occurred, or are still in the process of occurring, which are now quite irreversible in the language, despite the fact that all prescriptive works condemn the development. The similarity between the indigenous stress patterns of English and Afrikaans are discussed on p. 51. English too has instances of an indigenous first syllable stress competing with a final stress in words of French origin, for example: ‘bouquet, garage’. This development is analogous to what is happening in Afrikaans in words such as konflik and kontak: in the words in 7.19.1 some native-speakers will now regard the stress on the first syllable as the only possible stress while in Dutch all these words require a stress on the second syllable, with the exception of kano and sjampoe which always take the stress on the first syllable in Dutch.

Prescriptive works all seem to assume that vocabulary such as that given below, because it occurs in Dutch, should be regarded as indigenous in Afrikaans and should therefore retain the traditional stress pattern of such loanwords in Dutch, i.e. the French pattern. It is very difficult, or even

[p. 247]

impossible, to ascertain exactly what the source of this vocabulary is in Afrikaans:⁴⁶ it is highly likely that much of it entered Afrikaans directly from English without the medium of Dutch, as the many such loanwords that are unknown in Dutch and French prove (cf. 7.12.1) If this is the case, is there any sense in insisting on a foreign stress when the natural stress in English, the (possible) source language, is on the first syllable and when this also happens to be in line with the natural stress of indigenous words in Afrikaans? (cf. De Bruto 1970: 42 - quoted on p. 51) The word motoris, for example, is not Dutch or French - they use automobilist - and yet this word takes a final stress in Afrikaans and initial stress in English, definitely the source language in this case. This phenomenon is not exclusive to Afrikaans, however. In Dutch bisyllabic English loanwords of the type flash-back, know-how, stand-by etc. all stress the final syllable, presumably because the first such loans (e.g. pick-up) reached Dutch via French and that pattern was then fixed for all later loans. The Dutch, being more English oriented now than previously when a knowledge of French was more widespread, these days regard the French loanword occasion (bargain, good buy) as English and pronounce it as such with the stress on the second syllable and not on the last. The guiding principle behind the stress here is not the language of origin of the loanword, but the association in the mind of the speaker of this word with its English cognate: the same principle applies in Afrikaans.

English too, although its natural stress usually falls on the first syllable, often stresses foreign words and place names on the second/final syllable even when in the languages that the words are borrowed from the stress occurs on the first syllable, for example: Bhután, batík, saróng; presumably English people regard this stress as correct because it sounds so foreign.

46 Boshoff (1921: 414) takes up this point and takes Smith to task on his claim that the English stress in such words is evidence of English being the source language. Smith may be right but equally the stress can have been borrowed from English at a later date - with increased bilingualism - without the word itself necessarily having entered Afrikaans via English.

7.19.1

The words in this group, according to prescriptive works on the topic, require a stress on the final syllable but are in fact commonly, and in some cases even usually, pronounced with the stress on the first syllable; deviations from this pattern are referred to in the footnotes:

aspek^47

objek

subjek

insek

47 It is noteworthy that HAT gives only final stress for aspek, objek and subjek but recognises both stresses in insek.

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impak

kano^48

karkas^49

kompleks

konflik

kontak

kontrak

kontras

publiek

sjampoe^50

(weer)buro

48 Although Dutch has only káno, HAT recognises both káno and kanó, while in practice one only ever hears the latter. Has English ‘canoo’ shifted the scales in favour of final stress?

49 Van der Merwe and Ponelis (1982) recognise both stresses without further comment.

50 I include sjampoe here not because it is ever pronounced with initial stress in Afrikaans, but it is in Dutch. This is probably an example of an English word, borrowed in turn from Hindi, which has been adopted directly by Afrikaans without the medium of Dutch.

7.19.2

This group only differs from 7.19. I in the number of syllables each word contains; otherwise the phenomenon is the same. Whether such trisyllabic words are more or less susceptible to initial stress than the bisyllabic words in 7.19.1, I have been unable to ascertain.

abattoir

bulletin^51

fantasie

hospitaal (cf. 7.19.6)

manuskrip

mikrofoon

paradoks

restourant

saxofoon

telefoon

telegram

51 When this word takes initial stress, it is pronounced more or less as in English; when the final syllable is stressed, the final vowel is lengthened. In Dutch, where only final stress occurs in this word, the stressed syllable is pronounced with a nasalised vowel as in French. (cf. p. 244)

7.19.3

It is not uncommon to hear Amsterdam and particularly Stellenbosch pronounced in Afrikaans with initial stress. The former is definitely due to English and the latter presumably - even the -sch is commonly pronounced [ʃ] - but it is possible that an internal analogy is at work; compare Kirstenbosch and Rondebosch which always take initial stress in Afrikaans, or did this also ultimately originate in English?

7.19.4

These three words, the first of which is an often cited case of English influenced stress, differ from the above examples in that the shift is

[p. 249]

from the penultimate, not the final syllable, to the first:

minister

senator

silinder

7.19.5

The shift here is from the final to the penultimate syllable:

epilepsie

eutanasie

histerie

nostalgie

Histerektomie is also stressed as in English although HAT maintains it has final stress.

7.19.6

It is curious that the following words are always pronounced with final stress, unlike in English, even though some of them (basketbal, inkrement, permit) are loanwords from English. In Dutch kontext and standaard are stressed on the first syllable. HAT concedes that this pronunciation of standaard sometimes occurs in Afrikaans too. Dutch, while also stressing toilet on the final syllable, pronounces the first syllable as in French too, i.e. [twa] whereas Afrikaans pronounces it as in English, i.e. [toi]. It would seem that in these words there is a conscious attempt to make them sound as un-English as possible, giving rise to a hypercorrect stress pattern. HAT recognises both hóspitaal and hospitáál whereas Van Dale recognises only the former; this could also be the result of hypercorrectism to avoid what is regarded as an English stress, but it may also be the result of analogy with other words ending in -aal that do take the stress on the ending in Dutch too, for example: internasionaal, potensiaal. The unusual stress in akademikús, politikús, pagína, and platína has nothing to do with English influence.

basket(bal)

inkrement

konteks

permit

standaard

toilet