Roots of Afrikaans
Selected writings of Hans den Besten
Editor
Hans den Besten (1948-2010) made numerous contributions to Afrikaans linguistics over a period of nearly three decades. His writings helped shift the perspective on the roots of Afrikaans beyond Dutch to the structure and vocabulary of Khoekhoe, to Portuguese Creole, and to Malay varieties. This volume contains a selection of Den Besten’s most important papers – some of which originally appeared in less accessible journals – concerning the structure and history of Afrikaans. They cover a wide range of topics, including grammatical structure, vocabulary, the historical development of Afrikaans, as well its multiple roots. It is essential reading for any linguist interested in language contact and language change.
[Creole Language Library, 44] 2012. vii, 458 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 25 May 2012
Published online on 25 May 2012
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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IntroductionTon van der Wouden and Pieter Muysken | pp. 1–6
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Chapter 1. The origins of the Afrikaans pre-nominal possessive system(s) | pp. 7–24
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Chapter 2. The complex ancestry of the Afrikaans associative constructions | pp. 25–34
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Chapter 3. What a little word can do for you: Wat in Afrikaans possessive relatives | pp. 35–40
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Chapter 4. Afrikaans relative ‘wat’ and West-Germanic relativization systems | pp. 41–60
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Chapter 5. Demonstratives in Afrikaans and Cape Dutch Pidgin: A first attempt | pp. 61–78
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Chapter 6. Speculations on [χ]-elision and intersonorantic [υ] in Afrikaans | pp. 79–94
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Chapter 7. The Dutch pidgins of the Old Cape colony | pp. 95–122
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Chapter 8. On the “verbal suffix” -UM of Cape Dutch Pidgin: Morphosyntax, pronunciation and origin | pp. 123–132
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Chapter 9. Relexification and pidgin development: The case of Cape Dutch Pidgin | pp. 133–152
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Chapter 10. Khoekhoe syntax and its implications for L2 acquisition of Dutch and Afrikaans | pp. 153–194
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Chapter 11. Reduplication in AfrikaansHans den Besten, Carla A. Luijks and Paul T. Roberge | pp. 195–220
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Chapter 12. Double negation and the genesis of Afrikaans | pp. 221–256
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Chapter 13. From Khoekhoe foreigner talk via Hottentot Dutch to Afrikaans: The creation of a novel grammar | pp. 257–288
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Chapter 14. Creole Portuguese in South Africa: Malayo- or Indo-Portuguese? | pp. 289–312
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Chapter 15. The slaves’ languages in the Dutch Cape colony and Afrikaans vir | pp. 313–332
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Chapter 16. A badly harvested field: The growth of linguistic knowledge and the Dutch Cape colony until 1796 | pp. 333–354
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Chapter 17. Desiderata for Afrikaans historical linguistics | pp. 355–374
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Appreciations
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Giving voice: The archive in Afrikaans historical linguisticsAna Deumert | pp. 377–388
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Afrikaans: “Might it be a little more ‘South Africa’?”Paul T. Roberge | pp. 389–398
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Partial restructuring: Dutch on the Cape and Portuguese in BrazilJohn Holm | pp. 399–418
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Language index | pp. 447–448
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Place index | pp. 449–450
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Author index | pp. 451–454
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Subject index | pp. 455–458
“[…] a wonderful project - to carry on Hans' work!”
Ana Deumert, University of Cape Town
“Hans den Besten's work on Afrikaans really did cast the language in quite a different light to what one would automatically think, given its political history.”
Theresa Biberauer, Cambridge University
Cited by (5)
Cited by five other publications
Roberge, Paul T.
2024. Lexicalizing vernacular architecture in the Cape Dutch Vernacular. In Investigating West Germanic Languages [Studies in Germanic Linguistics, 8], ► pp. 131 ff. 
Kirsten, Johanita
Nyamnjoh, Anye-Nkwenti
Coulmas, Florian
Stell, Gerald
2017. Social mobility as a factor in restructuring. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 32:1 ► pp. 104 ff. 
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 january 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CFF: Historical & comparative linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General