Learn about augmentatives in Afrikaans
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Intro |
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| Antoni: What are augmentatives and how are they formed in Afrikaans? |
| Dewan: And are they commonly used? |
| Antoni: At AfrikaansPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following scenario: Ben Lee is discussing the Olympic Games with his college friend, Karina Small. He asks, |
| "Which athletes do you admire the most?" |
| Ben Lee: Watter atlete bewonder jy die meeste? |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: Watter atlete bewonder jy die meeste? |
| Karina Small: Ek bewonder gimnaste die meeste, want hulle moet superfiks en soepel wees. |
| Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: Watter atlete bewonder jy die meeste? |
| Antoni: Which athletes do you admire the most? |
| Karina Small: Ek bewonder gimnaste die meeste, want hulle moet superfiks en soepel wees. |
| Antoni: "I admire gymnasts the most because they have to be superfit and supple." |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you will be learning about augmentatives in Afrikaans and how commonly they are used. Augmentatives are forms of a root word that intensify the meaning of the root word in some way, and in Afrikaans, they're called |
| Dewan: intensiewe vorme |
| Antoni: which literally means "intensive forms." The augmentation could be in terms of size, but also in terms of some other quality. Augmentatives are the opposite of diminutives. In Afrikaans, some augmentatives are formed using prefixes. There are not a great number of this type of augmentative in Afrikaans, but they are still useful to know because they can be very helpful when wanting to be more expressive in your use of Afrikaans. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Ben asks "Which athletes do you admire the most?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Dewan: Watter atlete bewonder jy die meeste? |
| Antoni: There's no augmentative in this sentence. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Antoni: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Karina replies "I admire gymnasts the most, because they have to be superfit and supple?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Dewan: Ek bewonder gimnaste die meeste, want hulle moet superfiks en soepel wees. |
| Antoni: In this sentence, you heard the word |
| Dewan: superfiks. |
| Antoni: This word consists of the root word |
| Dewan: fiks, |
| Antoni: meaning "fit," and the prefix |
| Dewan: super |
| Antoni: which, we're sure you will have guessed, means "super." The prefix "super" is used in many languages to intensify the root word it is attached to, as is the nature or augmentatives. Here’s another example of an Afrikaans word using the same prefix: |
| Dewan: supermark. |
| Antoni: This word means "supermarket." The next prefix will probably also sound familiar to you. It is "hyper" or |
| Dewan: hiper |
| Antoni: which is used in the word |
| Dewan: hipermark |
| Antoni: meaning "hypermarket," and it describes a very large shop. It is similarly used in words like "hyperactive," |
| Dewan: hiperaktief |
| Antoni: or "hypersensitive" |
| Dewan: hipersensitief. |
| Antoni: Some of the augmentative prefixes used in Afrikaans can also be found in Dutch, such as |
| Dewan: groot- |
| Antoni: It means "large" or "great", and can augment a word like "master" or |
| Dewan: meester |
| Antoni: by forming the new word |
| Dewan: grootmeester |
| Antoni: which means "grandmaster" in both languages. This term is most commonly used to describe a competitive chess player of the highest level. Another example of the use of this suffix is for the word "wholesale:" |
| Dewan: groothandel. |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In this lesson, so far, you have learned that augmentatives are words that intensify the meaning of a root word. Afrikaans uses prefixes to augment root words, and we've looked at a few. Now, let’s consider more examples of augmentative prefixes in Afrikaans. |
| Expansion/Contrast (Optional) |
| Antoni: The augmentative prefixes we are about to discuss are not used for a wide range of words in Afrikaans. They are not as versatile as prefixes such as "super" and "hyper" for instance. In a way that is their appeal because they are unique and expressive. Consider the word |
| Dewan: stokoud, |
| Antoni: for instance. It translates directly to "stick-old" and means "very very old." Another expressive augmentative is |
| Dewan: beeldskoon |
| Antoni: which translates directly to "picture-pretty" and means the same as "pretty as a picture." In Afrikaans, it is mostly used to describe nature and women of uncommon beauty. If you want to talk about an extremely wealthy person, you could use the augmentative |
| Dewan: skatryk |
| Antoni: which literally means "treasure-wealthy." If you wanted to talk about someone who was the opposite, you would refer to them as |
| Dewan: brandarm |
| Antoni: or, literally: "burning-poor," and it's similar to the English expression "dirt poor." Another opposite pair is when something is "ice cold," |
| Dewan: yskoud, |
| Antoni: or "fire hot," |
| Dewan: vuurwarm. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Antoni: Prefixes are usually small elements of language that cannot be further broken down into a meaningful morpheme. That’s why, technically speaking, a lot of these Afrikaans augmentatives don’t use prefixes, even though they act as prefixes. Often, they are two words that have become one. Consider, for instance, the word |
| Dewan: skreeusnaaks. |
| Antoni: It translates to "scream-funny," and it means "extremely funny." Then, there’s another augmentative which we can find in English as well. It translates to "blood-red" and sounds like this: |
| Dewan: bloedrooi. |
| Antoni: In Afrikaans, a person can also be "lightning-fast" or |
| Dewan: blitsvinnig, |
| Antoni: just like in English. And again, as in English, Afrikaans people talk about someone being "sopping wet," but they use one word: |
| Dewan: sopnat. |
| Antoni: With very few exceptions, Afrikaans augmentatives don't have degrees of comparison, since they already express the most intensive form. Sometimes, however, if you really want to make a dramatic point, you can do so by means of partial duplication of an existing augmentative, such as in the word: |
| Dewan: sop-sopnat |
| Antoni: meaning "sopping-sopping wet," or consider the word |
| Dewan: skat-skatryk |
| Antoni: which literally translates to "treasure-treasure wealthy." You would probably use this to describe a billionaire. Alternatively, you could combine augmentatives with other words, such as the word |
| Dewan: morsdoodmoeg. |
| Antoni: In this case, the augmentative word is |
| Dewan: morsdood, |
| Antoni: which literally translates to "waste dead," and it means "completely dead." It's combined with the Afrikaans word for "tired," |
| Dewan: moeg, |
| Antoni: to express extreme exhaustion. As you can see, Afrikaans augmentatives are not difficult to master and they are wonderfully expressive too. So, you should have a great time learning them! |
Outro |
| Antoni: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Dewan: Totsiens! |
| Antoni: See you soon! |
| Credits: Dewan (Afrikaans, Pietermaritzburg), Antoni (English, synthetic voice) |
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