Learn about compounding in Afrikaans
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Intro |
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| Antoni: What is compounding? |
| Dewan: And what is the longest word in Afrikaans? |
| Antoni: At AfrikaansPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following scenario: two friends, Karen Lee and Driekie Venter, are having coffee and chatting in a café, when Driekie uses an unfamiliar word. Karen asks, |
| "What does [buurman] mean?" |
| Karen Lee: Wat beteken "buurman"? |
| Dialogue |
| Karen Lee: Wat beteken "buurman"? |
| Driekie Venter: Dis 'n manlike persoon wat langs jou bly. |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Karen Lee: Wat beteken "buurman"? |
| Antoni: "What does [buurman] mean?" |
| Driekie Venter: Dis 'n manlike persoon wat langs jou bly. |
| Antoni: "It's a male person who lives next to you." |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you will be learning about compounding in Afrikaans, and you will also find out what the longest word in Afrikaans is. |
| To begin with, let’s talk about what compounding is exactly. To put it simply, compounding happens when you put two or more words together to form a new word. The way this is done differs from language to language, and some languages use a lot of compounding while others don’t. English doesn’t use a lot of compounding, for instance. |
| Compounds can also be productive, or not. What this means is that, in certain languages, one can create new words with compounding that aren’t in the dictionary. If they're easily understood, the compounds are considered productive. |
| In this lesson, you will learn about two types of compounds, and you will find out if compounding in Afrikaans is productive or not. |
| The first example of a compound that we will look at is one you already heard in the dialogue for this lesson when Karen asked: |
| Dewan: Wat beteken "buurman"? |
| Antoni: The compounded word was |
| Dewan: buurman |
| Antoni: which consists of two other words that have been joined together. The first one is: |
| Dewan: buurt |
| Antoni: which means “neighborhood.” The “T” at the end of the word has been dropped in the compound. The second one is: |
| Dewan: man |
| Antoni: which, you have probably guessed, means “man.” The compounded word |
| Dewan: buurman |
| Antoni: means “male neighbor” but directly translates to “neighborhood male.” The female equivalent would use the same root but with the word for “woman” at the end, resulting in the compound |
| Dewan: buurvrou |
| Antoni: which, directly translated, is “neighborhood woman” but means “female neighbor” in Afrikaans. Let’s look at another compound word in Afrikaans. This one is sometimes a cause for amusement when people are new to the language. It is |
| Dewan: kameelperd |
| Antoni: and it means “giraffe.” It is composed of the words |
| Dewan: kameel |
| Antoni: meaning “camel,” and |
| Dewan: perd |
| Antoni: meaning “horse.” The literal translation of the compound is then “camel horse.” One can still sort of see how the word makes sense. I mean, I suppose a giraffe bears some resemblance to a camel and a horse. This next word, however, can be really baffling. Let’s hear it: |
| Dewan: luiperd |
| Antoni: Okay, so it sounds fine as a whole, but break it up into its constituent smaller words, and you have the word for “lazy” or |
| Dewan: lui |
| Antoni: and the word for “horse” again, which sounds like this: |
| Dewan: perd |
| Antoni: The direct translation is “lazy horse.” Can you guess what animal it refers to? If you don’t already know, I can almost guarantee you, you won’t get it right. It means “leopard.” Yup, “leopard.” If this makes no sense to you, you’re not alone. The reason it is so strange is that it comes from the same Ancient Greek root as the English word “leopard.” In fact, technically, I suppose it’s not really a compound then. It’s a coincidence that it sounds like it’s made up of two other words. You might suspect that the same is true of |
| Dewan: kameelperd |
| Antoni: and you would be right, but you’d also be wrong. You’d be right because it is also based on an old Greek word. The reason you’d be wrong about it not being a compound is that the original Greek word is a compound of two words meaning “camel” and “leopard.” It was assumed that, because of its spots, the giraffe came about as the result of mating between a leopard and a camel. |
| Here’s one that makes a lot more sense. It sounds like this: |
| Dewan: boerewors |
| Antoni: Okay, so what this compound means is “farmer’s sausage.” A “farmer” in Afrikaans is a |
| Dewan: boer |
| Antoni: and “sausage” is |
| Dewan: wors, |
| Antoni: hence |
| Dewan: boerewors. |
| Antoni: This is much more sensible because, as the name suggests, it refers to a specific type of sausage. The recipe for this delicious food originated with the farmers or |
| Dewan: boere. |
| As we’ve pointed out—some of the compounds we’ve mentioned make sense without really having to explain what they mean. “Farmer’s sausage” or |
| Dewan: boerewors |
| Antoni: and “neighborhood man” or |
| Dewan: buurman |
| Antoni: are reasonably easy to understand without anyone needing to explain them. These are called “endocentric” compounds. What this means is that you can understand them immediately because the meaning of the compound relates back, in some clear way, to the meaning of the words that form its building blocks. The other compounds we mentioned— |
| Dewan: luiperd |
| Antoni: and |
| Dewan: kameelperd |
| Antoni: —are less easy to understand if you are reading or hearing them for the first time. These compounds are called “exocentric” compounds. |
| Quite a lot of fun can be had trying to figure out what some of these exocentric compounds mean. I hope you will take the time to go and find out more about them and the endocentric compounds. |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you learned about compounding. Compounding is when you join two or more words together to form another word. In some languages, compounding is productive, meaning you can make up new words. You also learned that some compounds are “endocentric,” meaning you can probably understand what they mean, even if you haven’t encountered them before, as long as you are familiar with the smaller words that they are made up of. Additionally, you learned about “exocentric” compounds which are compounds that cannot be so easily understood just by breaking them down into the smaller words that they are formed out of. |
| Expansion/Contrast (Optional) |
| Antoni: In Afrikaans, productive compounding is limited, but it does still happen. This is how some new words are still occasionally formed. One of these is the longest word in Afrikaans, which is |
| Dewan: |
| Tweedehandsemotorverkoopsmannevakbondstakingsvergaderingsameroeperstoespraakskrywerspersverklaringuitreikingsmediakonferensieaankondiging |
| Antoni: That is one seriously long word. In fact, it is 136 letters long. It means “issuable media conference’s announcement at a press release regarding the convener’s speech at a secondhand car dealership union’s strike meeting.” The thing about this word, though, is that it was created just for the sake of creating a long word. Still, it’s an impressively long word and it’s a good example of how compounding can continue to be productive. |
| Practice Section |
| Antoni: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after the native speaker focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how to say "What does "buurman" mean?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Dewan as Karen Lee: Wat beteken "buurman"? |
| Antoni: Listen again and repeat. |
| Dewan as Karen Lee: Wat beteken "buurman"? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Dewan as Karen Lee: Wat beteken "buurman"? |
| Antoni: And do you remember how to say "It means male neighbor?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Dewan as Driekie Venter: Dit beteken buurman. |
| Antoni: Listen again and repeat. |
| Dewan as Driekie Venter: Dit beteken buurman. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Dewan as Driekie Venter: Dit beteken buurman. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Antoni: One last thing about compounds in Afrikaans: Afrikaans endocentric compounds are usually right-headed. What this means is that, of the words that make up the compound, the last one, on the right, is usually the one that tells us, most clearly, what the meaning of the compound is, while the word, or words, on the left, function as modifiers of that meaning. Take, for instance, the word |
| Dewan: grootmens |
| Antoni: meaning “an adult” and the word |
| Dewan: grootpad |
| Antoni: meaning “major road” or “highway.” In both of these compounds, the word on the right, or the last in row, is the most important one. It tells us what the compound word is about. In the compound |
| Dewan: grootmens, |
| Antoni: the word |
| Dewan: mens |
| Antoni: means “person” and, in the compound |
| Dewan: grootpad, |
| Antoni: the last word is |
| Dewan: pad |
| Antoni: which means “road.” In both compounds, the word on the left was modifying these right-hand words. It was |
| Dewan: groot |
| Antoni: and it means “large,” “big,”or “great.” Thus, the direct translation of |
| Dewan: grootmens |
| Antoni: would be “big person” and the direct translation of |
| Dewan: grootpad |
| Antoni: would be “major road.” |
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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