Learn about some Afrikaans-English false friends
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Intro |
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| Antoni: What are some Afrikaans-English false friends? |
| Dewan: And what are some words that are often used incorrectly? |
| Antoni: At AfrikaansPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine this scenario: an exchange student, Mia Martin, is discussing wealth with her South African friend, Alet Oosthuizen. She says, |
| "Rockefeller was the world's first trillionaire." |
| Mia Martin: Rockefeller was die wêreld se eerste biljoenêr. |
| Dialogue |
| Mia Martin: Rockefeller was die wêreld se eerste biljoenêr. |
| Alet Oosthuizen: Bedoel jy hy was 'n miljardêr? |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Mia Martin: Rockefeller was die wêreld se eerste biljoenêr. |
| Antoni: "Rockefeller was the world's first trillionaire." |
| Alet Oosthuizen: Bedoel jy hy was 'n miljardêr? |
| Antoni: "Do you mean he was a billionaire?" |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this lesson, we're going to look at false friends in Afrikaans and English. The term "false friends" can be misleading, because it has nothing to do with unreliable people posing as friends. Rather, it refers to a lexicological phenomenon where two words from different languages sound the same, or are spelled the same, but have completely different meanings. For instance, one German verb that means "to get", sounds very similar to the English verb "become". Now imagine that a German native speaker confuses the two verbs, and tells an English car salesperson that they would like to become a certain car. That could cause a lot of confusion! This is what is meant by a “false friend”. |
| How does this phenomenon occur in languages? Well, it happens mostly because many languages share the same historic roots or origins. For instance, English, German, and Afrikaans are all Germanic languages, meaning they share the same linguistic origins in Europe. Historically, many words in these languages used to have the same meaning, such as the German-English example I spoke about earlier. However, in each language, the meaning of certain words changed over time, and this gave rise to different types of "false friends" among different languages. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: Now let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. Interestingly, many native South Africans don't even know the following about Afrikaans numbers. |
| Do you remember how Mia says "Rockefeller was the world's first trillionaire."? |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Dewan as Mia Martin: Rockefeller was die wêreld se eerste biljoenêr. |
| Antoni: The English "billionaire" sounds almost exactly the same as the Afrikaans |
| Dewan: biljoenêr. |
| Antoni: They both refer to an extremely wealthy person, but they don't refer to the same quantity of wealth. This is why they are false friends. In Afrikaans, |
| Dewan: een biljoen |
| Antoni: sounds very much like "one billion", but in fact, it refers to the number ten to the power of 12. Or, to put it differently—it's ten with twelve zeros. In English, a billion of anything only refers to the amount of ten to the power of nine, or, ten with nine zeros. Therefore, In English, you were not quite as wealthy as in Afrikaans. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Antoni: Now let’s take a look at our second sentence. Do you remember how Alet says "Do you mean he was a billionaire?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Dewan as Alet Oosthuizen: Bedoel jy hy's 'n miljardêr? |
| Antoni: As you have probably gathered, the correct Afrikaans translation for "billionaire" is |
| Dewan: miljardêr. |
| Antoni: You will also recall from the dialogue that a |
| Dewan: biljoenêr |
| Antoni: is called a "trillionaire" in English. These numbers boggle the mind, don't they? |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: So far in this lesson, we discussed the definition of linguistic false friends and looked at examples of these in Afrikaans and English. False friends in different languages sound or appear to be closely related in meaning, but they are not. They can be thoroughly confusing for non-native speakers. Interestingly, because of the way words change meaning over time, many expressions and words that were once Afrikaans-English false friends are no longer so. More about this a bit later. |
| We also saw that it's important to get to know these words and their distinctions, because they can cause confusion. To that end, let’s have a look at another English-Afrikaans false friend. This one is a phrase rather than a word, and it is quite commonly used. In English, the direct translation of "to make out", is |
| Dewan: om uit te maak |
| Antoni: Directly translated like this, one could be excused for thinking that they might be close, in terms of meaning, but the only thing they share is that they both refer to an aspect of romance. In fact, they couldn't be more opposite in meaning! In English, "making out" refers to certain romantic activities people engage in. In Afrikaans, however, |
| Dewan: uitmaak |
| Antoni: actually means "breaking up". A literal translation of "We made out last night" is |
| Dewan: Ons het uitgemaak gisteraand |
| Antoni: but in Afrikaans, it means that you broke up with your beloved last night. See why I say it's important to know these false friends?! |
| Afrikaners do have a term for "making out" which also denotes the same as "making out", but it's only really used among very close friends and partners. Romantic intimacy between people is considered an intensely private topic in Afrikaner society, and is almost never discussed in company. If you really must mention it, suggestive winking will probably be the best way to communicate your meaning. Of course, it's a different matter if you're relating your intimate history to a doctor or other medical professional in South Africa. In such a case, the franker you are, the better, but chances are good that you will be addressed in English anyway. |
| Our next false friend is the word "room". |
| Dewan: Room. |
| Antoni: These are written exactly the same way in both languages, and they even sound a bit similar, but like our first example, they differ completely in meaning. In English, "room" refers to an enclosed space in a building, as you probably know. In Afrikaans, however, |
| Dewan: room |
| Antoni: means "cream"! The cosmetic substance, and the liquid stuff you would find in a kitchen. The next false friend is an interesting one. In English, "vroom" is an onomatopoeia, meaning it's a word that mimics the revving up of an engine. As in "vroom-vroom!" Afrikaans has a word that's spelled exactly the same so it's easy to assume that these two words are related. However, they're definitely not! |
| Dewan: Vroom |
| Antoni: means "pious" in Afrikaans, as in |
| Dewan: Daardie man gee voor om baie vroom te wees. |
| Antoni: This translates to "That man pretends to be very pious." The last false friend example we’re going to give is the word "son", or, in Afrikaans, |
| Dewan: son. |
| Antoni: They are spelled exactly the same, S-O-N, and they even sound fairly similar. In English, though, "son" refers to a male family member of a parent. In Afrikaans, it refers to the biggest star in our solar system, and one that's also the closest to Earth. Yes, I'm talking about the sun! |
| Expansion/Contrast (Optional) |
| Antoni: You may wonder why we’re not giving more examples of English-Afrikaans false friends. Well, this is because there used to be many, but because South African society is very Anglicized, many have become true friends over time. For instance, the word |
| Dewan: joernaal |
| Antoni: originated from the English verb “journal”, meaning "to journal" or "to diarize". It could also refer to the English noun "journal", which indicates a magazine or newspaper, as these 'diarize' our daily comings and goings. In modern English, it also refers to professional or research periodicals or publications, and in accounting, it's a financial term for record-keeping. In Afrikaans, it has also been used as an accounting term. Over the years, it came to also refer to professional periodicals. Think |
| Dewan: mediese joernaal |
| Antoni: for instance, which means "medical journal", which is distinctly different from a magazine. It's also still used as an accounting term. |
| Now, although there are many cases of these Afrikaans-English false friends that evolved into “real friends”, so to speak, this doesn't mean that there are no other false friends to be found in Afrikaans. Many are a result of similarities with other languages such as German, French, and even African languages. Most are from Dutch, and they are not all completely false friends—a great number are only partial false friends, such as the commonly-used |
| Dewan: vaak. |
| Antoni: It is written and pronounced exactly the same way in both Dutch and Afrikaans, but it means "sleepy" and "almost" in Dutch, but in in Afrikaans, it means only "sleepy"—as in the kind of drowsiness you feel at night before bed-time. The context in which it is used will reveal its meaning in Dutch, but rather don't confuse the two in Afrikaans. Perhaps, after spending the day on the beach in the sun, or working hard at a deadline, you can say this with a big yawn: |
| Dewan: Sjoe, ek is nou lekker vaak. |
| Antoni: It means "Wow, I'm nice and sleepy now." |
| A good example of a complete false friend in these two languages is the word |
| Dewan: rat |
| Antoni: In Dutch, this means "rat", as in the rodent, but in Afrikaans, it means "gear", as in the mechanical part found in a gearbox. Another excellent example is the word |
| Dewan: mus. |
| Antoni: which is again written and pronounced exactly the same in Dutch and Afrikaans. In Dutch, though, it refers to a species of bird—the sparrow. In Afrikaans, it's the name for a beanie, as in the warm headgear that you'd wear outside in snowy or ice-cold weather. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Antoni: Linguistically speaking, it makes sense that Afrikaans and Dutch share more partial than complete false friends, because Afrikaans is a daughter-language of Dutch. Afrikaans developed from the Seventeenth Century onward, in colonial South Africa. Over the centuries, it was shaped and influenced by many other languages. The existence of completely false friends in less related languages is one of the interesting results of this phenomenon. After all, who'd have thought that Afrikaans, French, and Sepedi, which is one of the native African languages, could share a word that's spelled exactly the same? It's not pronounced the same, but is spelled the same in all three languages and it's completely unrelated in meaning. In Afrikaans, it is pronounced as |
| Dewan: gare. |
| Antoni: which is derived from the Afrikaans word |
| Dewan: garing |
| Antoni: and it refers to the yarn that's normally used in the clothing industry. In French, the false friend is spelled exactly the same way, but has a different pronunciation, and it means "station". In Sepedi, it is pronounced in yet another way, and means "in the center". |
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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