Quote:
Originally Posted by Bowiefan871
Is Dutch really that much harder than Afrikaans? I always thought there was a lot more vocabulary in Afrikaans compared to Dutch.
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Dutch grammar is much more complex than Afrikaans grammar. Vocabulary doesn't really make a language difficult to learn, and I wouldn't say there was more in Afrikaans than in Dutch. Afrikaans
was Dutch 400 years ago, but it was spoken by a small group of mostly illiterate people, allowing it to modify in a manner that simplified it. It also incorporated words from the Khoi Khoi, San and east Indie people who were brought to the Cape as slaves. First Language Afrikaans speakers are required to read one Dutch book in their final year of high school, and Afrikaans musicians release records in the Netherlands. Afrikaans is actually very similar to Flemmish (spoken in parts of Belgium).