The origin of Afrikaans pronunciation: a comparison to west Germanic languages and Dutch dialects
نویسندگان
چکیده
This paper aims to find the origin of the Afrikaans pronunciation with the use of dialectometry. First, Afrikaans was compared to Standard Dutch, Standard Frisian and Standard German. Pronunciation distances were measured by means of Levenshtein distances. Afrikaans was found to be closest to Standard Dutch. Second, the Afrikaans pronunciation was compared to 361 Dutch dialect varieties in the Netherlands and North-Belgium. Material from the Reeks Nederlandse Dialectatlassen was used. Afrikaans was found to be closest to the South Holland variety of Zoetermeer, which largely agrees with Kloeke (1950, Herkomst en Groei van het Afrikaans).
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