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Chapter 5. Demonstratives in Afrikaans and Cape Dutch Pidgin

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Roots of Afrikaans
This chapter is in the book Roots of Afrikaans

Abstract

Afrikaans seems to have lost the Dutch independent demonstrative dat ‘that’ as well as the pronoun het ‘it’ and the attributive element deze ‘this, these’, while independent dit ‘this’ seems to have taken over the functions of dat and het and while attributive die ‘that, those’ has acquired a proximate reading (Afr. dié week ‘this week’). In the present paper it is argued, however, that the weak pronoun het was bound to disappear anyway, that dat only underwent phonological change (so that dat and dit couldn’t be distinguished any longer) and that the changes in the system of attributive demonstratives are due to developments in Cape Dutch Pidgin.

Abstract

Afrikaans seems to have lost the Dutch independent demonstrative dat ‘that’ as well as the pronoun het ‘it’ and the attributive element deze ‘this, these’, while independent dit ‘this’ seems to have taken over the functions of dat and het and while attributive die ‘that, those’ has acquired a proximate reading (Afr. dié week ‘this week’). In the present paper it is argued, however, that the weak pronoun het was bound to disappear anyway, that dat only underwent phonological change (so that dat and dit couldn’t be distinguished any longer) and that the changes in the system of attributive demonstratives are due to developments in Cape Dutch Pidgin.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Chapter 1. The origins of the Afrikaans pre-nominal possessive system(s) 7
  5. Chapter 2. The complex ancestry of the Afrikaans associative constructions 25
  6. Chapter 3. What a little word can do for you 35
  7. Chapter 4. Afrikaans relative ‘wat’ and West-Germanic relativization systems 41
  8. Chapter 5. Demonstratives in Afrikaans and Cape Dutch Pidgin 61
  9. Chapter 6. Speculations on [χ]-elision and intersonorantic [υ] in Afrikaans 79
  10. Chapter 7. The Dutch pidgins of the Old Cape colony 95
  11. Chapter 8. On the “verbal suffix” - UM of Cape Dutch Pidgin 123
  12. Chapter 9. Relexification and pidgin development 133
  13. Chapter 10. Khoekhoe syntax and its implications for L2 acquisition of Dutch and Afrikaans 153
  14. Chapter 11. Reduplication in Afrikaans 195
  15. Chapter 12. Double negation and the genesis of Afrikaans 221
  16. Chapter 13. From Khoekhoe foreigner talk via Hottentot Dutch to Afrikaans 257
  17. Chapter 14. Creole Portuguese in South Africa 289
  18. Chapter 15. The slaves’ languages in the Dutch Cape colony and Afrikaans vir 313
  19. Chapter 16. A badly harvested field 333
  20. Chapter 17. Desiderata for Afrikaans historical linguistics 355
  21. Appreciations
  22. Giving voice 377
  23. Afrikaans 389
  24. Partial restructuring 399
  25. Bibliography of Hans den Besten’s writings on Afrikaans 419
  26. References 423
  27. Language index 447
  28. Place index 449
  29. Author index 451
  30. Subject index 455
https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.44.06ch5

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Chapter 1. The origins of the Afrikaans pre-nominal possessive system(s) 7
  5. Chapter 2. The complex ancestry of the Afrikaans associative constructions 25
  6. Chapter 3. What a little word can do for you 35
  7. Chapter 4. Afrikaans relative ‘wat’ and West-Germanic relativization systems 41
  8. Chapter 5. Demonstratives in Afrikaans and Cape Dutch Pidgin 61
  9. Chapter 6. Speculations on [χ]-elision and intersonorantic [υ] in Afrikaans 79
  10. Chapter 7. The Dutch pidgins of the Old Cape colony 95
  11. Chapter 8. On the “verbal suffix” - UM of Cape Dutch Pidgin 123
  12. Chapter 9. Relexification and pidgin development 133
  13. Chapter 10. Khoekhoe syntax and its implications for L2 acquisition of Dutch and Afrikaans 153
  14. Chapter 11. Reduplication in Afrikaans 195
  15. Chapter 12. Double negation and the genesis of Afrikaans 221
  16. Chapter 13. From Khoekhoe foreigner talk via Hottentot Dutch to Afrikaans 257
  17. Chapter 14. Creole Portuguese in South Africa 289
  18. Chapter 15. The slaves’ languages in the Dutch Cape colony and Afrikaans vir 313
  19. Chapter 16. A badly harvested field 333
  20. Chapter 17. Desiderata for Afrikaans historical linguistics 355
  21. Appreciations
  22. Giving voice 377
  23. Afrikaans 389
  24. Partial restructuring 399
  25. Bibliography of Hans den Besten’s writings on Afrikaans 419
  26. References 423
  27. Language index 447
  28. Place index 449
  29. Author index 451
  30. Subject index 455
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