You’ve heard of Afrikaans, but have you heard of Kaaps?
Afrikaans is a language spoken in South Africa that’s descended from Dutch, with a large number of loan words and usages adopted from various African languages. While originally a dialect of Dutch spoken by colonisers settling in the area from the 1600s, Afrikaans is now its own language. It was standardised surprisingly recently when, in the twentieth century, a dictionary was published, and it has also gradually become an increasingly literary language.
Kaaps is a dialect of Afrikaans that comes from the Western Cape province of South Africa. Whereas Afrikaans is mostly spoken by white people, descendants of the original Dutch colonists, Kaaps is largely spoken by people of mixed heritage. Historically speaking, the relative poverty and marginalisation of the Kaaps-speakers has led to their dialect being the butt of jokes in South Africa, but with growing interest on the part of linguists and other experts, Kaaps is increasingly viewed as a dialect as valid, rich, and fascinating as any other.
In recent years, authors have started publishing books in Kaaps, contributing to the standardisation of the grammar and rules of usage. Currently, a project to create the first language dictionary is underway. If this trajectory continues, in a generation or two, Kaaps may be considered to be a language in its own right.
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