Journal articles on the topic 'Afrikaans newspapers'

In the increasingly competitive media landscape newspapers, among others, are underpressure from digital and social media. As a result, the performance and positioningof traditional Afrikaans newspapers like Rapport, Beeld, Die Burger and Volksblad, aswell as the forms of Afrikaans they use, are constantly scrutinised in surveys about therelevance and profitability of the Afrikaans print media. These surveys often point tothe use of Afrikaans ‘as spoken by the people’ in emerging newspapers like Son andSon op Sondag, as the main reason for the growing popularity, healthy sales figuresand advertising revenue of these two newspapers. As a result, Son developed into thelargest Afrikaans daily in an Afrikaans print market long dominated by establishedtitles like Beeld, Die Burger and Volksblad. In view of this, this contribution will firstlyinvestigate the profitability (in monetary terms and circulation) of actually using Kaapsin newspapers. Secondly, it will focus attention on the use of this form of Afrikaansin traditional newspapers in which Standard Afrikaans is the dominant form. Thequestion is: What is the nature of the Kaaps in these newspapers compared to theKaaps in Son specifically? The aim of this contribution is to explore how Afrikaansnewspapers create space for the use of colloquial varieties in general and Kaapsspecifically, and to determine the relevance or function of Kaaps in the news domain.On the one hand the focus will be on columns in which Kaaps is the medium and onthe other, on newspaper articles about the Afrikaans language variety. The data onwhich this paper is based were firstly, the responses to a list of questions posed to thenews-editor of Son, and secondly a critical content analysis and interpretation of themanifestations of Kaaps in this newspaper in comparison to the forms in the moreestablished Afrikaans newspapers. The general perceptions of, and attitudes towards,the use of colloquial varieties of Afrikaans, collated in a 2012 survey among readers,are also taken into account.

The transformation of Afrikaans - a review of the media debate of the last decadeThis article focuses on the language debate concerning the position and status of Afrikaans. This debate has mainly been conducted in Afrikaans newspapers during the past ten years. The apparent trends of the debate are interpreted against the background of transformation as a key concept. Apart from a brief theoretical investigation of the theory of social change, this article explores the applicability of these theoretical parameters on the transformation process to which Afrikaans has been subjected during the last decade. The article aims to demonstrate that the media debate on Afrikaans which has been conducted by members of the Afrikaans speech community is not unique but illustrates responses typical of all transforming societies regardless of time and space.

Afrikaans and English television news started in 1975 with equal airtime. In 1996 afteran SABC policy change, the Afrikaans TV news bulletin was relegated to a lesser andinfrequent time slot. Many Afrikaans-speaking viewers perceived these changes as athreat to the future of Afrikaans and pressure was exerted by cultural organizations andAfrikaans newspapers. There are also indications that economy of language played amajor role in the re-establishment of a regular time slot for Afrikaans television news.Economy of language is a field of study probing the relationship between linguistic andeconomic variables. The role of language in people’s involvement in the economy isdiverse but fundamental. On the one hand language empowers or disempowers peopleto join the national economy, and on the other hand people’s language preferencessometimes determine their consumer decisions. The SABC’s Afrikaans television news isa prime example of language preference becoming an economic determinant.

Afrikaans freedom songs as a reconstruction of Afrikaner identity Media polemics that centred on Afrikaner identity and language proliferated in Afrikaans newspapers of the early 2000s. It illustrates that although more than a decade has passed since democratisation, identity politics are still an important South African topic and renegotiation therefore continues. This article discusses the role of Afrikaans freedom songs as a reconstruction of white Afrikaner identity with the specific aim of establishing a point of departure for an ideology-critical theorising of the topic. In this regard, the interpretative tools of metaphor analysis and ideology critique of Johann Visagie (1996) are applied within the broader framework of the so-called Critical Theory. The five dominant postapartheid narratives recorded by Melissa Steyn (2001) serve as starting point for this study. The selection of freedom songs is related to specific constructions of “whiteness” portrayed in the mentioned narratives.

Rabbi Ungar was born in Budapest to Bela and Frederika Ungar. The family lived in hiding with false identity papers from 1944 under the German occupation. After the war, a scholarship brought him to the UK where he studied at Jews’ College, then part of University College, and subsequently studied philosophy. Feeling uncomfortable within Orthodoxy, he met with Rabbi Harold Reinhart and Rabbi Leo Baeck and eventually became an assistant rabbi at West London Synagogue. In 1954 he obtained his doctorate in philosophy and was ordained as a rabbi through a programme that preceded the formal creation of Leo Baeck College in 1956. In 1955 he was appointed as rabbi at the progressive congregation in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Very soon his fiery anti-Apartheid sermons were condemned in the Afrikaans newspapers and received mixed reactions from the Jewish community. In December 1956 he was served with a deportation order and was forced to leave the country.

How do people from our day and age view the Bible? Not all members of the Dutch Reformed Church cherish the same view about Scripture. The letters in the Afrikaans newspapers on religious issues clearly reflect this. There are two groups of scholars in the church whose views on Scripture impact on church members’ views. They are (1) systematic theologians and (2) biblical scholars. A large number of systematic theologians adhere to the view which was formulated during the heydays of Protestant Orthodoxy, i.e. that the Bible reflects a double authorship. They prefer to use the Latin words “auctor primaries” and “auctores secundarii” when writing about Scripture. A large number of biblical scholars, however, work with the idea that the Bible reflects single authorship. God did not write. Humans wrote the books of the Bible. It goes without saying that ordinary church members do not always understand the differences and are often perplexed by these differences. It is of utmost importance to discuss these differences and to try and find some middle ground in the church.

This article focuses on views expressed in newspaper articles and in letters to the editor about the future of Afrikaans in a new political dispensation. It seems as if people do not believe that despite the constitutional assurances of November 1993 - Afrikaans will be able to maintain its present status as one of the official languages of South Africa as the mistakes of the past are constantly being thrown into its face. There have been signs in the business community (for example by Toyota, Coca-Cola, BMW, SA Breweries) and in the political arena that English, rather than Afrikaans, is the favoured language. The views expressed in the articles and letters indicate that the Afrikaans community will not accept this attitude and that a new struggle for language rights (especially those of Afrikaans in the light of the history of Afrikaans) could be the result. This struggle could according to one letter writer - have serious consequences for peace in the country after the assumption of power by a new government will come to power after April 27 1994.

Early research into the Afrikaans vocabulary was mainly diachronic and comparative (Dutch being the “mother” language from which Afrikaans developed) and the relationship between the lexicons of the two languages was not explored in any great detail towards the end of the twentieth century. This state of affairs changed with the publication of Groot Woordeboek Afrikaans en Nederlands (“Great Dictionary Afrikaans and Dutch”) in 2011, a dictionary with an amalgamated lemma list. One of the outcomes of the lexicographic project was the realisation that less than fifty percent of the lemmas in the dictionary were absolute cognates, words which are similar in both form and meaning. This finding prompted a synchronic comparison of word forming processes in Afrikaans and Dutch, using two small newspaper corpora from 2009 as well a selection of neologisms. Analysis of the data shows that although Afrikaans and Dutch differ in the way in which loan words are incorporated—Dutch speakers prefer to take over the words as they are, whereas Afrikaans speakers make use of calques— the morphosemantic process of compounding is still the most productive way for adding words to the lexicon. The two languages do not make use of each others’ coinages, one indication that their lexicons are increasingly growing apart.

In this commentary the authors express their opinion on the role that the Vrye Weekblad in particular and the Press in general, can play in a post-apartheid South Africa. The article is not based on any empirical quantitative research. Rather, It should be seen as a critical analysis of comtemporary conjecture surrounding literature pertaining to this specific topic. The authors postulate that the Vrye Weekblad is ofter mistakenly portrayed as a radical newspaper by those who feel the mos threatened by the possible conse quences that its messages can produce. The value of this particular medium lles In the fact that it will help ensure that Afrikaans, as a language, will survive. It Is able to fulfil this function by showing that Afrikaans need not always be im. mediately equated with racism or suppression, but in sharp contrast, that Afrikaans can be synonomous with democracy. The difficulties and challenges facing the Vrye Weekblad (and other media) as a variable that will play a vital role in not only moulding, but also influencing a post-apartheid South Africa, are highlighted

The past has become a focal point in contemporary South African discourse, in public debate, newspaper articles and various forms of literature. South African literature written during the eighties and nineties, in particular English and Afrikaans novels, effectively portray this climate of confrontation and reconciliation by engaging in dialogue with the past and history. This article traces the evolution of political consciousness in the female protagonists of A Sport of Nature (1987) by Nadine Gordimer, Die reise van Isobelle (1996) by Elsa Joubert and Imaginings of Sand (1997) by André Brink. All three novelists subvert the traditional stereotypes of white women: Gordimer in an ironic quasi-picaresque form, Joubert by staging a family saga that assumes a testimonial quality and Brink in a fictionalised meta-history of women interwoven with strands of magic realism. The novels all engage with history, and in particular the role of women in history, in a constructive manner and attempt to anticipate a positive scenario for the future.

OPSOMMING Die Kaapse koloniale koerant De Zuid-Afrikaan, wat in 1830 die eerste maal verskyn het, word tradisioneel as die grondlegger van die Afrikaanse joernalistiek in Suid-Afrika gesien. Moet die koerant as reaksionêre voorloper van die Afrikaanse joernalistiek van Afrikaner-nasionalisme en apartheid gesien word, of het dit in die konteks van die 19de eeu 'n liberale stem verteenwoordig wat sedertdien onderbeklemtoon is? Hierdie artikel belig De Zuid-Afrikaan se redaksionele dekking van twee sleutelkwessies. Aan die een kant was daar sy (liberale) ondersteuning van persvryheid en meer selfbeskikking vir die koloniste, en aan die ander sy (konserwatiewe) houding teenoor slawerny. Die historiese nalatenskap van die koerant word herbesoek aan die hand van 'n literatuuroorsig en geselekteerde aanhalings uit die oorspronklike inhoud. Die slotsom is dat evaluering van De Zuid-Afrikaan in die 20ste-eeuse geskiedskrywing as eenduidig reaksionêr moontlik heroorweeg moet word. Van die nuanses en teenstrydighede van die spesifieke 19de-eeuse omgewing waarin die koerant ontstaan en ontwikkel het, het dalk verlore geraak. Trefwoorde: Afrikanernasionalisme, De Zuid-Afrikaan, geskiedskrywing, joernalis-tiek, Kaapkolonie, koerante, konserwatief, liberaal, selfregering, slawerny, Suid-Afrika, 19de eeu, 20ste eeu ABSTRACT The Cape colonial newspaper De Zuid-Afrikaan, which was published in 1830 for the first time, is traditionally regarded as the founder of Afrikaans journalism in South Africa. But how should its legacy be remembered? Historians of different generations seem to differ. Was the newspaper the reactionary forerunner of Afrikaner nationalism and apartheid, or must it be viewed as a liberal voice within the context of the 19th century which has perhaps been underemphasised in 20th century historiography? This article revisits the editorial coverage of De Zuid-Afrikaan on two key issues, the emancipation of slaves in 1834 and the introduction of a representative elective government system in 1854. The newspaper was conservative towards the former issue, but liberal towards the latter. The portrayal of the newspaper is revisited by engaging in a literature review and quoting selected passages from the newspaper. In conclusion it is argued that past evaluations of De Zuid-Afrikaan as one-sidedly reactionary should probably be revisited, because much of the contradictions and nuances of the specific 19th century surroundings in which it was founded might have been lost in most recent versions of its history. This probably happened because the rise of Afrikaner nationalism in the 20th century was projected backwards onto De Zuid-Afrikaan. The result is a simple dualistic view of South African newspaper history in which De Zuid-Afrikaan represents a reactionary pole and its main competitor, The South African Commercial Advertiser, a liberal one. These two poles are then seen as representative of respectively Afrikaans and English journalism as it developed in the 20th century. A closer look at the founding and development ofDe Zuid-Afrikaan reveals a much more nuanced picture. Although the owners and editors of the newspaper were Cape Dutch in the main, it also made available its copy in English for at least seven decades. Afrikaans language nationalism in the form in which it later developed was not its aim nor its legacy to Afrikaans journalism. It is also a mistake to view the newspaper's defence of the interests of slave owners as a precursor to the support that Afrikaans newspapers provided to apartheid. De Zuid-Afrikaan did not try to justify and promote slavery as an ideology in the way in which Afrikaans journalists did with apartheid. In the 19th century slavery was regulated and based on accepted practice. The newspaper emerged as mouthpiece for slaveowners who had legitimate interests, claims, and fears when the system was no longer acceptable, and the law changed. The case of apartheid was different: first the Afrikaans journalists created visions, and then the laws followed. This article does not try from the moral high ground of the 21st century to whitewash the history of De Zuid-Afrikaan or present it as liberal ahead of its time. The point is that the newspaper was exactly a product of its time, and part of a greater Western movement from patriarchy to a more liberal order. Its editors were learned men who were in touch with the changes in parts of the world like France, the Netherlands, Britain and the United States of America. The support that De Zuid-Afrikaan provided to the liberal (in its time) constitution of 1854 shows an attitude towards other members of society, white and black, which seems to differ from later incarnations of Afrikaner nationalism in the press. De Zuid-Afrikaan was part of the development of Cape liberalism, which should be distinguished from the Afrikaner nationalism of the 20th century. Perhaps the question should be addressed whether it would have been more suited to the inclusive democracy of the 21st century or the fatherland of apartheid? Keywords: Afrikaner nationalism, Cape colony, conservative, De Zuid-Afrikaan, historiography, journalism, liberal, newspapers, representative government, slavery, South Africa, 19th century, 20th century

In the last three decades of the 20th century the world witnessed an increased awareness of the global environment and the impact of human actions. From an environmental perspective, the mass media contributed to the heightened environmental awareness and, rightly or wrongly, focused the attention of the public on specific environmental issues. This vital source of information to the public (the mass media), can take on many forms, including television, magazines, newspapers and pamphlets. In general, newspapers have been found to be one of the most predominant sources of information available to the public. Therefore, this paper focuses on environmental reporting through national newspapers in South Africa and whether the reporting is sufficient to hone public awareness. Copies of two national newspapers, one English (Sunday Times) and one Afrikaans (Rapport) were obtained from the main library in Bloemfontein and were analysed over a two-year period,that is 2007 and 2008. The objectives were to determine the number of environmental articles; the type and/or category of articles and the importance (page number) of articles in both national newspapers. The results were compared and show a very interesting flow of environmental information. Preliminary results indicate that there was a decrease in environmental related articles over the years studied; and that most environmental articles fall into the main category of biodiversity. The Afrikaans paper focused predominantly on national news, while the English paper showed an even distribution between national and international environmental news.

AbstractIn this article we provide a discussion of present-day Khoisan activism in Cape Town, South Africa. The main actors in this movement are people whose heritage is complex: their history can be traced back to the early days of the colonial settlement, reflecting the interactions and cohabitation of the indigenous Khoisan, slaves and the European settlers. Currently, their main languages are English and Afrikaans; yet, efforts are also made by activists to learn Khoekhoegwab. In discussing the Khoisan resurgence we draw on a wide range of sources. The data include: in-depth interviews with language activists; video and audio recordings of ceremonies and other cultural events; discussions and performance of language and identity on blogs and tweets; newspapers; linguistic landscapes; and, finally, artistic performances (with particular focus on the hiphop opera

An Illustration of the Usefulness of a Reading Programme in a time of corpus lexicography, with Recommendations for the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal. The Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT) is a comprehensive, synchronic dictionary, the first volume of which was published in 1951. Its aim has been to treat the vocabulary of Afrikaans in its broadest scope, from today back to about one hundred years ago. Like similar dictionaries for other languages, the WAT originally came into existence dependent to a large degree on the phrases and citations ordinary language users sent to the dictionary by surface mail during the last decades of the previous millennium. For almost every headword from U to Z that still needs to be defined and elucidated, this collection of more than 4,5 million hand-written or typed cards has remained the starting point. However, since the arrival of computers in the 1980s, new technologies have fundamentally changed the way dictionary makers work. In the era of corpus lexicography, card collections have been systematically supplemented by electronic corpuses reflecting real language use, in which words can be sorted and analysed directly and with the use of various criteria. The larger, more comprehensive and more balanced the corpus, the less editors have to rely on personal impressions. Yet, in these days of online text collection, some of the WAT's peers, such as the (much more extensive) Oxford English Dictionary (OED), have maintained established reading programmes and even initiated several new ones. Large corpuses contain mostly texts from newspapers, magazines, novels and such like, in which the current, general and written varieties of the language dominate and other varieties (regional language, technical language, colloquial language, words and expressions of previous generations) are less well represented. By selecting specific texts for volunteer and paid readers, reading-programme managers have attempted to fill these gaps. Through a semi-automatic analysis of such a selected text, the novel Draaijakkals (1999) by George Weideman, this article demonstrates and subsequently recommends how a reading programme in a reviewing phase may contribute to new and augmented entries in the WAT. Keywords: reading programme, comprehensive dictionary, synchronic dictionary, readers, text analysis, text analysis software, new material, excerpting, words, spelling, variants, parts of speech, expressions, meaning, usage, citations, dating

What is the Meaning of B(b)oer in 2022? This article investigates the meaning of the words Boer and boer in Afrikaans. The study is the result of an incident in 2015 when the Afrikaans Language Commission considered the possibility of omitting the word Boer from the Afrikaanse woordelys en spelreëls. The rationale was that other race sensitive items, such as hotnot, kaffer and koelie, had been scrapped from the word list long ago. The proposal to omit Boer created havoc. In the following discussion, the encyclopaedic approach to meaning is used to determine what Boer and boer currently mean. An investigation into the lexical meaning of these two words is supplemented by highlighting one of the assumptions of the encyclopaedic approach to meaning, namely that encyclopaedic knowledge is dynamic in nature and furthermore that meaning is always constructed in the context of use. The current day use and meanings of Boer and boer are indicated via examples from newspaper articles, literary texts, lyrics, a brand name as well as the corpus of the Language Commission. A radiating lattice diagram for the words Boer and boer is provided to show how the various meanings of the words are related to one another and how they form a polysemous semantic network. Keywords: boer, encyclopaedic approach, polysemy, radiating lattice diagram, semantics

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