[buyx]

Afrikaans isn't the "main language" of South Africa. It is 1 of 11 official languages, 9 of which are Bantu languages.

Until 1994, it was one of two official languages (along with English). I've also never seen it referred to by the name "African". One of the main causes of the 16 June 1976 Soweto riots was an attempt by the apartheid government to change the medium of instruction in black schools from English to Afrikaans. Although it has never been the first language of the vast majority of black Africans, it is the first language of a large percentage of whites, and mixed-race people (the Coloureds), and especially in rural areas, was a popular second language, however it seems to have been displaced as a second language by English, and most Afrikaans universities and many Afrikaans-medium schools now also offer instruction in English.

That said, I learned it at school, and it was fairly straightforward to pick up as a native English speaker.

[zamalek]

> Afrikaans isn't the "main language" of South Africa.

@NicoJuicy might have meant to say "common tongue." I can only communicate effectively English and the pervasiveness of Afrikaans still gives me problems - even though it is currently being displaced as the common tongue.

[_0ffh]

IIRC "Afrikaans" literally means "African" (in Dutch and, uhm, Afrikaans).

[caio1982]

It does, but it may sound derogatory because African has a much wider and broad meaning than a specific Dutch word (used in a singular colonized area).

[wavefunction]

And in any case, it's Afrikaans in English as well as Dutch, so 'African' while perhaps a literal translation into English is not really something with meaning in English.