Afrikaans voice overs: what you need to know

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language with around 7.2 million native speakers. Afrikaans is mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia.

However, you can find Afrikaans speakers all over the world, including the US and Australia. It’s estimated that about 10 million people speak it as a second language.

Language History

Compared to other well-known languages, Afrikaans is a very recent one. It originated during the 18th century in Southern Africa when Dutch colonists started settling there. Naturally, the Dutch brought their own native language with them.

During the years, spoken Dutch transformed quite a bit in Southern Africa. In fact, it changed so much that it slowly became recognized as a completely different language.

At that time, Afrikaans was called “kitchen Dutch” – a language that was only spoken by uneducated people.

Close Relations

Afrikaans is very closely related to its parent language – Dutch. In fact, 90-95% of Afrikaans vocabulary is actually borrowed from Dutch!

There are very few differences in spelling, grammar, and sentence structure between Dutch and Afrikaans. Because of these similarities, the two languages are considered to be highly mutually intelligible, especially in writing.

English has numerous words that are of Afrikaans origin. Most of these words are used to describe African nature and fauna (for example, boomslang) or social landscape (apartheid).

Accents and Voice Over Tips

Standard Afrikaans is the standardized and official variation of the language. It’s used in education, media, and everyday life. However, regional varieties of Afrikaans also exist.

In addition to Standard Afrikaans, three other dialects are distinguished: Northern Cape, Western Cape, and Eastern Cape. However, standardized language form is used much more widely.

When working on an Afrikaans voice-over, it’s important to note that Afrikaans is a highly phonemic language – it’s spoken as it’s written. Phonemic languages are much easier to master for non-native speakers as tone doesn’t change the meaning of words.

It’s important to think about what kind of accent should be used when working on an Afrikaans recording. Normally, the standardized dialect and pronunciation should be the right choice when it comes to Afrikaans.

However, make sure you’re aware of your target audience – maybe a regional variety would be more suitable?

Words per minute

Just like with all languages, the pace of spoken Afrikaans highly depends on the context. Recording a training video? Slow down. Working on a promotional video? You can speed things up. The listener should always dictate the tempo of spoken speech.

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