MY HEART BLEEDS FOR AFRIKAANS

Normally I'm an easy-going, live and let live kind of person who tries to see the bright and funny side of everyday experiences. Sometimes however, I come across words and expressions that, as an Afrikaans speaking person, makes my hair stand up and leaves a VERY bad taste in my mouth.

The latest being the word "Gendersensitiwiteit" that I came across during a Google search for the meaning of the word "sibbe" that is now again being used in the spoken and written Afrikaans language. I will come to the abomination that is the word "sibbe" later in my blog. I found the word "Gendersensitiwiteit" in the web search tag for "Woordeboek van Afrikaans Vandag". Although I spend most of my day conversing and communicating in English, I'm a staunch advocate for Afrikaans as a very descriptive and unique language and would like to see it stay that way. Please do not get me wrong - Afrikaans has, over the years, adopted many words and phrases from other languages (mainly English and Dutch) in instances were there were no suitable Afrikaans equivalents, This is particularly true in the fields of technological and science.

HOWEVER, and here I'm getting a flashing-images-migraine again just looking at the word "Gendersensitiwiteit"!! The correct term for Gender in Afrikaans is "Geslag" or "Geslags" and it would logically follow that "Gendersensitiwiteit" should be written as "Geslagsensitiwiteit". I do not know who penned the term under the "Woordeboek van Afrikaans Vandag" tag and frankly don't care, but cannot in all honesty keep quiet about this. It is bad enough that Afrikaans is spoken by a very small minority in South Africa without it being further diluted by people in the media that are either incompetent or just plain lazy. Reminds me of the loaded question a friend of mine once asked a civil servant: "Are you lazy or incompetent". There is no real answer to this, because whatever the answer, it is still an indictment against that person's approach to his job.

And now for the word "sibbe" or "sib". 

In doing a 10 minute google search (seriously) on the origin of the word, it is interesting that it's a term that dates back to the 13th century and derived from the German word "sippe", meaning "clan, kindred, or extended family". Sibbe was later absorbed into the terminology for the monogamous family. OK great....., but please leave this word out of the Afrikaans language as it doesn't and never will belong and as other commentators have said does not sit well on the tongue. Some even went so far as to compare it with a term that might be used to describe fish!

So please my fellow, proudly Afrikaans speaking South Africans of all races (there is a surprising number of black and coloured people that speak an excellent Afrikaans), let us band together and not use these half-baked and "2 brain-celled" made-up and mothballed words either published or spoken by so-called educated people and influencers.

More on Afrikaans in my next blog that has, over the years, evolved into a beautifully descriptive and to-the-point language that deserves to be treasured and protected for future generations, and in particular the spoken language - provided these future generations will still be communicating verbally....