Afrikaans is the language spoken by Afrikaners / Afrikaanses in South Africa. It is one of eleven official languages in modern day South Africa. It is home language to 14.4% of the population although a much larger percentage are able to speak Afrikaans (as 2nd or 3d language). There are also large Afrikaans speaking communities in neighbouring Namibia and Botswana. In the modern globalised world Afrikaans communities exist in various countries with probably the largest expat Afrikaans community being located in London. Other places where Die Taal ("the language") is well represented include Australia and New Zealand.

Afrikaans takes its name from the continent of Africa. If someone tells you that he speaks Afrikaans he could just as well have said "I speak African". It is a very young language. The language's main roots are Dutch and its birth is linked to the arrival of the first Dutch settlers in 1652 at "The Cape of Good Hope" - today know as Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula (also see "South African history").

The first Dutch settlers obviously spoke pure Dutch. However, due to the distance from the Netherlands and in the absence of modern communications technology the Cape settlers developed an own dialect of the language as time passed. This new dialect did not exist in isolation of its surroundings. Thus as immigrants, refugees (e.g. French Huguenots), slaves (e.g. Malay), missionaries (e.g. German) and others added themselves to the population of the small but growing Cape Colony they also influenced the development and vocabulary of the new dialect. Added to that was the influence of the indigenous peoples of Southern Africa. In time this dialect developed a unique identity and became known as Afrikaans.

Present day Afrikaans is still developing and changing. It is a very dynamic but simple and progressive language. While it was blemished badly by its association with Apartheid in South Africa it is still loved by many non-Afrikaners. This is evident in the use of Afrikaans words in the shared/ common language of every day South Africa. Afrikaans terms like "pap en vleis" and "braaivleis", amongst others, are well understood and used by most. Afrikaans slang is also part of the shared vocabulary of most South Africans. Its Dutch roots are still very much evident in Afrikaans but after approx. 300 years of evolution Afrikaans is now more similar to Flemish than Dutch.