Afrikaans in : voices of displacement

16 Babel The Language Magazine | August 2018 Feature Afrikaans in Patagonia

A team of scholars at the University of Michigan led by Nicholas Henriksen explores the unique linguistic traits of a bilingual South African community in rural Patagonia, .

here are few cars with little knowledge of Spanish, after the war, approximately on the roads Tehuelche, or any other language 600 Afrikaans speakers left of Patagonia, a spoken in the area is daunting and settled in the thousand miles beyond imagination. Patagonian areas of modern- south of Buenos We are a small team day Comodoro Rivadavia and Aires. As we of scholars studying the Sarmiento (about 150km inland Tdrive inland from the coastal city descendants of the settlers who from Comodoro Rivadavia), of Comodoro Rivadavia, we pass in the early twentieth century where they acquired land as part fields of small pumpjack oil rigs, were lured by the prospect of a settler program intended bobbing up and down ceaselessly of cheap land to settle in the to prevent resettlement by like hungry chickens pecking at Chubut region of Patagonia. displaced native populations. the land. They are the only clear We ride in relative comfort, Although some brought sign of industry in what at first but when settlers made this savings, most of them made the appears an otherwise stagnant, journey a century ago, it was journey with little money and barren world. Apart from these across the Atlantic in steamships few belongings, establishing pumps and the paved road, and overland in covered wagon themselves as sheep farmers the landscape is little changed and on muleback. They came in small Afrikaans-speaking from how it must have looked after the end of the Anglo-Boer communities that integrated a century ago, although the war (1899–1902), when the two little into Argentine society until journey inland was very different. remaining independent Boer recent decades. Because, at the Traveling by mule train without republics (the South African time of their settlement, this roads into unsettled land would Republic and the Orange Free region of Patagonia was virtually be challenging enough. Doing so State) were subjugated to British uninhabited, the community thousands of miles from home rule. In the first five years remained functionally

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monolingual in Afrikaans for the first several decades of its existence. Families maintained Afrikaans cultural practices (music, food, traditional dances, etc.) and religious affiliation, remaining primarily Reformed, like their forebears in South Africa, rather than adopting the more dominant Catholic tradition of Argentina. During our drive, we discuss the ironic fact that the , themselves a product of European colonialism in Southern Africa, were displaced by the British in another colonialist wave, only to wander into yet a third colonialist project in Argentina. When we arrive at the town of Sarmiento, the families we come to interview – prominent names include the Dickasons, the Krugers, the Blackies and the Schlebusches – speak to us in a curious mix of Spanish and rich and promising. Like the oil “Because, at the time Afrikaans. As third and fourth pumps scratching at the dusty generation descendants of the land, we must scratch below the of their settlement, this original Boer settlers, their surface to find untapped reserves region of Patagonia was continuous use of Afrikaans is of immense value. virtually uninhabited, striking, but as we quickly realise, Yet unlike oil reserves, neither their Spanish nor their which can wait thousands the community Afrikaans is quite what we had of years before being found, remained functionally expected. The former is at times these linguistic reserves are monolingual in inflected in accent and syntax disappearing quickly. In the Afrikaans for the first by the influence of Afrikaans, second half of the twentieth and the latter is antiquated and century, commercial oil drilling several decades of its formal, a relic of a former age. brought Spanish speakers existence. Families We are immediately surprised into the region, causing a maintained Afrikaans by how unique both of their gradual shift from Afrikaans languages are, and also how to Spanish among the settled cultural practices easily they can switch between population. Although today (music, food, traditional the two, not mixing and code- the descendants of the original dances, etc.) and switching, but jumping entirely Afrikaans-speaking settlers between one language and are still concentrated around religious affiliation, another with ease. Even before the Patagonian municipalities remaining primarily we begin to collect data in a of Comodoro Rivadavia and Reformed, like their systematic way, we are excited Sarmiento, and have maintained to find that in the middle of a strong cultural Afrikaans forebears in South Patagonia, virtually unstudied identity, the youngest generation Africa, rather than and unheard, there is a unique has begun a decisive shift toward adopting the more cocktail of languages not found monolingual use of Spanish. dominant Catholic anywhere else in the world. The older generation (typically Suddenly what had struck us as over sixty years of age, born tradition of Argentina.” a barren landscape now seems between 1935–1955) acquired

18 Babel The Language Magazine | August 2018 Feature Afrikaans in Patagonia

remaining in the community is Because of this unique difficult to estimate. This is due history, the Afrikaans spoken to two main factors: the degree in Patagonia today contains of integration with the Spanish many archaisms, left over from speaking community in urban an earlier era that has long areas, and the geographical since been lost in South African isolation of rural speakers Afrikaans. The Patagonian living on large farms. Based on community uses older words our fieldwork experience in that now have a nostalgic ring to Patagonia and on conversations the present-day South African with community members, ear. For example, rather than we estimate the number of onderwyser, the Patagonians remaining fluent speakers to be use an older term for ‘teacher’, no more than forty, and probably leermeester. For ‘government’ they fewer than this. use goewerment – considered an

Andries Coetzee (left), The Afrikaans community in ‘Anglicism’ since the language’s Nicholas Henriksen Argentina is extremely valuable standardisation – rather than (second right), and Lorenzo García-Amaya for research. There are various the more recent Afrikaans term (right) prepare for their first data collection in reasons for this, not least the regering. At the same time, they Afrikaans and Spanish perspective it gives us on the have incorporated their own with Esther (Hetta) Norval (second left) and earlier history of the Afrikaans Afrikaans neologisms for things Sara (Sarie) De Langer language. When our speakers that were not yet in existence (centre). Picture taken May 2014, © Richard left South Africa, Afrikaans was when their ancestors left South Finn Gregory. Used with permission. not yet recognised officially Africa. For example, the speakers as a language by the South in the community were all very Afrikaans as their first language African government. At the interested to talk to us about and Spanish as a second language turn of the twentieth century, the lugskip (literally ‘airship’) upon entering school (varying in Dutch was still used as the in which we arrived at the age from six or seven into early language of government and lugskipstasie (‘airship station’), but teenage years). Most members religion, and also taught in in South African Afrikaans these of this generation migrated school. Although there was words do not exist. Rather, the into town in early adulthood some Afrikaans literature terms vliegtuig (‘airplane’) and for economic reasons, and since (newspapers advocating for lughawe (‘airport’) are used. most married Spanish speakers the recognition of Afrikaans, The pronunciations of and raised their children in the for instance), there was no Patagonian Afrikaans also now Spanish-dominant towns, standardised orthography, often reflect an earlier era, as their children were raised with and few tools to develop one this variant has not undergone Spanish as their first language – no dictionaries, no school the sound changes that swept and have, at most, limited textbooks, no Bible translations. through Afrikaans in South receptive abilities in Afrikaans. It was only in 1925 (over two Africa during the twentieth The oldest generation therefore decades after the founders of century. At the turn of the represents the last speakers of our Argentine community left nineteenth century, Afrikaans Afrikaans in this community. South Africa) that the South regularly inserted a [j] glide Even though this generation African government declared between the consonant [k] acquired Spanish as a second Afrikaans an official national and certain vowels, giving language, most of them (other language, beginning the process pronunciations like [kjənt] for than the handful of individuals of standardisation and leading kind (‘child’). This [j]-glide has who married a fellow Afrikaans to a wealth of written records been all but lost in South Africa speaker) have been Spanish- in Afrikaans beginning in the but is still strongly present in dominant for the last four to 1930s. Our Patagonian speakers Patagonian Afrikaans. Similarly, six decades of their lives, and therefore represent one of the between vowels the letter g is typically now have very limited few records we have of what now pronounced as a voiceless opportunity to use Afrikaans Afrikaans might have been like fricative (like in Scottish ‘loch’) in in their daily lives. The exact before it was standardised and South Africa, while some older number of Afrikaans speakers disseminated in writing. Patagonian speakers still have

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the occasional voiced plosive [g] of present tense verb forms (i.e. rather than [suðafɾika]. pronunciation. The number nege for a verb form such as ‘you Moreover, for some speakers, the (‘nine’) is therefore pronounced sing’, these speakers say vos use of Spanish morphosyntax [niəxə] in South Africa, but cantás rather than tú cantas). shows features typical of [niəgə] in Patagonia. These Also, it is very common to hear second-language learning (and archaisms in their language help zheismo (with an initial voiced thus possible influence from us to date when sound changes prepalatal [ʒ], as in the English Afrikaans): inconsistent gender occurred in Afrikaans – any word ‘beige’) or sheismo (with agreement (e.g. descendencia changes that are not reflected a voiceless prepalatal [ʃ], as in francés rather than descendencia in Patagonian Afrikaans must the English word ‘ship’) for the francesa (‘French descendants’)), have happened in the twentieth letter combinations ll and y, reflexive morphology (e.g. han century after the ancestors of the and weakening of syllable-final casado con rather than se han Patagonian speakers left South /s/. In the latter case, speakers casado for ‘they got married Africa. produce an aspirated variant [h] to’), and regularisation of verbal Patagonian Afrikaans also or even delete the /s/, especially morphology (e.g. venieron as the differs from South African before another consonant (e.g. third-person plural form of venir Afrikaans in ways that most likely este (‘this-masc.’) is typically (‘to come’) rather than vinieron). reflect Spanish influence. In produced as [ehte]). Regarding While the Afrikaans-speaking Afrikaans, most nouns form their possible influence from Argentine community is aware plural by the addition of either Afrikaans, there is quite a bit of of its linguistic difference, an [-s] or [-ə] (the ‘schwa’ found individual variation – whereas many of the oldest generation in the last syllable of English some speakers show hardly any firmly identify as ‘banana’), while Spanish uses only influence from Afrikaans in more than Argentines. The slow [-s]. We note that our Patagonian their spoken Spanish (i.e. they incorporation of Spanish into the speakers are replacing [-ə] with could pass as native monolingual community was partly the result [-s] in many words. Instead speakers of Argentinian of necessity. As one community of trokke (‘trucks’) they have Spanish), for other speakers member named Ester recalls, troks, instead of skoene (‘shoes’) there is systematic evidence her husband insisted she speak they have skoens. There is also that Afrikaans has influenced Spanish with their son para que a possible Spanish influence their Spanish. The most notable no sufra (“so he does not suffer”). in the syntax. Afrikaans uses phonetic influence from But even today, many older double negation: every negative Afrikaans is the pronunciation members of the community sentence requires two copies of of /b d g/ between vowels. identify strongly with Boer the negative particle nie – one Whereas Spanish produces cultural history. This was clearly usually coming immediately after these phonemes as ‘softer’ evident at a party hosted for us the verb and a second at the end approximant sounds ([β ð ɣ], as by one of the older men, Martin, of the sentence. As in Spanish, in modern Spanish lava, cada on the final night of our visit. Patagonian Afrikaans speakers and agua, respectively), Afrikaans At one point, Martin began often form negative sentences produces /b d/ as plosives ([b d], singing My Sarie Marais, one of with only one nie. Instead of Ek as in the English ‘berry’ and ‘do’, the most iconic Afrikaans folk gaan nie plaas toe nie (‘I go not respectively). Thus while some of songs, which tells the story of an farm to not’ / ‘I don’t go to the the bilinguals, especially those in Afrikaner man held in a British farm’), it is typical in Patagonian the city of Comodoro rather than prisoner-of-war camp, dreaming Afrikaans to say Ek gaan nie plaas in the rural area of Sarmiento, of returning to his beloved. toe. produce words such as todo Martin grew sentimental as he Regarding their use of (‘all’) and globo (‘balloon’) as a belted this song out with great Spanish, all speakers use monolingual Spanish speaker vigor and pride, and it was linguistic features typical of would ([toðo] and [gloβo]), many clear the song carries the same Argentinian (or Rioplatense) other speakers use the telltale meaning for him as it does for Spanish. For example, all hard plosives they carried over South African Afrikaners today. speakers use voseo instead of from Afrikaans, saying instead But, curiously, Martin seemed tuteo, which means that they [todo] and [globo]. The most unaware that the melody and the use vos as the second person telling example was, ironically, words of the song were slightly singular pronoun instead of tú Sudáfrica (‘South Africa’), which different from the standard and also shift the stress pattern most pronounced as [sudafɾika] South African version. The Boers

20 Babel The Language Magazine | August 2018 Feature Afrikaans in Patagonia of Argentina have preserved their The next morning, we catch her memories, even as the world culture in exile, but it has not our plane north to , around her continues to change: remained static. Their culture and as we rise over the land, Uno lo tiene acá en el corazoncito has grown in new directions in which now looks bright and (“One keeps it there in one’s the soil of Patagonia, producing peaceful in the morning light, innermost heart”). ¶ novel linguistic fruit that is we talk about the next steps of recognisable yet also unique to the project. The restlessness of its surroundings. the group seems to disappear as Over the course of our two- we work through the interview week stay, our research itinerary transcripts and come across the Nicholas Henriksen, Andries Coetzee, mimicked the journeys of the words of Hetta, a grandmother Lorenzo García-Amaya, Paulina Boer community itself over the now in her 80s, who muses in Alberto, Victoria Langland, and Ryan Szpiech are faculty members at the last century, first inland from Spanish, Si bien nosotros nos University of Michigan, where Joshua the coast toward Sarmiento integramos completamente con Shapero is currently a postdoctoral and then slowly back to the los argentinos, me parece que researcher. They are working together city of Comodoro Rivadavia, siempre hay algo que nos queda a as part of the Humanities Collaboratory where Afrikaans is now spoken nosotros de nuestra infancia, de initiative at the University of Michigan, which is supporting this research comparatively little. On the esas cosas que nos han inculcado, project about the Afrikaans speakers evening drive back to Comodoro, siempre (“Even if we integrate of Patagonia (Principal Investigator: we again pass the oil rigs, now completely with the Argentines, Nicholas Henriksen). barely visible in the fading dusk. I think there will always be Working tirelessly on the dark something that remains to us of horizon, they now seem – as our childhood, of those things one of us comments – like a that they taught us, always”). Find out more symbol of the ineluctable sweep Her optimistic words echo of history, and of the inseparable those of many community Books Brian M. du Toit (1995) Colonia Boer: An Afrikaner mechanisms of language change. members whom we interviewed. Settlement in Chubut, Argentina, Edwin Mellen As we discuss our research trip, Even among third and fourth Press. the team members begin to voice generation members in the city, a sense of urgency about the even among those who have left Articles need to document the unique Comodoro for Buenos Aires, Andries W. Coetzee, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Nicholas Henriksen and Daan Wissing (2015) bilingualism of the Argentine there remains a clear sense that ‘Bilingual Speech Rhythm: Spanish-Afrikaans in Boer community before it is Afrikaans – their Afrikaans, Patagonia’, in The Scottish Consortium for ICPhS lost through integration into a antiquated and halting, but 2015 (editors) Proceedings of the 18th International monolingual Spanish culture. unique and intimately linked Congress of Phonetic Sciences, As we play back some of the to Boer history – is a venerable The University of Glasgow. collected recordings, the words marker of identity and a deep Nicholas Henriksen, Lorenzo García-Amaya, of Catalina, a sunny and jovial source of pride. One might Andries W. Coetzee and Daan Wissing woman in her seventies whom say the same for their Spanish, (forthcoming) ‘Language Contact in Patagonia: we interviewed along with other which is uniquely marked by Durational Control in the Acquisition of Spanish family members, resound with its interaction with Afrikaans. and Afrikaans Phonology, in Fernando Martínez- a sense of foreboding. Ja, maar As we continue with the Gil and Sonia Colina (editors) Handbook of Spanish Afrikaans gaan doodloop hierso. project, the question that looms Phonology, Routledge. Hy gaan doodloop, heeltemal oor large is how this sense of the die jare. Ons al hom nie meer hoor persistence of identity through Online nie en ook nie sien nie. Maar dit time might manifest itself in Visit the project website at the University of gaan doodloop oor onse kinders is the structures of language itself. Michigan – umich.edu/~aacollab – which profiles met Spaanse mense getroud (“But For another grandmother from the project’s development of a multimedia archive preserving the language use of the Argentine Afrikaans will die out here. It the community, Katie, who lives Afrikaner community – aacollabarchive.humin.lsa. will die out completely over the alone in Comodoro and whose umich.edu/omeka years. We won’t hear it anymore children and grandchildren See also the award-winning documentary film and we won’t see it anymore. It in Buenos Aires do not speak about the community, The Boers at the End of the will die out because our children Afrikaans, her unique linguistic World/Boere op die Aardsdrempel, available at married Spanish people”). heritage is the foundation of her vimeo.com/ondemand/boersfilm identity, something kept alive in

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