Afrikaans language movement
Afrikaans language movement (Afrikaans: Afrikaanse taalbeweging) refers to a movement to establish Afrikaans as a public language of South Africa.
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First language movement
The Afrikaans language movement began in 1875, with the effort by Stephanus Jacobus du Toit to have Afrikaans recognised as a separate language from the Dutch language. Die Patriot, the first Afrikaans newspaper, was first published in 1876.[1]
Second language movement
The Second Afrikaans Language Movement arose after the defeat of the Boers in the Second Anglo-Boer War, which ended in 1902. The movement, spreading from the Cape Province, led to the ascendancy of Afrikaans over the Dutch language, replacing the latter as the medium of instruction in schools, as the language of the Dutch Reformed churches, and ultimately as the co-official language of South Africa, in 1925.[2]
Third language movement
After apartheid ended in 1994, the status of Afrikaans within South Africa was much reduced. Afrikaans went from having equal status with English to being just one of 11 official languages, leading to a renewed dominance of English in the public sphere. Attempts to reverse the marginalisation of Afrikaans have been described as a third language movement.[3]
