Afrikaans in Different Languages: the Afrikaans Name in 109 Languages
Afrikaans keeps its own name in most languages, afrikaans in French and Swedish, Африкаанс in Russian, アフリカーンス語 (afurikānsugo) in Japanese, but Zulu calls it isiBhunu and Xhosa isiBhulu; the tables give the name in 109 languages and 19 scripts.
Afrikaans, the language behind the names
Afrikaans grew out of the Dutch dialects brought to the Cape in the 17th century, and its name is simply the Dutch word for “African”, once spelled Afrikaansch.1 For a long time it was called Cape Dutch. The South African government recognised it as a distinct language in 1925, and today it is one of the 12 official languages of South Africa; in Namibia it has the status of a national language.1 Its ISO 639 codes are af and afr.2
Because the name is a word of the language itself, most other languages simply borrow it, adapting only the spelling and the ending. The tables below give the name of Afrikaans in 109 languages and 19 scripts, with a romanisation wherever the script is not Latin.
Afrikaans in different languages written in the Latin alphabet
41 entries. Languages that write the name the same way share a row; capital or small initial follows each language’s rule for language names. Azerbaijani, Bosnian, Kurmanji, Malay, Moldovan, Serbian, Turkmen and Uzbek appear again further down in their other scripts.
| Language · ISO 639 code | Name of Afrikaans | Romanisation |
|---|---|---|
| English, Afrikaans, Azerbaijani (Latin), Cornish, Welsh, Danish, German, Faroese, Finnish, Scots Gaelic, Maltese, Low German, Dutch, Tagalog, Vietnamese · eng, afr, aze, cor, cym, dan, deu, fao, fin, gla, mlt, nds, nld, tgl, vie | Afrikaans | |
| Aragonese, Asturian, Bosnian (Latin), Catalan, French, Croatian, Hungarian, Interlingua, Italian, Moldovan (Latin), Norwegian, Occitan, Romanian, Swedish, Walloon · arg, ast, bos, cat, fra, hrv, hun, ina, ita, mol, nor, oci, ron, swe, wln | afrikaans | |
| Indonesian, Malay (Latin) · ind, msa | bahasa Afrikaans | |
| Albanian · sqi | afrikane | |
| Basque · eus | afrikaansa | |
| Breton · bre | afrikaneg | |
| Czech · ces | afrikánština | |
| Esperanto · epo | afrikansa | |
| Estonian · est | afrikaani; buuri | |
| Galician · glg | africáner | |
| Guarani · grn | ahykañe’ẽ | |
| Herero · her | otjiAfrikaansa | |
| Icelandic · isl | afríkanska | |
| Irish Gaelic · gle | an Afracáinis | |
| Kashubian · csb | afrikanersczi | |
| Kurmanji Kurdish (Latin) · kur | afrîkansî | |
| Latin · lat | africane | |
| Latvian · lav | afrikandu | |
| Lingala · lin | liafríkánsi | |
| Lithuanian · lit | afrikansas | |
| Nahuatl · nah | Afrikaantlahtōlli | |
| Northern Sami · sme | afrikánsagiella | |
| Polish · pol | afrikaans; afrykanerski | |
| Portuguese · por | africâner; africânder; afrikaans | |
| Quechua · que | Afrikans | |
| Rwanda · kin | ikinyafurikansi | |
| Samogitian · smg | afrėkanu | |
| Saterland Frisian · stq | Afrikoansk | |
| Serbian (Latin) · srp | afrikans | |
| Slovak · slk | afrikánčina | |
| Slovenian · slv | afrikanščina | |
| Somali · som | afrikaanays | |
| Spanish · spa | afrikáans | |
| Swahili · swa | kiafrikaans | |
| Turkish · tur | Afrikans; Afrikaanca | |
| Turkmen (Latin) · tuk | afrikança | |
| Uzbek (Latin) · uzb | afrikancha | |
| West Frisian · fry | Afrikaansk | |
| Xhosa · xho | isiBhulu | |
| Yoruba · yor | Áfríkáánì | |
| Zulu · zul | isiBhunu |
Afrikaans in Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, Ge’ez, Indic and East Asian scripts
50 entries, most with a romanisation. Arabic-script, Syriac, Hebrew and Yiddish names run right to left and are set that way.
| Language · ISO 639 code | Name of Afrikaans | Romanisation |
|---|---|---|
| Bosnian (Cyrillic), Moldovan (Cyrillic) · bos, mol | африкаанс | |
| Azerbaijani (Cyrillic) · aze | Африкаанс | |
| Belarusian · bel | афрыкаанс | afrykaans |
| Bulgarian · bul | африканс; бурски | afrikans; burski |
| Kazakh (Cyrillic) · kaz | африкаанс | afrïkaans |
| Kyrgyz (Cyrillic) · kir | африкаанс | afrikaans |
| Macedonian · mkd | африкаанс | afrikaans |
| Mongolian · mon | африк | afrik |
| Ossetian · oss | африкаанс | afrikaans |
| Russian · rus | Африкаанс; бурский | Afrikaans; burskij |
| Serbian (Cyrillic) · srp | африканс | |
| Turkmen (Cyrillic) · tuk | африканча | |
| Ukrainian · ukr | Африкаанс | Afrykaans |
| Uyghur (Cyrillic) · uig | африқанчә | |
| Uzbek (Cyrillic) · uzb | африканча | |
| Arabic · ara | الأفريقانية; أفريكانس | al-afrīqānīyâ; afrīkāns |
| South Azerbaijani · azb | آفریکانجا | afrikanca |
| Sorani Kurdish · ckb | ئەفریكای | efrîkayî |
| Persian · fas | آفریکانس | âfrikâns |
| Kazakh (Arabic script) · kaz | افريكاانس | |
| Kyrgyz (Arabic script) · kir | افرىكاانس | |
| Kurmanji Kurdish (Arabic script) · kur | ئافریکانسی | |
| Malay (Jawi) · msa | بهاس افريكانس | |
| Western Punjabi · pnb | افریقان | afriqān |
| Dari · prs | افریکانی | afrīkānī |
| Pashto · pus | افريکاني | afrīkānī |
| Sindhi · snd | آفريڪانس | āfrīkāns |
| Uyghur (Arabic script) · uig | ئاڧرىقانچە | afriqanche |
| Urdu · urd | ایفریکانز | ēfrīkānz |
| Uzbek (Arabic script) · uzb | ئەفرىكەنچە | |
| Syriac · syr | ܐܦܪܝܩܐܢܝܐ | aprīqānyā |
| Hebrew · heb | אפריקאנס | afrīqāns |
| Yiddish · yid | אַפֿריקאַנס | afrikans |
| Amharic · amh | አፍሪካንኛ | ăfrikanəñña |
| Tigrinya · tir | አፍሪቃንሰኛ | ăfriḳansäñña |
| Greek · ell | Αφρικάανς | Afrikáans |
| Armenian · hye | աֆրիկանս | afrikans |
| Georgian · kat | აფრიკაანსი | aṗrikaansi |
| Hindi · hin | अफ्रीकांस | apʰrīkāṃs |
| Marathi · mar | आफ्रिकान्स | āpʰrikāns |
| Nepali · nep | अफ्रिकाली | apʰrikālī |
| Bengali · ben | আফ্রিকান্স | āpʰrikāns |
| Malayalam · mal | ആഫ്രിക്കാന്സ് | āpʰrikkāns |
| Tamil · tam | ஆபிரிக்கான | āpirikkāṉa |
| Chinese · zho | 南非語; 南非文 | nánfēiyǔ; nánfēiwén |
| Japanese · jpn | アフリカーンス語 | afurikānsugo |
| Korean · kor | 아프리칸스어 | apeurikanseueo |
| Thai · tha | ภาษาแอฟริคานส์ | pʰāsā ǣfrikʰān[s] |
| Lao · lao | ພາສາອັຟຣິກາ | pʰāsā âflikā |
| Khmer · khm | ភាសាអាហ្វ្រីក | pʰāsā āhvrīk |
Borrowed name, “Boer” language, African language
Three ideas run through the names of Afrikaans, and the tables show each of them.
The word Afrikaans, borrowed
The largest group keeps the Afrikaans word nearly unchanged: afrikaans in French and Italian, afrikáans in Spanish, Африкаанс in Russian and Ukrainian, Αφρικάανς in Greek, アフリカーンス語 (afurikānsugo) in Japanese. Persian آفریکانس (âfrikâns), Hebrew אפריקאנס (afrīqāns) and Hindi अफ्रीकांस (apʰrīkāṃs) follow the same sound. Polish and Portuguese also have a form built on Afrikaner, the name of the speakers: afrykanerski and africâner.
The language of the Boers
A second group names the speakers instead of the continent. Russian бурский (burskij), Bulgarian бурски (burski) and Estonian buuri derive from the word for the Boers. Xhosa isiBhulu and Zulu isiBhunu attach the class prefix isi-, which marks language names, to amaBhulu and amaBhunu, the Xhosa and Zulu words for the Boers, themselves adapted from Afrikaans boer, farmer.3
Endings that mark a language
Many languages fit the borrowed stem into their own pattern for language names. Turkic languages add a suffix: Afrikaanca in Turkish, afrikança in Turkmen, afrikancha in Uzbek, ئاڧرىقانچە (afriqanche) in Uyghur. Slavic languages turn it into an adjective or noun: afrikánština in Czech, afrikánčina in Slovak, afrikanščina in Slovene. Bantu languages use a class prefix, as in Swahili kiafrikaans, Kinyarwanda ikinyafurikansi and Herero otjiAfrikaansa. Asian languages add their word for language: 語 in Japanese and Chinese, 어 in Korean 아프리칸스어, and ภาษา and ພາສາ in front in Thai and Lao.
Questions about the name of Afrikaans in other languages
What does the word Afrikaans mean?
“African”. The language took its name from the Dutch word Afrikaansch, the adjective of Africa, now spelled Afrikaans.
What is Afrikaans called in Zulu and Xhosa?
isiBhunu in Zulu and isiBhulu in Xhosa. Both are formed from the word for the Boers with the prefix isi-, used for language names.
How is Afrikaans written in Russian, Arabic and Chinese?
Африкаанс (Afrikaans) or бурский (burskij) in Russian, الأفريقانية (al-afrīqānīyâ) or أفريكانس (afrīkāns) in Arabic, and 南非語 (nánfēiyǔ), “South Africa language”, in Chinese.
What are the ISO codes for Afrikaans?
af in ISO 639-1 and afr in ISO 639-2 and ISO 639-3. The site’s language code list gives the codes of every language in the tables.
- 1Wikipedia, “Afrikaans” (origin in 17th-century Dutch dialects, name from Dutch Afrikaansch “African”, former name Cape Dutch, recognised as a distinct language in 1925, one of 12 official languages of South Africa, national language of Namibia), checked 28 October 2026. ↑
- 2ISO 639-2 Registration Authority (Library of Congress), codes for the representation of names of languages: Afrikaans, afr (ISO 639-2), af (ISO 639-1). ↑
- 3Dictionary of South African English, entries “Amabhunu” and “Amabhulu”, dsae.co.za, checked 28 October 2026. ↑