{"id":1615,"date":"2017-08-21T17:34:12","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T16:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www0.sun.ac.za\/languagecentre\/?p=1615"},"modified":"2021-01-31T09:33:18","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T09:33:18","slug":"hundred-years-young","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zone.ladybugdigital.co.za\/taalsentrumdebug2025\/hundred-years-young\/","title":{"rendered":"AWS a hundred years young!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 11th<\/sup>, comprehensively updated edition of the Afrikaanse Woordelys en Spelre\u00ebls <\/em>(AWS<\/em>), a title that means \u2018<\/em>Afrikaans word list and spelling rules\u2019, was released early in August this year.<\/p>\n

The AWS<\/em> is a remarkable publication in that it serves as the ultimate lodestar for the Afrikaans-speaking community regarding the writing and spelling of Afrikaans. Another reason for its significance is that the first edition was published in 1917 \u2013 exactly a century ago \u2013 \u201cto ensure that this language come into its own\u201d (according to an inscription in the first edition, translated here from an early form of Afrikaans). Ever since, the Taalkommissie of the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns (the Language Commission of the South African Academy for Science and Art) has endeavoured to help establish Afrikaans as a written language by making available rules for consistent spelling and writing. The nine members of the current Taalkommissie, comprising academics and language practitioners, spent more than 700 hours in collaborative meetings to update the AWS<\/em> since 2009 (the publication date of the 10th<\/sup> edition) \u2013 without any remuneration.<\/p>\n

It is also important for the AWS<\/em> to reflect the growing lexicon and idiom of Afrikaans, as well as the needs of the community who writes in Afrikaans. For this reason, the publication contains a word list that focuses on new words and words of which the written form might pose a particular challenge. The current list is 30\u00a0000 words strong and includes a remarkable range of new entries from Afrikaans varieties such as Cape Afrikaans and Orange River Afrikaans \u2013 among others, \u2018antie<\/em>\u2019, \u2018dhaltjie<\/em>\u2019, \u2018gangster<\/em>\u2019 and \u2018poenankies<\/em>\u2019 (meaning \u2018cute\u2019). Other new additions reflect recent social and technological advancements, such as \u2018googleloer<\/em>\u2019 for \u2018google\u2019 as a verb, \u2018hommeltuig<\/em>\u2019 for \u2018drone\u2019, \u2018meem<\/em>\u2019 for \u2018meme\u2019, \u2018antispioenware<\/em>\u2019 for \u2018antispyware\u2019, \u2018warsender<\/em>\u2019 for \u2018jamming device\u2019, \u2018skermgreep<\/em>\u2019 for \u2018screen grab\u2019 and \u2018hidrobreking<\/em>\u2019 for \u2018fracking\u2019. \u2018Selfie<\/em>\u2019 and \u2018venue<\/em>\u2019 speak for themselves. Even \u2018flop<\/em>\u2019 made it!<\/p>\n

\u201cAfrikaans is a dynamic language that develops continuously, and the most recent AWS<\/em> is exciting and living proof of this fact,\u201d said Prof Gerhard van Huyssteen, chair of the Taalkommissie.<\/p>\n

The AWS<\/em> is published by Pharos, an imprint of NB Publishers, and is also available online.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"

A collage of the different editions of the AWS, featuring the latest edition in the middle.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 11th, comprehensively updated edition of the Afrikaanse Woordelys en Spelre\u00ebls (AWS), a title that means \u2018Afrikaans word list and spelling rules\u2019, was released early in August this year. The AWS is a remarkable publication in that it serves as the ultimate lodestar for the Afrikaans-speaking community regarding the writing and spelling of Afrikaans. Another…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159,72,68,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afrikaans-courses","category-dialogos","category-our-languages","category-recent-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zone.ladybugdigital.co.za\/taalsentrumdebug2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zone.ladybugdigital.co.za\/taalsentrumdebug2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zone.ladybugdigital.co.za\/taalsentrumdebug2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zone.ladybugdigital.co.za\/taalsentrumdebug2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zone.ladybugdigital.co.za\/taalsentrumdebug2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zone.ladybugdigital.co.za\/taalsentrumdebug2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9650,"href":"https:\/\/zone.ladybugdigital.co.za\/taalsentrumdebug2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615\/revisions\/9650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zone.ladybugdigital.co.za\/taalsentrumdebug2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zone.ladybugdigital.co.za\/taalsentrumdebug2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zone.ladybugdigital.co.za\/taalsentrumdebug2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zone.ladybugdigital.co.za\/taalsentrumdebug2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}