Abstract

LUDICK, Hardus  and  BREED, Adri. A survey and corpus of contemporary Scientific Afrikaans. Tydskr. geesteswet. [online]. 2025, vol.65, n.1, pp.86-111. ISSN 2224-7912.  https://doi.org/10.17159/2224-7912/2025/v65n1a5.

This article presents the findings of research into a two-part gap in the current understanding of the variety of Afrikaans identified as Scientific Afrikaans. Firstly, we present a survey that was used to investigate the state and use of Afrikaans as a language of science. The approach is both diachronic and synchronic: it provides a short historical overview of the development of Afrikaans as a language of science and an inventory of scientific Afrikaans publications from 2004 to 2018. Secondly, the article reports on the development of a comprehensive and representative corpus of Scientific Afrikaans that will facilitate linguistic research into the specific uses and nature of this variety. The development of a corpus of Scientific Afrikaans, namely the VivA-Wetenskapsafrikaanskorpus 1.0 ("VivA Scientific Afrikaans Corpus 1.0"; hereafter VivA-WAK 1.0) (2025), directly follows and is a product of the survey. The development of the corpus allowed the charting of one aspect of the use of Afrikaans for scientific purposes, namely the publication of Afrikaans research articles in accredited journals from 2004 to 2018. The corpus, consisting ofroughly 23 000 000 words, sheds light on the nature ofScientific Afrikaans, in particular its application in general Afrikaans. This survey was conducted and the corpus built in the context of the gradual development of Afrikaans as a fully-fledged language of science. Afrikaans flourished and developed into a well-established independent language, especially during the period 1900 to 1940, not only with regard to everyday use, but also with regard to academic study (Breed & Bosman, 2024, with particular reference to Nienaber, 1934, and Carstens & Raidt, 2019). However, there are also examples of Afrikaans used in a relatively formal or academic register from before 1900. Arabic Afrikaans was in use as a medium of instruction and religious practice as early as the mid-19th century (Carstens & Raidt, 2019:244). In addition, an important text published towards the end of the 19th century is worth mentioning here: Eerste beginsels van die Afrikaanse taal ("First principles of the Afrikaans language") compiled by the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners ("Association of True Afrikaners") in 1882. Moreover, Carstens and Raidt (2019:399-400) note that by 1919 Afrikaans had been adopted as a technical language and a medium of instruction at four South African universities. In this respect, the use of Afrikaans as a language of science dates back further than its acquiring the status of an official language, the event celebrated in this issue of Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe ("Journal of Humanities"). The development of Scientific Afrikaans is linked to, among other things, the development of subject-specific language and terminology for various scientific disciplines, and to the establishment of several scientific organisations that actively promoted the use of Afrikaans in scientific contexts. In this regard, a significant achievement for Afrikaans as a language of science was its adoption as a medium of instruction at various South African universities. As a result of such initiatives and achievements, it was possible for Afrikaans to evolve fully into a language of science in the 20th century. However, since the transition to a new political order in 1994, Afrikaans has been under pressure owing to new ideologies, and it is therefore often claimed that Afrikaans as a language of science is in jeopardy. The validity of this claim can be ascertained by examining the Afrikaans articles published in accredited journals from 2004 to 2018. The choice for this period was motivated by the limited digital availability of articles published before 2004. The survey identified 69 DHET or SciELO accredited South African journals that published Afrikaans articles in this period. In the course of this period there was a noticeable decline in the number of publications. It is also noteworthy that the largest number of Afrikaans articles are published in interdisciplinary journals rather than in discipline-specific journals. In addition, it appears that a diminishing number of institutions publish scientific work, which severely limits the possibilities for the publication of research conducted in Afrikaans. The initiation of the VivA-WAK 1.0 indicated that such concentrated control may pose certain risks for the future of Scientific Afrikaans. When attempting to gain access to data, we found several control measures restricting access. In order to incorporate articles from some journals in our corpus, an existing usage license, such as a Creative Commons license, proved to be sufficient to obtain the necessary permission, but in other cases permission had to be obtained through a data agreement, signed either by the editors of the journals concerned or by their publishing institutions. The worst case scenario occurred when certain factors -including possible unwillingness, lack of knowledge, contractual limitations and staffcapacity - prevented the finalisation of agreements. However, while the inability to secure data agreements with individual journals resulted in a relatively small number of articles being excluded from our corpus, the fact that six institutions have not yet signed data agreements has resulted in the exclusion of a large number of articles. Consequently, at least 13 million words that could have been included are now not part of version 1.0 of the VivA-WAK. In this article, we point out that, in view of the current prominence of digital humanities, not to mention the current requirement of free access to research in the international scientific journal publishing industry, it is of the utmost importance that (academic) institutions support the efforts to make available data of this nature for research purposes. The survey used for this article sheds light on the extent to which Afrikaans was employed as a language of science in the recent past. It could therefore be useful in several ways. For instance, it can help identify the journals and institutions that should be recognised for the opportunities they create for research to be published in Afrikaans. Additionally, it can be used to judge the vitality of the respective subject disciplines that form part of the Afrikaans scientific endeavours. The VivA-WAK 1.0 described in this article is also expected to be useful in the other ways outlined and discussed in the article. Possible uses include facilitating systematic research on academic language use and style; the development of subject-specific terminology; the development of discipline-specific academic literacy materials; and the sophistication of AI technologies in Afrikaans.

Keywords : Academic Afrikaans; Scientific Afrikaans; formal language use; formal corpus; high function of language.

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