Welcome To The Afrikaans Language Board
About Us
The Afrikaans Language Council (the Language Council/ATR) promotes Afrikaans inclusively and in its full diversity within a multilingual context.
It is established in terms of section 185 of the Constitution and affiliated with the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Commission).
It is also a confederate body for autonomous African language and cultural organizations with more than 35 organizations as members.
The Language Council acts predominantly facilitative, coordinating, empowering and network-creating in the interest of the entire Afrikaans language community. This means that the Language Council rarely launches initiatives on its own, but usually involves several member organisations.
The Language Council operates especially in the following areas.
Afrikaans as family and community language:
A language must be passed down within the family between the generations to maintain its vitality. For this reason, the Language Council does a lot to make parents aware of the value of Afrikaans and multilingualism and that a multilingual child has many more opportunities than a single-language one – also internationally. It is also not necessary to become English to learn English. On the contrary, they can master English better through their native language. The preservation of Afrikaans as a mother tongue makes for a more intimate relationship between parent and child, but also with the grandparents. It maintains the link between children and their ancestors and ensures the transmission of culture between the generations. The Language Council also helps parents who struggle with multilingualism in the family and community. We work with faith institutions to better manage language in their congregations and to ensure that monolingualism does not prevail.
Afrikaans as medium of instruction and subject
The Language Council promotes the use of Afrikaans as medium of instruction at all levels, from nursery schools through to universities. Good Afrikaans mother tongue education lays a solid foundation for children and makes it possible for them to master English through Afrikaans. Etc (needs to be written further).
Reconciliation through Afrikaans
The Language Council works hard to facilitate conversations between Afrikaans speakers and to build bridges between communities. The Language Council also promotes cooperation with the other indigenous languages of the country and has a formal cooperation agreement with the Dutch Language Union
Research in and about Afrikaans
Among other things, the Language Council coordinates linguistic research with the aim of managing Afrikaans better. The ultimate goal is the establishment of an Afrikaans Research Institute that can make recordings of research and research needs on a regular basis.
Authority liaison
As a confederate body, the Language Council serves as an inclusive mouthpiece for the broad Afrikaans community in dialogue with the authorities.
Establishment of the Afrikaans Language Board.
The Afrikaans Language Board was established in Wellington on 24 May 2008 after a wide consultative process of 5 years. More than 100 representatives from 40 organizations nationwide attended the founding convention. With this, the founders wanted to address the divisions between Afrikaans-speaking people and create new momentum for the Afrikaans language. The Language Council is established in terms of section 185 of the Constitution and thereby liaises with the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Commission).