Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a Germanic language, spoken by 10.3 million people. It is one of the nine official languages of South Africa and a recognized minority language in Namibia. It is also spoken by a few people in Zimbabwe and Botswana.
The language evolved from the Dutch language. After Dutch settlers came to South Africa, some of them stayed there. They spoke Dutch, but through the ages their language became influenced by German, Portuguese and local languages. Since 1961, Afrikaans is an official language and since 1983, it replaced Dutch. Afrikaans is called a "daughter language of Dutch". The two languages are not completely different. 90% to 95% of all words are the same, but sometimes spelled in another way. Speakers of both languages can usually understand each other, but the Dutch can better understand Afrikaans, then the Africans can understand Dutch. This is due the fact, Afrikaans is more simplified than Dutch.