Hinfrikaans

Our friends the Schefflers are having a baby! We're excited for them and invite you to link to their blog to learn more.

A very weird thing happened the other day. Theo and I take Hindi together, very often with John Webb. US, UK and South Africa all represented at a table where we speak Hindi with Abdul. It's great fun.

Sometimes I try to resurrect my Afrikaans and talk to Theo, an Afrikaner. It's hard from lack of real use in many years, plus the fact Hindi keeps bubbling up whenever I try French or Afrikaans these days. It's like swatting a bug that keeps distracting me. English and Hindi - it's all about those two languages in my mind these days.

Anyway, I was trying to ask if his wife's parents were in India for a visit.

I said, "Jy vrou se matapita yahaan hain?"

This was a mixture of Afrikaans and Hindi.

It made me wonder if anyone anywhere had co-mingled these two languages besides the two of us. Hard to say. I would at least guess it happens extremely rarely.