YouTube now supporting Afrikaans and isiZulu

[jes]

YouTube now supporting Afrikaans and isiZulu

Google announced that YouTube is available in two new South African languages: Afrikaans and isiZulu

[$n@k3]

Afrikaans and isiZulu are hardly new to South Africa. Grammar Nazi

[Lounger]

I think you mean Zulu, which is the word in English.

This is a common mistake to make and is similar to calling German, Deutch.

[SuperBru]

Dankie Youtube. Windows 7, Office 2010, Google, Youtube, Facebook, en nog baie meer in my eie taal.

[Skerminkel]

Dankie Youtube. Windows 7, Office 2010, Google, Youtube, Facebook, en nog baie meer in my eie taal.

+Firefox +Total Commander

[TJ99]

I think you mean Zulu, which is the word in English.

This is a common mistake to make and is similar to calling German, Deutch.

This irks me too, this hypercorrection nonsense. If you're speaking English, speaka da English. We don't say Deutsch for German, Français for French, or Suomi for Finnish...

That said, I didn't think this was news. My Youboob has been Afrikaans for a while now, since I set my Opera to AF in fact...

[naudefj]

Wonderlike nuus, dankie Google!

Dis nogal snaaks hoe internasionale organisasies meer vir Afrikaans (en ander inheemse tale) doen as ons eie regering en plaaslike maatskappye.

[McGuywer]

Dankie Youtube. Windows 7, Office 2010, Google, Youtube, Facebook, en nog baie meer in my eie taal.

Het jy gese vleis boek?

Hoekom is sterkbroer nie ook in Afrikaans nie?

[zululami]

And facebook is currently conducting Zulu translations...

[Captain Planet]

JouTube

[Loopin]

I think you mean Zulu, which is the word in English.

This is a common mistake to make and is similar to calling German, Deutch.

Is it though? I think in the case of African languages the prefix is often necessary as there is a difference for example between Umbundu and Kimbundu (notice the different prefixes but same language name), kiluba and tshiluba as well. There are others but I can't recall them at the moment.

I don't think adding the prefix is always necessary and in the case of South African languages where there is no ambiguity they are fairly redundant, but I also don't think its the same as calling German Deutsch; firstly because there is semantic necessity in a minority of Bantu language cases and secondly because there's a very long naming tradition of European languages amongst themselves and not so much with African languages and IE languages.

Language is not defined by rules but by how we use it (that is to say it's not a fixed code); and if the majority of English speakers call Zulu isiZulu (or even a minority, let's call this variety South African English) then how can it be wrong? Prescriptivism is trivial and irrelevant.

It's just not a simple right or wrong thing. It never really is.