Kaaps 1.2

May 09, 2026·By Peter Snyders

We must begin at The Origin of Kaaps to have a solid foundation. There is so much background that must be explained first, and no Foreword or Introduction would suffice. Metalanguage is one of the first reasons why we are writing these discussions on Kaaps in English. Another bonus, linguists and ordinary people all over the world can understand what we are establishing, and many will be able to use our resources to explain away all the irrational hostility towards their language.

All our many engagements of Kaaps can even lead spontaneously to a Kaapse Wordlist. I look forward to you all taking part. If you add meanings to the words you are using in our Wordlist, we could also, later, have a Dictionary of Kaaps. This is where all the rules of Kaaps are given a chance to show how rationally ordered our language is. All of these would be sufficient reasons for everybody to seriously consider Kaaps as at least a language whose linguistic rules need more respect. We will show you how you can either make your own book or be part of a book where this information is given.

You are free to participate in any of the projects we will be presenting. Since we would all like to see a Wordlist and Spelling Rules of Kaaps, we look forward to you showing us how you speak and write in Kaaps. If you would like to send us your way of writing in Kaaps, make sure that the context in which you use the word is clear. Kaaps has five phases. This latest phase, Modern Kaaps, contains words like notch, bakvissie, bossies, tjais, nwata, etc., that not everyone understands.

Moving on, we assume that all of us have Kaaps as our mother tongue or have a familiarity with our language to an appreciable degree. We have in our sources: (i) Bo-Kaap Kaaps (ii) Griqua Kaaps (iii) Namakwalands Kaaps (iv) and Rehoboth Basters Kaaps, and of course, the mother of all, (v) Kaapse Kaaps. Anyone from any Coloured community anywhere in South Africa is welcome to contribute their variant of Kaaps. If you look at the history of people of colour, you will discover that they all took their Pidgin or Creole with them wherever they went.

To call these dialects variants of Afrikaans is not correct because Afrikaans did not exist until Die Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners came together in 1875 to standardise a civilised Afrikaans. We will (as always) prove that Kaaps had its existence long before that time. All variants of Kaaps are daughter languages or dialects of Kaaps and not of Afrikaans.

There is a lot of senseless shouting for Kaaps to be recognised, to be used in schools, especially for at least the first three grades, and so on. But where is the language? What must be taught?

Where are the Lexicon (words) and the rules of Kaaps for (1) Morphology (parts of a word), (2) Phonology (the sounds of the words), (3) Syntax (the order of the words), and (4) Semantics (the meaning of words)?

All these rules depend on words or the lexicon. So that is where any association of mother-tongue speakers begins, and the first fundamental is always: “Ôs skryf soes ôs praat.” That is where all of you come in. Please do not water down your language with Afrikaans. You will only lose the essence and the inherent rules of Kaaps. You have your own language, and we are going to prove that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the way we speak and write.

Are some of you scared thinking: “Dié’s mos ‘n djop vi linguists!” While there is in any discipline always the genuine ones, our experience of linguistics is that it is not adequately regulated and sometimes wilfully abused. We need a better, more scientific system; one that will recognise all those errors in linguistics where subtle minimalizing of the language of another occurs. This better system is called Spiritual Science.

The main ingredient of Spiritual Science is experience. We do not need people with degrees to sit in their studies and, with prejudice, dream up nonsense about the languages of others. You, the ones who have your language internalised (inside you), are the true scientists. And since you are scientists, you do not believe anything unless it has been proved.

We do not accept that we can teach anyone anything that he or she is not ready to receive. Supreme Master Ching Hai says that knowledge without understanding is not knowledge [1]. So, we avail ourselves to you as your facilitator. We will be a signpost or one of those boards you see along the road. We will just be pointing: ‘This way to the Airport’; ‘that way to Cape Town,’ and ‘you are on Turfhall Road now, and it is part of the M10’ (or whatever). Yóú will have to do the travelling; experience everything yourself. [2] If you do, you will build your house on a rock (foundation) [3].

We are going to accept nothing less than facts, rather than opinions, preferences, passions, social media, fake science, or any untested ideas for our treatise. Many searches for true knowledge begin with a hypothesis. While the ideas are untested, they are probabilities or hypotheses and a good starting point to start exploring. So, do not be afraid to contribute in this way. There are no wrong answers.

We will keep ourselves in the background.

So, let us get started.

References

[1] Supreme Master Ching Hai

[2] Lord Buddha

[3] Lord Jesus