Arnoldus Pannevis (16 February 1838 - 14 August 1884) was a

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

minister and linguist who is known to have been a major proponent for the

Afrikaans language Afrikaans is a West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento that speaks the Patagonian dialect. It evolved from the Dutc ...

and wrote numerous letters to translators asking for the creation of an edition of the Bible fully in Afrikaans throughout 1872 and later again in 1874. Pannevis was born in the small village of Ouderkerk aan den IJssel in the mainland of the Netherlands in 1838 and first began a career in the

Dutch navy The Royal Netherlands Navy (, ) is the Navy, maritime service branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. It traces its history to 8 January 1488, making it the List of navies, third-oldest navy in the world. During the 17th and early 18th centurie ...

but was honorably discharged two years later and soon gave the career up in favor of becoming a minister. In 1866 he started to take a particular interest with the Dutch established colonies in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and finally set foot in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

on the 11th of July 1866 on the premise of a Latin and Greek teacher position being offered to him at a gymnasium which was in the colonies. Whilst teaching at the gymnasium, he had a future linguist and translator, Stephanus Jacobus du Toit as a pupil and student. Pannevis gained traction when he published a letter in the popular Dutch newspaper De Zuid-Afrikaan. Pannevis's letter made a few other Afrikaans enthusiasts interested and in 1875, they created the

Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners The Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners (Afrikaans for "Society of True Afrikaners") was formed on 14 August 1875 in the town of Paarl by a group of Afrikaans speakers from the current Western Cape region. From 15 January 1876 the society published a ...

and in turn this started a movement to give more recognition to Afrikaans. Pannevis continued to make writings up until his death on the 14th of August 1884. Other then his letters and promotion for Afrikaans, he wrote many pieces of poetry, with his most famous work being a rather short piece titled Groothyd. Pannevis was a polyglot and although he talked most in his native

, spoke decently in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, French,

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

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, and English Ironically, despite his fervent activism for the Afrikaans language, Pannevis rarely used the language himself and mostly wrote and spoke in Dutch although he began to have more active Afrikaans use during his later years.

References

Afrikaans South Africa {{DEFAULTSORT:Pannevis, Arnoldus 1838 births 1884 deaths