Double Negative - Germanic Languages

Germanic Languages

Double negation is uncommon in other West Germanic languages. A notable exception is Afrikaans, where it is mandatory. (For example, "He cannot speak Afrikaans" becomes Hy kan nie Afrikaans praat nie, "He cannot Afrikaans speak not.") Dialectal Dutch, French and San have been suggested as possible origins for this trait. Its proper use follows a set of fairly complex rules as in these examples provided by Bruce Donaldson:

• Ek het nie geweet dat hy sou kom nie. ("I did not know that he would be coming.")
• Ek het geweet dat hy nie sou kom nie. ("I knew that he would not be coming.")
• Hy sal nie kom nie, want hy is siek. ("He will not be coming because he is sick.")
• Dis nie so moeilik om Afrikaans te leer nie. ("It is not so difficult to learn Afrikaans.")

While double negation is still found in the Low Franconian dialects of west Flanders (e.g., Ik ne willen da nie doen, "I do not want to do that") and in some villages in the central Netherlands such as Garderen, it takes a different form than that found in Afrikaans. In Belgian Dutch dialects, however, there are still some widely used expressions like nooit niet ("never not") for "never".

Similar to some dialectal English, Bavarian employs both single and double negation, with the latter denoting special emphasis. For example, compare the Bavarian Des hob i no nia ned g'hört ("This have I yet never not heard") with the standard German "Das habe ich noch nie gehört".