Image: Courtesy of FF Plus Is Afrikaans a dialect? This is the question that DF Malherbe sought to answer in 1907 with his doctoral thesis at a German university; 32 years after the founding of the "Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners" (Society of True Afrikaners), which is commemorated today on Afrikaans "Taaldag" (Language Day). It was but one of many small steps toward the official recognition of Afrikaans as a language – and everything that followed, for recognition is merely