POLL | Is Afrikaans really a dying language?

South African-born Hollywood star Charlize Theron has sparked debate across the country with her comments on Afrikaans.

Afrikaans is one of South Africa's 11 official languages and, according to online stats resource Worlddata, spoken by more than 8-million people around the world.

Speaking on a SmartLess podcast this week, Theron joked that “there's about 44 people still speaking it” and called it “a dying language”.

“It's not a very helpful language,” she added.

She explained that she didn't speak English until she was about 19 years old and only focused on learning the language when she left for America.

“I had it as a second language but nobody in my neighbourhood spoke English. I went to ballet at the Royal Academy of London and we had these teachers from London who couldn’t speak Afrikaans. That was the only English I really heard. I would do exams not really even knowing I was doing exams because I didn’t understand what they were saying.”

While some agreed with her analysis of the language, others said Afrikaans was alive and kicking and urged her to leave it alone.

Among those who slammed Charlize was popular Afrikaans singer Steve Hofmeyr, who outlines some of the accomplishments of those from the community.

“If it managed the first heart transplant, it's a useful enough language for me. Afrikaans is a marginalised language which is alive and well, regardless.

“Our last university has just been wrenched from us and still we find ways to produce admirable tertiary education. We also sport the most popular expletives on the continent,” he told TshisaLIVE.

Taking to the podcast's Instagram page, South African actor Tim Theron rubbished the suggestion that Afrikaans is a dying language.

“Love the podcast guys. Just one small note after listening to this episode: As South Africans, we're extremely proud of Charlize and everything she has achieved ... but we're also very proud of our diversity and our amazing and beautiful official languages, of which Afrikaans is one.

“It's not a 'dying language', and it's not only spoken by 44 people. It's spoken by millions of people; there are new songs and poems being written every day, movies made etc. It's a language with its roots in several languages and cultures, including Dutch, Malay, Indonesian and our indigenous San languages. Just FYI.”