If South Africa has more European immigration, what would be the main language?

Which one?

  • Dutch

    Votes: 2 4.7%
  • Afrikaans

    Votes: 11 25.6%
  • English

    Votes: 26 60.5%
  • A Native language

    Votes: 1 2.3%
  • Multiple

    Votes: 3 7.0%

  • Total voters
    43
I guess if Indian immigrants were higher, English would be more common, so if more non Empire immigrants went to South Africa, like Germans, Dutch, Portuguese, etc. What would be the main language. In OTL these are the languages spoken. Would it be Dutch, Afrikaans, a native language, English, or multiple languages?
 
Everything depends on the answer to the question of which country is the sovereign ruler and what its language is. Despite probably having population mostly descended from spekers of Italian dialects, for instance, both Argentina and Uruguay ended up being overwhelmingly Hispanophone.

If South Africa stays Dutch, then Dutch it will be. (Afrikaans likely will not diverge from its parent tongue if Dutch rule lasts.) If the United Kingdom takes over, then especially if more immigrants than OTL come English will have stronger chances.
 
The only way South Africa was going to get more European immigrants was to allow Russian, Ukrainian and other eastern European to enter the country.

Ukrainian would be my guess, since million of Ukrainians were starved to death in early 20th century. If they had chance, they would be willing to come to South Africa. With 3~5 million Ukrainians entering the country, the unofficial language would be Ukrainian.
 
It could be Dutch provided the Cape stays Dutch. Even IOTL migrants were also French Hugenots and German Protestants too. Provided they don't come all at once, then they will be assimilated. Like AFAIK there are more Americans with German ancestry than British ancestry.
 
During Dutch rule of the Cape, there were just over 2,000 European immigrants who arrived in the colony during the entire period of Dutch rule 1652-1806, with Dutch and Germans being the largest groups. As the Germans were overwhelmingly from regions neighbouring to the Netherlands they spoke nearly identical dialects to Dutch. Just under 10% were French Huguenots, and around 3% were Scandinavians, mainly Swedes and most immigration occurred in the 17th century, so that by the time that Britain formally took over the colony, some 99% of the 27,000 whites were born in the colony.

The reason for this seems to be two-fold, firstly the VOC was a profit-driven enterprise based on trade. The Cape was a necessary strategic base and nothing else. The reason for its colonisation was to make it self-sustaining. The colonists were treated a necessary to make the base self-sustaining, but often as a nuisance. As a result, the Dutch did not provide incentives or subsidies for settlers and barred them from competing with VOC monopolies. This was not unlike the Dutch colonies elsewhere, where profits and returns to share-holders limited the scope of settler colonialism.

In 1698 there were calls to open up the Cape to poor Germans, but only around 50 were settled, this demonstrates the VOC's lack of interest. Had the VOC been more encouraging, I imagine that Dutch would still be the dominant language, as it would have been the language of the administration.
 
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