Dutch language

Dutch ({{Audio|nl-Nederlands.ogg|Nederlands}}) is a West Germanic, Low German language spoken by around 24 million people, mostly in the Netherlands and Belgium. The varieties of Dutch spoken in Belgium are also informally called Flemish (Vlaams). The language is sometimes colloquially called Hollands by native speakers although this is becoming less common today. Dutch is sometimes called Netherlandic in English.

Sounds

Vowels

The vowel inventory of Dutch is large, with 14 simple vowels and four diphthongs. The vowels{{IPA|/eː/}}, {{IPA|/øː/}}, {{IPA|/oː/}} are included on the diphthong chart because they are actually produced as narrow closing diphthongs in some dialects, but behave phonologically like the other simple vowels.

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Consonants

Where symbols for consonants occur in pairs, the left represents the voiceless consonant and the right represents the voiced consonant.

Related Topics:
Voiceless consonant - Voiced consonant

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Notes:

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1) {{IPA|}} is not a native phoneme of Dutch and only occurs in borrowed words, like goal.

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2) {{IPA|}} is not a separate phoneme in Dutch, but is inserted before vowel-initial syllables within words after {{IPA|/a/}} and {{IPA|/ə/}}.

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3) In some dialects, the voiced fricatives have almost completely merged with the voiceless ones, and {{IPA|}} is usually realized as {{IPA|}}, {{IPA|}} is usually realized as {{IPA|}}, and {{IPA|}} is usually realized as {{IPA|}}.

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4) {{IPA|}} and {{IPA|}} are not native phonemes of Dutch, and usually occur in borrowed words, like show and bagage (baggage). However, {{IPA|/s/}} + {{IPA|/j/}} phoneme sequences in Dutch are often realized as {{IPA|}}, like in the word huisje (='little house'). {{IPA|}} often is realized as {{IPA|}}.

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5) The realization of the {{IPA|/r/}} phoneme varies considerably from dialect to dialect. In the so-called "standard" Dutch of Amsterdam7, {{IPA|/r/}} is realized as indicated here—as the voiced uvular fricative {{IPA|}}. In other dialects, however, it is realized as the uvular trill {{IPA|}} or as the alveolar trill {{IPA|}}.

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6) The realization of the {{IPA|/?/}} varies considerably from the Northern to the Southern and Belgium dialects of the Dutch language. In the South, including Belgium, it is realized as {{IPA|}}.

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7) The "standard" Dutch as spoken in Amsterdam is not the Amsterdams dialect. Amsterdams dialect is different from standard Dutch in that {{IPA|}} is replaced by {{IPA|}} in nearly all cases. The standard Dutch is more accurately described as the Dutch that is spoken by most people in Amsterdam, and is the dominating accent used on television.

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Phonology

Dutch devoices all consonants at the ends of words (e.g. a final d sound becomes a t sound; to become 'ents of worts'), which presents a problem for Dutch speakers when learning English.

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Because of assimilation, often the initial consonant of the next word is also devoiced, e.g. het vee (the cattle) is {{IPA|/hətfe/}}. This process of devoicing is taken to an extreme in some regions (Amsterdam, Friesland) with almost complete loss of {{IPA|/v/}},{{IPA|/z/}} and {{IPA|/ɣ/}}. Further south these phonemes are certainly present in the middle of a word. Compare e.g. logen and loochen {{IPA|/loɣən/}} vs. {{IPA|/loxən/}}. In Flanders the contrast is even greater because the g becomes a palatal. ('soft g').

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The final 'n' of the plural ending -en is normally not pronounced (as in Afrikaans), except in the North East (Low Saxon) and the South West (West Flemish) where the ending becomes a syllabic n sound.

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Dutch is a stress language, the stress position of words matters. Stress can occur on any syllable position in a word. There is a tendency for stress to be at the beginning of words. In composite words, secondary stress is often present. There are some cases where stress is the only difference between words. For example vóórkomen (occur) and voorkómen (prevent).

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Historical sound changes

Dutch (with the exception of the Limburg dialects) did not participate in the second (High German) sound shifting - compare German machen {{IPA|/-x-/}} Dutch maken, English make,

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German Pfanne {{IPA|/pf-/}}, Dutch pan, English pan, German zwei {{IPA|/ts-/}}, Dutch twee, English two.

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It also underwent a few changes of its own. For example, words in -old or -olt lost the l in favor of a diphthong. Compare English old, German alt, Dutch oud. A word like hus with {{IPA|/u/}} (English "house") first changed to huus with {{IPA|/y/}}, then finally to huis with a diphthong that resembles the one in French l'oeil. The phoneme /g/ was lost in favor of a (voiced) velar fricative {{IPA|/ɣ/}}, or a voiced palatal fricative (in the South: Flanders, Limburg).

Related Topics:
Diphthong - Fricative

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