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Dutch phonology
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Dutch phonology
Dutch phonology is similar to that of other West Germanic languages, especially Afrikaans, Low Saxon, and West Frisian.
Standard Dutch has two main de facto pronunciation standards: Northern and Belgian. Northern Standard Dutch is the most prestigious accent in the Netherlands. It is associated with high status, education and wealth. Although its speakers seem to be concentrated mainly in the densely populated Randstad in the provinces of North Holland, South Holland, and Utrecht, it is often impossible to tell where in the country its speakers were born or raised. Therefore, it cannot be considered a regional dialect in the Netherlands. Belgian Standard Dutch is used by the vast majority of Flemish journalists and is sometimes called VRT-Nederlands ("VRT Dutch"; formerly BRT-Nederlands "BRT Dutch"), after VRT, the national public broadcaster for the Flemish Region.
The following table shows the consonant phonemes of Dutch:
Apart from /r/, all alveolar consonants are laminal and may be realised as denti-alveolar in Belgium.
In many areas, the final 'n' of the ending -en (originally /ən/, with a variety of meanings) is pronounced only if a word is being individually stressed, which makes -en words homophonous with otherwise-identical forms ending in -e alone. The -n is dropped both word-finally and, in compound words, word-internally. This pronunciation can be morphologically sensitive and serve to distinguish words since the -n is dropped only when it is part of the distinct ending -en, not when it is in a word that has an indivisible stem that happens to end in -en. Thus, the teken of ik teken ('I draw') always retains its -n because it is part of an indivisible stem, but teken ('ticks') drops it since it is part of a plural ending. Such pairs (teken = 'draw'; teken = 'ticks'),despite being written identically, are therefore not homophones in dialects that drop -n although they are written identically.
Final -n is retained in the North East (Low Saxon) and the South West (East and West Flemish), where it is the schwa that disappears instead. This creates a syllabic [n] or (after velars) syllabic [ŋ] sounds: laten [ˈlaːtn̩]; maken [ˈmaːkŋ̍]. Some Low Saxon dialects that have uvular pronunciations of /ɣ/ and /x/ (or one of them) also have a syllabic uvular nasal, as in lagen and/or lachen [ˈlaːχɴ̩]
Dutch devoices all obstruents at the ends of words, which is partly reflected in the spelling. The voiced "z" in plural huizen [ˈɦœy̑zə(n)] becomes huis [ɦœy̑s] ('house') in singular. Also, duiven [ˈdœy̑və(n)] becomes duif [dœy̑f] ('dove'). The other cases are always written with the voiced consonant, but a devoiced one is actually pronounced: the "d" in plural baarden [ˈbaːrdə(n)] is retained in singular spelling baard ('beard'), but the pronunciation of the latter is [baːrt], and plural ribben [ˈrɪbə(n)] has singular rib ('rib'), pronounced [rɪp].
Because of assimilation, the initial /v z ɣ/ of the next word is often also devoiced: het vee ('the cattle') is [(ɦ)ət feː]. The opposite may be true for other consonants: ik ben ('I am') [ɪɡ bɛn].
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Dutch phonology
Dutch phonology is similar to that of other West Germanic languages, especially Afrikaans, Low Saxon, and West Frisian.
Standard Dutch has two main de facto pronunciation standards: Northern and Belgian. Northern Standard Dutch is the most prestigious accent in the Netherlands. It is associated with high status, education and wealth. Although its speakers seem to be concentrated mainly in the densely populated Randstad in the provinces of North Holland, South Holland, and Utrecht, it is often impossible to tell where in the country its speakers were born or raised. Therefore, it cannot be considered a regional dialect in the Netherlands. Belgian Standard Dutch is used by the vast majority of Flemish journalists and is sometimes called VRT-Nederlands ("VRT Dutch"; formerly BRT-Nederlands "BRT Dutch"), after VRT, the national public broadcaster for the Flemish Region.
The following table shows the consonant phonemes of Dutch:
Apart from /r/, all alveolar consonants are laminal and may be realised as denti-alveolar in Belgium.
In many areas, the final 'n' of the ending -en (originally /ən/, with a variety of meanings) is pronounced only if a word is being individually stressed, which makes -en words homophonous with otherwise-identical forms ending in -e alone. The -n is dropped both word-finally and, in compound words, word-internally. This pronunciation can be morphologically sensitive and serve to distinguish words since the -n is dropped only when it is part of the distinct ending -en, not when it is in a word that has an indivisible stem that happens to end in -en. Thus, the teken of ik teken ('I draw') always retains its -n because it is part of an indivisible stem, but teken ('ticks') drops it since it is part of a plural ending. Such pairs (teken = 'draw'; teken = 'ticks'),despite being written identically, are therefore not homophones in dialects that drop -n although they are written identically.
Final -n is retained in the North East (Low Saxon) and the South West (East and West Flemish), where it is the schwa that disappears instead. This creates a syllabic [n] or (after velars) syllabic [ŋ] sounds: laten [ˈlaːtn̩]; maken [ˈmaːkŋ̍]. Some Low Saxon dialects that have uvular pronunciations of /ɣ/ and /x/ (or one of them) also have a syllabic uvular nasal, as in lagen and/or lachen [ˈlaːχɴ̩]
Dutch devoices all obstruents at the ends of words, which is partly reflected in the spelling. The voiced "z" in plural huizen [ˈɦœy̑zə(n)] becomes huis [ɦœy̑s] ('house') in singular. Also, duiven [ˈdœy̑və(n)] becomes duif [dœy̑f] ('dove'). The other cases are always written with the voiced consonant, but a devoiced one is actually pronounced: the "d" in plural baarden [ˈbaːrdə(n)] is retained in singular spelling baard ('beard'), but the pronunciation of the latter is [baːrt], and plural ribben [ˈrɪbə(n)] has singular rib ('rib'), pronounced [rɪp].
Because of assimilation, the initial /v z ɣ/ of the next word is often also devoiced: het vee ('the cattle') is [(ɦ)ət feː]. The opposite may be true for other consonants: ik ben ('I am') [ɪɡ bɛn].