Dutch phonology

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Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See Help:IPA for a pronunciation key.

Dutch is a Germanic language and as such has a similar phonology with other Germanic languages (particularly English and Frisian, and to a lesser extent, German).

Dutch language devoices all consonants at the ends of words (e.g. a final /d/ becomes [t]), which presents a problem for Dutch speakers when learning English. This is partly reflected in the spelling, the singular huis (house) has the plural huizen and duif (dove) becomes duiven. The other cases, viz. ‘p’/‘b’ and ‘d’/‘t’ are always written with the voiced consonant, although a devoiced one is actually pronounced, e.g. singular baard (beard), pronounced as [baːrt], has plural baarden [baːrdən] and singular rib (rib), pronounced as [rɪp], has plural ribben [rɪbən].

Because of assimilation, often the initial consonant of the next word is usually also devoiced, e.g. het vee (the cattle) is /(h)ətfe/.

In some regions (Amsterdam, Friesland) have almost completely lost the voiced fricatives /v/, /z/ and /ɣ/. Further south these phonemes are certainly present in the middle of a word. Compare e.g. logen and loochen /loɣən/ vs. /loxən/. In the South (i.e. Zeeland, Brabant and Limburg) and in Flanders the contrast is even greater because the <g> becomes a palatal. ('soft g').

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

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). Marking the stress in written Dutch is optional, never obligatory, but sometimes recommended.

The syllable structure of Dutch is (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C). Many words, like in English, begin with three consonants - e.g. straat (street). There are words that end in four consonants - e.g. herfst (autumn), ergst (worst), interessantst (most interesting), sterkst (strongest) - most of them being adjectives in the superlative form.

1 Vowels
2 Consonants
3 Historical sound changes
4 See also

[edit] Vowels

The vowel inventory of Dutch is large, with 13 simple vowels and four diphthongs. The vowels /eː/, /øː/ and /oː/ are included on the diphthong chart because they are actually produced as narrow closing diphthongs in many dialects, but behave phonologically like the other simple vowels. In front of /r/ these vowels are pronounced as [ɪː], [ʏː] and [ɔː] respectively. [ɐ] (a near-open central vowel) is an allophone of unstressed /a/ and /ɑ/.

IPA chart Dutch monophthongs	IPA chart Dutch diphthongs
Image:Dutch-monophthongs.png	Image:Dutch-diphthongs.png

**Dutch Vowels with Example Words**
IPA	IPA	orthography	English translation
Symbol	Example
ɪ	bɪt	bit	'bit'
i	bit	biet	'beetroot'
ʏ	hʏt	hut	'cabin'
y	fyt	fuut	'grebe'
ɛ	bɛt	bed	'bed'
eː	beːt	beet	'bite'
ə	də	de	'the'
øː	nøːs	neus	'nose'
ɑ	bɑt	bad	'bath'
aː	baːt	baad	'bathe'
ɔ	bɔt	bot	'bone'
oː	boːt	boot	'boat'
u	ɦut	hoed	'hat'
ɛi	bɛit, ɛi	bijt, ei	'bite', 'egg'
œy	bœyt	buit	'booty'
ʌu	bʌut, fʌun	bout, faun	'bolt', 'faun'

[edit] Consonants

**IPA chart Dutch consonants**
	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive	p b		t d			k ɡ¹		ʔ ²
Nasal	m		n			ŋ
Fricative³		f v	s z	ʃ ʒ ⁴		x ɣ	ʁ ⁵	ɦ
Approximant		ʋ ⁶			j
Lateral			l

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

Notes:

/ɡ/ is not a native phoneme of Dutch and only occurs in borrowed words, like goal or when /k/ is voiced, like in zakdoek [zɑɡduk].
[ʔ] is not a separate phoneme in Dutch, but is inserted before vowel-initial syllables within words after /a/ and /ə/ and often also at the beginning of a word.
In some dialects, the voiced fricatives have almost completely merged with the voiceless ones, and /ɦ/ is usually realized as /h/, /v/ is usually realized as [f], /z/ is usually realized as [s], and /ɣ/ is usually realized as [x].
/ʃ/ and /ʒ/ are not native phonemes of Dutch, and usually occur in borrowed words, like show and bagage (baggage). And even then they are usually realized as [sʲ] and [zʲ] respectively. However, /s/ + /j/ phoneme sequences in Dutch are often realized as [sʲ], like in the word huisje ('little house'). In dialects that merge s and z [zʲ] often is realized as [sʲ].
The realization of the /r/ phoneme varies considerably from dialect to dialect. In "standard" Dutch, /r/ is realized as [r]. In many dialects it is realized as the voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] or even as the uvular trill [ʀ].
The realization of the /ʋ/ varies considerably from the Northern to the Southern and Belgium dialects of the Dutch language. Some, mainly Hollandic, dialects pronounce it like a fricative: [β]^{[citation needed]}. Other, mainly Northern Dutch, dialects pronounce it like a labiodental approximant: [ʋ].
The "standard" Dutch is more or less that as spoken in Haarlem, not the Amsterdam dialect. Amsterdam dialect is different from standard Dutch in, for example, that /z/ is replaced by [sʲ]

**Dutch Consonants with Example Words**
IPA	IPA	orthography	English translation
Symbol	Example
p	pɛn	pen	'pen'
b	bit	biet	'beetroot'
t	tɑk	tak	'branch'
d	dɑk	dak	'roof'
k	kɑt	kat	'cat'
g	ɡol	goal	'goal' (sports)
m	mɛns	mens	'human being'
n	nɛk	nek	'neck'
ŋ	ɛŋ	eng	'scary'
f	fits	fiets	'bicycle'
v	ovən	oven	'oven'
s	sɔk	sok	'sock'
z	zep	zeep	'soap'
ʃ	ʃɛf	chef	'boss, chief'
ʒ	ʒyʁi	jury	'jury'
x	ɑxt	acht	'eight'
ɣ	ɣaːn	gaan	'to go'
r	rɑt	rat	'rat'
ɦ	ɦut	hoed	'hat'
ʋ	ʋɑŋ	wang	'cheek'
j	jɑs	jas	'coat'
l	lɑnt	land	'land / country'
ʔ	bəʔamə	beamen	'to confirm'

[edit] Historical sound changes

Dutch (with the exception of the Limburg dialects) did not participate in the second Germanic consonant shift - compare German machen /-x-/ Dutch maken, English make, German Pfanne /p͡f-/, Dutch pan, English pan, German zwei /t͡s-/, Dutch twee, English two.

Dutch underwent a few changes of its own. For example, words with -old or -olt lost the l in favor of a diphthong as a result of l-vocalization. Compare English old, German alt, Dutch oud.

Germanic */uː/ turned into /y/ through palatalization, which sound in turn became a diphthong /œy/, spelled <ui>. Long */iː/ also diphthongized to /ɛi/, spelled <ij>.