Dutch Phonology - Consonants

Consonants

Notes:

^1, and are not separate phonemes in Dutch. is an allophone of /m/ and /n/ before /f/ and /v/. is an allophone of /n/ and /ŋ/ before /ɣ/ and /x/ in dialects that realize them (or one of them) as . The glottal stop is inserted before vowel-initial syllables within words after /a/ and /ə/ and often also at the beginning of a word, although unlike standard German to use it there is not a requirement.

^2 /ɡ/, /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ are not native phonemes of Dutch. /ɡ/ only occurs in borrowed words like goal or allophonically when /k/ is voiced due to assimilation, like in zakdoek . /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ only occur in loanwords such as show ('show') and bagage ('baggage'). However, they both occur in native words as allophones of /sj/ and /zj/ respectively.

^3 The sound spelled is a voiceless velar fricative in Northern Dutch and is claimed to be a voiceless palatal fricative in Southern Dutch, including all of Dutch-speaking Belgium. (However, in many or perhaps most of these regions, the actual sound used gives the impression of being front-velar, not palatal.) In the North /ɣ/ is usually realized as or and thus has merged with /x/ (which may be realized as either or ), whereas in the South the distinction between /ʝ/ and /ç/ has been preserved (neither of which may actually be palatal sounds; see above). This doesn't apply to many dialects of West Flanders, East Flanders and Zeeland, which realize both /ʝ/ and /ç/ as .

^4 In some northern dialects, the voiced fricatives have almost completely merged with the voiceless ones; /ɦ/ is usually realized as (this is also found in Limburg) and /v/ is usually realized as . /z/ can be realized as, but that's not that popular. All of these realizations are also found in dialect of Nijmegen, which also merges /ɣ/ and /x/ to .

^5 is not a separate phoneme in Dutch, but an allophone of /ɦ/ occurring after a voiceless consonant. Some dialects, particularly those from the southwest, exhibit a phenomenon identical to Northern English h-dropping, called in Dutch 'h-deletie'. A number of dialects realize all instances of /ɦ/ as (see above for details).

^6 The realization of /r/ varies considerably from dialect to dialect. It can be realized as the alveolar trill, the alveolar tap, the voiced uvular fricative, the uvular trill, or as the alveolar approximant, though the last realization is restricted to the Netherlands, and in most dialects it can be found exclusively in the syllable coda. A notable exception here is the dialect of Leiden, which realizes every instance of /r/ as . Some dialects may simply delete the /r/ after schwa, or (although that's rather rare) vocalize it to like German. See the map at right for more information. In dialects that have a uvular pronunciation for both /ɣ/ and /r/, the two phonemes may merge under some circumstances. This is especially noticeable in the city dialect of The Hague, where schijven and schrijven may be homophones .

^7 The realization of /ʋ/ varies considerably from the Northern to the Southern and Belgium dialects of the Dutch language. In the north of the Netherlands, it is a labiodental approximant: . In the south of the Netherlands and in Belgium it is pronounced as a bilabial approximant . In Surinamese Dutch it is pronounced . Before /r/ it is always pronounced as a voiced labiodental fricative, regardless of the dialect.

^8 The lateral /l/ is velarized postvocalically, and may even be vocalized by certain speakers. In some northern dialects, for example West Frisian speaking area it can be always dark, and in some southern dialects it's never velarized.

^9 The alveolar consonants (especially the stops) are generally pronounced as denti-alveolars in Belgian Dutch.

Dutch language devoices all obstruents at the ends of words (a final /d/ becomes /t/). This is partly reflected in the spelling, the voiced "z" in plural huizen ( ) becomes huis ( ) ('house') in singular. Also, duiven ( ) becomes duif ( ) ('dove'). The other cases are always written with the voiced consonant, but a devoiced one is actually pronounced: the voiced "d" in plural baarden ( ) is retained in singular spelling baard ('beard') but is pronounced as, and plural ribben ( ) has singular rib ('rib'), pronounced as .

Because of assimilation, often the initial consonant of the next word is usually also devoiced: het vee ('the cattle') is /(ɦ)ətfeː/.

Some regions (Amsterdam, Friesland) have devoiced the voiced fricatives /v/, /z/, and /ɣ/, merging them with the voiceless ones and making certain words homophones. Compare logen and loochen /ˈloːɣə(n)/ vs. /ˈloːxə(n)/, both pronounced in areas with the devoicing.

The final 'n' of the plural ending -en is usually 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 (East and West Flemish) where the ending becomes a syllabic or (after velars) syllabic sound. Examples: laten ; maken . Some Low Saxon dialects that have uvular pronunciation of /ɣ/ and /x/ (or one of them) also have a syllabic uvular nasal, like in lagen and/or lachen