Dutch Phonology - Historical Sound Changes

Historical Sound Changes

Dutch (with the exception of the Limburg dialects) did not participate in the second Germanic consonant shift except for the last stage - compare

• /-k-/ > /-x-/: German machen vs. Dutch maken, English make
• /-p-/ > /-f-/: German Schaf vs. Dutch schaap, English sheep
• /-t-/ > /-s-/: German Wasser vs. Dutch water, English water
• /-θ-/ > /-d-/: German das, Dutch dat vs. English that

Dutch generalised the fricative variety of Proto-Germanic */ɡ/ as or, in contrast with German which generalised the stop, and English which lost the fricative variety through regular sound changes.

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.
• /ft/ changed to /xt/ (North) or /çt/ (South), spelled ⟨cht⟩, but this was later reverted in many words by analogy with other forms. Compare English loft, German Luft, Dutch lucht (pronounced or ).
• Proto-Germanic */uː/ turned into /yː/ through palatalization, which, in turn, became the diphthong /œy/, spelled ⟨ui⟩. Long */iː/ also diphthongized to /ɛi/, spelled ⟨ij⟩.