Dutch
In Dutch and Afrikaans, terminal devoicing results in homophones such as hard 'hard' and hart 'heart' as well as differences in consonant sounds between the singular and plural forms of nouns, for example golf-golven (Dutch) and golf-golwe (Afrikaans) for 'wave-waves'.
The history of the devoicing phenomenon within the West Germanic languages is not entirely clear but the discovery of a runic inscription from the early fifth century that shows devoicing suggests that its origins are Frankish. Of the old West Germanic languages, Old Dutch, a descendant of Frankish, is the earliest to show any kind of devoicing, and final devoicing had also occurred in Frankish-influenced Old French.
Read more about this topic: Final-obstruent Devoicing
Famous quotes containing the word dutch:
“The French courage proceeds from vanity—the German from phlegm—the Turkish from fanaticism & opium—the Spanish from pride—the English from coolness—the Dutch from obstinacy—the Russian from insensibility—but the Italian from anger.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Too nice is neighbor’s fool.”
—Common Dutch saying, trans by Johanna C. Prins.
“Paradise endangered: garden snakes and mice are appearing in the shadowy corners of Dutch Old Master paintings.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)