Hard And Soft G In Dutch
In the Dutch language the terminology hard and soft ⟨g⟩ (Dutch: harde en zachte G) refers to not only a phonological phenomenon of the pronunciation of the letters ⟨g⟩ and ⟨ch⟩ but also indicates a major isogloss within the language. In the northern part of the European Dutch language area, these letters represent velar ( and, respectively) or uvular fricatives, the so-called hard G. However, in most northern dialects the distinction is not made anymore, and both sounds are pronounced either as or . In dialects that merge ⟨g⟩ and ⟨ch⟩ it's still possible, at least for some speakers, to pronounce ⟨g⟩ as intervocallically. In many southern dialects of the European Dutch language area, ⟨g⟩ and ⟨ch⟩ represent palatal fricatives ( and ), the so-called soft G.
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