Dutch orthography

Dutch orthography uses the Latin alphabet and has evolved to suit the needs of the Dutch language. The spelling system is issued by government decree and is compulsory for all government documentation and educational establishments.

The modern Dutch alphabet consists of the 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet and is used for the Dutch language. Five (or six) letters are vowels and 21 (or 20) letters are consonants. The letter E is the most frequently used letter in the Dutch alphabet, usually representing a schwa sound. The least frequently used letters are Q and X.

Dutch uses the following letters and letter combinations. Note that for simplicity, dialectal variation and subphonemic distinctions are not always indicated. See Dutch phonology for more information.

The following list shows letters and combinations, along with their pronunciations, found in modern native or nativised vocabulary:

The following additional letters and pronunciations appear in non-native vocabulary or words using older, obsolete spellings:

Loanwords often conserve their original spellings: cadeau /kaˈdoː/ 'gift' (from French). The Latin letters c, qu, x and y (from Greek υ) are sometimes adapted to k, kw, ks and i. Greek letters φ and ῥ become f and r, not ph or rh, but θ mostly becomes th (except before a consonant, after f or ch and at the end of words). Combinations -eon-, -ion-, -yon- in loanwords from French are written with a single n (mayonaise) except when a schwa follows (stationnement).

Vowel length is always indicated but in different ways by using an intricate system of single and double letters.

Old Dutch possessed phonemic consonant length in addition to phonemic vowel length, with no correspondence between them. Thus, long vowels could appear in closed syllables, and short vowels could occur in open syllables. In the transition to early Middle Dutch, short vowels were lengthened when they stood in open syllables. Short vowels could now occur only in closed syllables. Consonants could still be long in pronunciation and acted to close the preceding syllable. Therefore, any short vowel that was followed by a long consonant remained short.

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