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Dutch phonology


Dutch phonology is similar to that of other West Germanic languages.

While the spelling of Dutch is officially standardised by an international organisation (the Dutch Language Union), the pronunciation has no official standard and relies on a de facto standard documented in reference works such as The Phonetics of English and Dutch by Beverley Collins and Inger M. Mees,The Phonology of Dutch by Geert Booij,Dutch by Carlos Gussenhoven,Belgian Standard Dutch by Jo Verhoeven or pronunciation dictionaries such as Uitspraakwoordenboek ("Pronunciation Dictionary") by Josée Heemskerk and Wim Zonneveld.

Standard Dutch has two main de facto pronunciation standards: Northern and Belgian. Northern Standard Dutch is the most prestigious accent in the Netherlands. It is associated with high status, education and wealth. Even though its speakers seem to be concentrated in the provinces of North Holland, South Holland and Utrecht (especially in the Randstad), it cannot be considered a regional dialect. It is often impossible to tell where its speakers were born or brought up. Belgian Standard Dutch is used by the vast majority of Flemish journalists, which is why it is sometimes called VRT-Nederlands ("VRT Dutch"; formerly BRT-Nederlands "BRT Dutch"), after VRT, the national public-service broadcaster for the Flemish Region.

The following table shows the consonant phonemes of Dutch:

The final 'n' of the ending -en (originally /ən/, with a variety of meanings) is not pronounced in many areas unless when one stresses the word, which makes those words homophonous with forms without the -n. It is dropped both word-finally and word-internally in compound words. The pronunciation can be morphologically sensitive and can distinguish words, as the -n is dropped only when it is part of the distinct ending -en but not when the word has a single stem ending in -en. Thus, the word teken ('I draw') always retains its -n because it is part of an indivisible stem whereas in teken ('ticks') it is dropped because it is a plural ending. These words are, therefore, not homophones in dialects that drop -n despite being spelled identically.


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