Help:IPA for Dutch

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Dutch pronunciations in Wikipedia articles.

See Dutch phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Dutch, as well as dialectal variations that are not represented here.

Consonants IPA Examples English approximation b beet bait c tientje somewhat like cheer d dak duck f fiets feats ɣ gaan roughly like go, but without completely blocking air flow on the g; Spanish amigo ɦ had behind j jas yard k kat school l land land m mens man n nek neck ɲ oranje somewhat like canyon ŋ eng long p pen, rib sport r ras trilled R; similar to water (American English) s sok sock t tak, had stop v ver very ʋ wang between wine and vine x acht, weg loch (Scottish English) z zeep zip Marginal consonants ʔ beëindig [bəˈʔɛindəx] the catch in uh-oh! ɡ goal goal ʃ sjabloon, chef shall ʒ jury vision tʃ check, Tsjechië chat Stress ˈ voorkomen voorkomen as in commandeer /ˌkɒmənˈdɪər/ ˌ

Vowels IPA Examples English approximation Checked vowels ɑ bad father ɛ bed bed ɪ vis sit ɔ bot RP soft ʏ hut roughly like future Free vowels aː aap car (Australian/New Zealand) eː beet, ezel made i diep deep oː boot roughly like bone or British English born y fuut roughly like cute øː neus roughly like fur u hoed boot ɛi bijt, ei may œy buit house (Scottish English) ʌu jou, dauw out ɑi ai price ɔi hoi choice iu nieuw free will yu duw few would ui groei to eternity aːi draai prize eːu sneeuw say oo oːi nooit boys ə hemel again Marginal vowels ɔː roze raw ɛː scène square (British English) œː freule roughly like fur iː analyse wheeze yː centrifuge roughly like fugue ɑ̃ː genre roughly like croissant ɛ̃ː hautain roughly like doyen ɔ̃ː chanson roughly like montage æ slash slash

Notes

^1 The alveolo-palatal stop c and nasal ɲ are allophones of the sequences /tj/ and /nj/. Some speakers pronounce [c] the same as [tʃ].

^2 Generally, the southern varieties preserve the /f/–/v/, /x/–/ɣ/ and /s/–/z/ contrasts. Southern /x/, /ɣ/ may be also somewhat more front, i.e. post-palatal. In the north, these are far less stable: most speakers merge /x/ and /ɣ/ into a post-velar [x̠] or uvular [χ]; most Netherlandic Standard Dutch speakers lack a consistent /f/–/v/ contrast. In some accents, e.g. Amsterdam, /s/ and /z/ are also not distinguished. /ʒ/ often joins this neutralization by merging with /ʃ/. In some accents, /ɦ/ is also devoiced to [h]. See also Hard and soft G in Dutch.

^3 Dutch devoices all obstruents at the ends of words (e.g. a final /d/ becomes [t]). This is partly reflected in the spelling: the voiced ‹z› in plural huizen ('houses') becomes huis ('house') in singular, and duiven ('doves') becomes duif ('dove'). The other cases are always written with the voiced consonant, even though a devoiced one is actually pronounced: the voiced ‹d› in plural baarden [ˈbaːrdə(n)] ('beards') is retained in the singular spelling baard ('beard'), but pronounced as [baːrt]; and plural ribben [ˈrɪbə(n)] ('ribs') has singular rib, pronounced as [rɪp]. Because of assimilation, often the initial consonant of the next word is also devoiced, e.g. het vee ('the cattle') is [ɦət ˈfeː]

^4 The final ‹n› of the plural ending -en is usually not pronounced, except in the North East (Low Saxon) and the South West (East and West Flemish) where the ending becomes a syllabic [n̩] sound.

^5 The realization of the /r/ phoneme varies considerably from dialect to dialect. In "standard" Dutch, /r/ is realized as the alveolar trill [r] or as a uvular trill [ʀ]. In some dialects, it is realized as an alveolar flap [ɾ] or even as an alveolar approximant [ɹ].

^6 The realization of the /ʋ/ phoneme varies considerably from the Northern to the Southern and Belgium dialects of the Dutch language. In the north of the Netherlands, it is a labiodental approximant [ʋ]. In the south of the Netherlands and in Belgium, it is pronounced as a bilabial approximant {IPA|[β̞]}} (as it also is in the Hasselt and Maastricht dialects), and Standard Belgian Dutch uses the labiovelar approximant [w].

^7 The glottal stop [ʔ] is not a separate phoneme in Dutch, but is inserted before vowel-initial syllables within words and often also at the beginning of a word.

^8 /ɡ/ is not a native phoneme of Dutch and only occurs in loanwords, like goal or when /k/ is voiced, like in zakdoek [ˈzɑɡduk].

^9 /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ are not native phonemes of Dutch, and usually occur in borrowed words, like show and bagage ('baggage'). Even then, they are usually realized as [sʲ] and [zʲ], respectively. However, /s/ + /j/ sequences in Dutch are often realized as [sʲ], like in the word huisje ('little house'). In dialects that merge /s/ and /z/, [zʲ] is often realized as [sʲ].

^10 When the penultimate syllable is open, stress may fall on any of the last three syllables. When the penultimate syllable is closed, stress falls on either of the last two syllables. While stress is phonemic, minimal pairs are rare. For example vóórkomen /ˈvoːrkoːmə(n)/ "to occur" and voorkómen /voːrˈkoːmə(n)/ "to prevent". In composite words, secondary stress is often present. Marking the stress in written Dutch is optional, never obligatory, but sometimes recommended.

^11 The "checked" vowels /ɑ/, /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /ɔ/, and /ʏ/ occur only in closed syllables, while their "free" counterparts /aː/, /eː/, /i/, /oː/, and /y/ can occur in open syllables (as can the other vowels). These two sets also go by the names dull/sharp, dim/clear, lax/tense, closed/open, or short/long. One of each pair is pronounced slightly longer by many speakers, so the terms long and short traditionally used to explain the use of doubled consonants and vowels in the orthographic system. Differences in vowel length tend to be bigger in southern dialects; in extreme cases, when lax vowels become as tense as the tense vowels, the vowel length is the only difference between them.

^12 For most speakers of Netherlandic Standard Dutch, the long close-mid vowels /eː/, /øː/ and /oː/ are realised as slightly closing diphthongs [eɪ], [øʏ] and [oʊ], unless they precede /r/ within the same syllable. The closing diphthongs also appear in certain Belgian dialects, e.g. the one of Bruges, but not in Belgian Standard Dutch. See Dutch phonology#Monophthongs for more details.

^13 The exact quality of diphthongs varies; Netherlandic Standard Dutch has somewhat more open (in case of /ʌu/ and often /œy/ also unrounded) first elements: [æi], [ɐy], [ɑu]. In Belgian Standard Dutch, they begin in the open-mid region, and the last diphthong has a rounded first element: [ɛi], [œy], [ɔu]. In Belgium, the onset of /œy/ can also be unrounded to [ɐy]. Some non-standard dialects (e.g. many southern dialects) realise these diphthongs as either narrow diphthongs or (as in The Hague dialect) long monophthongs. See Dutch phonology § Diphthongs for more details.

^14 Found in loanwords.

^15 In Belgium, /ɔː/ tends to be pronounced the same as /oː/.

^16 Mainly found in loanwords.

^17 /æ/ is pronounced the same as /ɛ/ by many speakers.

External links

http://www.woorden.org/