Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect phonology

Not to be confused with the phonology of Standard Dutch as it is spoken in Orsmaal-Gussenhoven.

This article is about the phonology of the Orsmaal-Gussenhoven subdialect of Brabantian.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

		Labial	Alveolar		Postalveolar	Dorsal		Glottal
			hard	soft		hard	soft
Nasal		m	n			ŋ
Stop	voiceless	p	t	tʲ		k	kʲ
	voiced	b	d
Fricative	voiceless	f	s		ʃ	x		h
	voiced	v	z		ʒ	ɣ
Approximant		β	l				j
Rhotic			r

Obstruents

• /p, b/ are bilabial, whereas /f, v/ are labiodental.
• /ʒ/ is restricted to word-initial position, and occurs only in loanwords from French. It tends to either devoice to [ʃ] or be affricated to [d͡ʒ].
• /k, kʲ/ are velar.
• The exact place of articulation of /x, ɣ/ varies:
  • Velar [x, ɣ] before and after back vowels and, in case of /x/, also when it is preceded by a back vowel in an intervocalic position between stressed and unstressed syllable.
  • Palatal [ç, ʝ] before and after front vowels and, in case of /x/, also after /ə/.
• Word-initial /x/ is restricted to the sequence /sx/, otherwise it appears only intervocalically and word-finally.
• /ɣ/ tends to be voiceless lenis ([ɣ̊] or [ʝ̊], depending on the preceding vowel) word-initially and intervocalically.
• /h/ is restricted to morpheme-initial position. It may be dropped by some speakers, either sometimes or always.
• /p, t, tʲ, k, kʲ, v, z/ may be affricated to [p͡ɸ, t͡s, t͡sʲ, k͡x, k͡xʲ, b͡v, d͡z]. Peters (2010) does not specify the environment(s) in which the affrication of /v/ and /z/ takes place. In case of stops, it occurs in pre-pausal position.
• /v, z/ are realized as voiceless [v̥, z̥] when they occur between vowels, and often also in word-initial position. In the latter case, either the first half or the whole sound is voiceless.

Sonorants

• /m, β/ are bilabial.
• /n, l, r/ are alveolar.
  • /n/ before /k/ is pronounced as follows:
    • [n], if /k/ belongs to another morpheme ([nʲ] before allomorphemic /kj/);
    • [ŋ], if /k/ belongs to the same morpheme.
  • Word-final [nʲ] appears only in loanwords from French.
  • /l/ tends to be velarized, especially postvocalically.
  • /r/ has a few possible realizations:
    • Apical trill [r] or an apical fricative [ɹ̝] before a stressed vowel in word-initial syllables.
    • Intervocalically and in the onset after a consonant, it may be a tap [ɾ].
    • Word-final /r/ is highly variable; the most frequent variants are an apical trill fricative [r̝], an apical fricative [ɹ̝] and an apical rhotic affricate [ɾ͡ɹ̝]. The last two variants tend to be voiceless ([ɹ̝̊, ɾ̥͡θ̠]) in pre-pausal position.
    • The sequence /ər/ can be realized as [ɐ], as in many varieties of German. Alternatively, /r/ can be dropped: [ə].
• /ŋ/ is velar, whereas /j/ is palatal.
• /β, j/ appear only word-initially and intervocalically.

Example words for consonants

Voiceless			Voiced
Phoneme	IPA	Meaning	Phoneme	IPA	Meaning
/p/	/pak/	'pack'	/b/	/bak/	'box'
/t/	/taks/	'tax'	/d/	/dak/	'roof'
/tʲ/	/mʊtʲ/	'courage'
/k/	/kak/	'excrement'
/kʲ/	/kraːkʲ/	'jug'
			/m/	/maː/	'sleeve'
			/n/	/naː/	'now'
			/ŋ/	/rɪŋ/	'ring'
/f/	/fɛːn/	'fine'	/v/	/vɛːs/	'screw'
/s/	/ˈsœmɪxə/	'some'	/z/	/zœxt/	'addiction'
/ʃ/	/ʃɒːs/	'chance'	/ʒ/	/ʒɒː/	'Jean'
/x/	/ˈlaxə/	'laugh'	/ɣ/	/ˈdaːɣə/	'days'
/h/	/haːs/	'house'
			/β/	/βa/	'what'
			/l/	/laː/	'lazy'
			/j/	/jaː/	'yes'
			/r/	/raː/	'mourning'

Final devoicing and assimilation

Just like Standard Dutch, Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect devoices all obstruents at the ends of words.

Morpheme-final /p, t, k/ may be voiced if a voiced plosive or a vowel follows.

Vowels

The Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect contains 18 monophthong and 12 diphthong phonemes. A notable feature of it are quite unusual contrasts between /eː/, /ei/ and /ɛɪ/, as well as between /øː/, /øy/ and /œʏ/.

Monophthongs

Monophthongs of the Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect, from Peters (2010:241)

Monophthong phonemes

	Front				Central		Back
	unrounded		rounded		unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close		iː	(y)	yː				uː
Near-close	ɪ		ʏ				ʊ
Close-mid		eː		øː			(o)	oː
Open-mid	ɛ	ɛː	œ	œː	ə		ɔ
Open					a	aː	ɒ	ɒː

• Notes about close vowels:
  • /ɪ/ is near-close front unrounded [ɪ̟].
  • /iː/ is close front unrounded [iː].
  • /ʏ/ is near-close near-front rounded [ʏ].
  • /y, yː/ is close near-front rounded [ÿ, ÿː]. The short /y/ occurs only in few loanwords from French.
  • /ʊ/ is near-close near-back rounded [ʊ].
  • /uː/ is close somewhat advanced back rounded [u̟ː].
• Notes about mid vowels:
  • /eː/ is close-mid front unrounded [eː].
  • /øː/ is close-mid near-front rounded [ø̠ː].
  • /o, oː/ is close-mid somewhat advanced back rounded [o̟, o̟ː]. The short version of it occurs only in few loanwords from French.
  • /ə/ is mid central unrounded [ə]. It occurs only in unstressed syllables. Sometimes it may be inserted in non-homorganic consonant clusters in coda, if the first element of the cluster is /l/ or /r/.
  • /ɛ/ is mid somewhat retracted front unrounded [ɛ̽].
  • /ɛː/ is open-mid front unrounded [ɛː].
  • /œ/ is mid near-front rounded [œ̽].
  • /œː/ is open-mid near-front rounded [œ̠ː].
  • /ɔ/ is mid near-back rounded [ɔ̽].
• Notes about open vowels:
  • /a, aː/ are open central unrounded [ä, äː].
  • /ɒ, ɒː/ are near-open somewhat advanced back rounded [ɒ̽, ɒ̽ː]. Aside from length, the only difference between those is that /ɒ/ is slightly more front.
• Other notes:
  • /ɪ, ʊ, ɔ/ often are fairly close, but never as close as /iː, uː, oː/.
  • When stressed, short vowels cannot occur in open syllables. Exceptions to this rule are high-frequency words like [βa] 'what', and loanwords from French, such as [dəˈpo] 'depot'.
  • /yː, uː, ɒː/ before /t, d/ within the same syllable may be realized as centering diphthongs [yə, uə, ɒə], often with a labial glide before the schwa [ywə, uwə, ɒwə]. Alternatively, in place of the schwa an unrounded variant of the first vowel may appear: [yi, uɯ, ɒɑ]. In the same environment, /øː/ can be realized as [øjə].

Example words for monophthongs

Short			Long
Phoneme	IPA	Meaning	Phoneme	IPA	Meaning
/ɪ/	/blɪk/	'plate'	/iː/	/bliːk/	'bleaching'
/ʏ/	/rʏx/	'back'	/yː/	/dryːx/	'dry'
/ʊ/	/ʊx/	'you'	/uː/	/uːx/	'eye'
			/eː/	/zeːx/	'saw'
			/øː/	/køːl/	'cold' (adj.)
/ɔ/	/mɔt/	'moth'	/oː/	/roːp/	'(I) pick up'
/ə/	/də/	'the'
/ɛ/	/βɛl/	'well'	/ɛː/	/zɛːx/	'sieve'
/œ/	/mœl/	'mull'	/œː/	/œːl/	'owl'
/a/	/mat/	'market'	/aː/	/raː/	'mourning'
/ɒ/	/mɒt/	'mat'	/ɒː/	/rɒː/	'raw'

Diphthongs

Non-centering diphthongs of the Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect, from Peters (2010:241)

Centering diphthongs of the Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect, from Peters (2010:241). /ɔə/ is not shown.

Diphthong phonemes

Starting point	Ending point
	Front	Central	Back
Close	uɪ	iə
Close-mid	ei øy	eə
Mid			əʊ
Open-mid	ɛɪ œʏ	ɛə ɔə	ɞʊ
Open	aɪ		aʊ

• Notes about diphthongs with a close starting point:
  • /uɪ/ is phonetically [uɪ]. It begins close back rounded, ends near-close near-front unrounded.
  • /iə/ is phonetically [iɘ̟]. It begins close front unrounded, ends close-mid near-front unrounded. It occurs syllable-finally and before labial and alveolar consonants, where it contrasts with /iː/.
• Notes about diphthongs with a mid starting point:
  • /ei/ is phonetically [ei̞]. It begins close-mid front unrounded, ends slightly lowered close front unrounded.
  • /øy/ is phonetically [ø̠y̽]. It begins close-mid near-front rounded, ends slightly lowered close near-front rounded.
  • /eə/ is phonetically [eə̟]. It begins close-mid front unrounded, ends mid near-front unrounded. It occurs syllable-finally and before labial and alveolar consonants, where it contrasts with /eː/.
  • /əʊ/ is phonetically [əʊ̞]. It begins mid central unrounded, ends slightly lowered near-close near-back rounded.
  • /ɛɪ/ is phonetically [ɛ̠ɪ̞]. It begins open-mid, slightly retracted front unrounded, ends lowered near-close near-front unrounded.
  • /ɛə/ is phonetically [ɛ̠ə̟]. It begins slightly raised open-mid slightly retracted front unrounded, ends mid near-front unrounded. It occurs syllable-finally and before labial and alveolar consonants, where it contrasts with /ɛː/.
  • /œʏ/ is phonetically [œ̠ʏ̞]. It begins open-mid near-front rounded, ends lowered near-close near-front rounded.
  • /ɔə/ appears only before tautosyllabic /t, d/.
  • /ɞʊ/ is phonetically [ɞʊ̞]. It begins open-mid central rounded, ends slightly lowered near-close near-back rounded.
• Notes about diphthongs with an open starting point:
  • /aɪ/ is phonetically [ɐɪ̞]. It begins near-open central unrounded, ends lowered near-close near-front unrounded.
  • /aʊ/ is phonetically [ɐʊ̞]. It begins near-open central unrounded, ends lowered near-close near-back rounded.

Example words for diphthongs

Phoneme	IPA	Meaning
/uɪ/	/kuɪ/	'cow'
/iə/	/kiəs/	'cherry'
/ei/	/sxeit/	'(I) shoot'
/øy/	/zøyk/	'(I) search'
/eə/	/keəs/	'cheese'
/əʊ/	/məʊ/	'mom'
/ɛɪ/	/sxɛɪt/	'fart'
/œʏ/	/rœʏk/	'smell'
/ɛə/	/kɛəs/	'candle'
/ɔə/	/bɔət/	'beard'
/ɞʊ/	/mɞʊs/	'mud'
/aɪ/	/maɪ/	'marble'
/aʊ/	/ˈpaʊzə/	'portion'

Prosody

Stress

Stress location is the same as in Belgian Standard Dutch. In compounds made of two nouns, primary stress may in some words fall on the head noun, e.g. [stɒtˈhaːs] 'town house'.

Many loanwords from French preserve their original stress, which may cause the preceding vowel to be reduced, e.g. [kəˈdaʊ̯] 'cadeau'.

Non-distinctive accent

Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect does not have a lexical tone distinction. However, Peters (2010) states that "it appears to use 'non-distinctive accent', which shows phonetic features of accent 2 of Limburgian dialects."

Sample

The sample text is a reading of The North Wind and the Sun, read by a female native speaker. The orthographic version is written in Standard Dutch, adjusted by Peters (2010) to match the dialectal version more closely.

Phonetic transcription

[də ˈnœrdərβ̞ɪnt ʔɛn də zɔn ˈʔadən ən dɪsˈkøːsə ˈɛvə də vɾoːx | β̞i van ən tβ̞iː də ˈstɛɾəkstə β̞as | tʏn dʏɪ ʒyst ˈɛmant v̥œrˈbɛːkɔm bə nən ˈdɪkə ˈβ̞aɾəmə ja̰s a̰ːn || z̥ə ˈspraːkə ɔf | da β̞ɛə̯ də vərˈbɛːɣaŋəɾ͡ɹ̝ zaʊ̯ dər̝ tœ ˈkrɛːɣə ˈzɛnə jas ˈaːtətrɛkə | də ˈstɛɾəçstə z̥a̰ʊ̯ z̥ɛ̰n || d̥ə ˈnœrd̥ərβ̞ɪntˢ | bəˈɣɔn ɛt ˈalˠə maxt tə ˈblɔə̯z̥ə | ma u ˈhatər dat ər ˈbleːs | dɛs tə ˈfɛldər̝ trɒks də v̥ərˈbɛːɣaŋə ˈz̥ɛnə jas təʊ̯ || œtˈɛːndəlɪk | ɣ̊av də ˈnœrdərβ̞ɪnt ʊ̝pᶲ || dəˈnoː bəˈɣ̊ɔs̬ də ˈzɔn ˈkraxtɪç tə ˈstroːlə | ɛn dəˈrɛk trɔk də vəˈbɛːɣaŋɐ ˈz̥ɛnə jas ˈa̰ːtˢ || də ˈnœrdərβ̞ɪnt | mʊs ˈtəʊ̯ɣɛːvə dat də ˈzɔn də ˈstɛ̰ɾəkstə β̞a̰s]

Orthographic version

De noordenwind en de zon hadden een discussie over de vraag wie van hun tweeën de sterkste was, toen er juist iemand voorbij kwam met een dikke, warme jas aan. Ze spraken af dat wie de voorbijganger zou ertoe krijgen zijn jas uit te trekken de sterkste zou zijn. De noordenwind begon uit alle macht te blazen, maar hoe harder dat hij blies, des te dichter trok de voorbijganger zijn jas toe. Uiteindelijk gaf de noordenwind op. Daarna begon de zon krachtig te stralen, en direct trok de voorbijganger zijn jas uit. De noordenwind moest toegeven dat de zon de sterkste was.