Help:IPA/Dutch

This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Dutch on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Dutch in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.

For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between , / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Dutch pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

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

Consonants
IPA	Examples	English approximation
b	beet^ⓘ	bait
d	dak^ⓘ	duck
f	fiets^ⓘ	feats
ɣ	gaan^ⓘ	no English equivalent; like loch (Scottish) or voiced in the south.
ɦ	had^ⓘ	behind
j	jas^ⓘ	yard
k	kat^ⓘ, cabaret^ⓘ	ski
l	land^ⓘ	land
m	mens^ⓘ	man
n	nek^ⓘ	neck
ŋ	eng^ⓘ	long
p	pen^ⓘ, rib^ⓘ	sport
r	ras^ⓘ	American atom, French R, or (in syllable coda) American R.
s	sok^ⓘ	between sip and ship (retracted) (N), sip (B)
t	tak^ⓘ, had^ⓘ	stop
v	ver^ⓘ	very
ʋ	wang^ⓘ	like a looser very
x	acht^ⓘ, weg^ⓘ	loch (Scottish English)
z	zeep^ⓘ	between zone and genre (retracted) (N), zone (B)
Marginal consonants
t͡ɕ	tientje^ⓘ, check^ⓘ	cheer
ɡ	goal^ⓘ	goal
d͡ʑ	Giovanni	jeep
ɱ	omvallen^ⓘ	symphony
ɲ	oranje^ⓘ, Trijntje^ⓘ	somewhat like canyon
ɕ	sjabloon^ⓘ, chef^ⓘ	ship
ʑ	jury^ⓘ	genre
ʔ	beëindig^ⓘ , Trijntje Oosterhuis	catch in uh-oh!
Stress
ˈ	voorkomen^ⓘ voorkomen^ⓘ	as in commandeer /ˌkɒmənˈdɪər/
ˌ	voorkomen^ⓘ voorkomen^ⓘ	as in commandeer /ˌkɒmənˈdɪər/
Other representations
( )	maken zelf	Optional sound

Vowels
IPA	Examples	English approximation
Checked vowels
ɑ	bad^ⓘ	father, but rather short
ɛ	bed^ⓘ	bed
ɪ	vis^ⓘ	sit
ɔ	bot^ⓘ	off
ʏ	hut^ⓘ	roughly like nurse
Free vowels and diphthongs
aː	aap^ⓘ	British lad, but long
eː	beet^ⓘ, ezel^ⓘ	American may (N), Scottish may (B)
ə	de^ⓘ	again
i	diep^ⓘ	deep
oː	boot^ⓘ	American go (N), story (B)
y	fuut^ⓘ	roughly like few
øː	neus^ⓘ	roughly like fur
u	hoed^ⓘ	roughly like cool
ɑi	ai^ⓘ	price
aːi	draai^ⓘ	prize
ʌu	jou^ⓘ, dauw^ⓘ	out
ɛi	bijt^ⓘ, ei^ⓘ	roughly like Australian may
eːu	sneeuw^ⓘ	jaywalk
iu	nieuw^ⓘ	ew!
ɔi	hoi^ⓘ	choice
oːi	nooit^ⓘ	boys
œy	buit^ⓘ	roughly like Canadian ice
ui	groei^ⓘ	gooey
yu	duw^ⓘ	Roughly like Received Pronunciation too
Marginal vowels
ɛː	scène^ⓘ	square (British English)
iː	analyse^ⓘ, dier^ⓘ	wheeze
ɔː	roze^ⓘ	thought
œː	freule^ⓘ	roughly like fur
uː	cruise^ⓘ, boer^ⓘ	rule
yː	centrifuge^ⓘ, kuur^ⓘ	roughly like fugue
ɑ̃ː	genre^ⓘ	roughly like croissant
ɛ̃ː	hautain^ⓘ	roughly like doyen
ɔ̃ː	chanson^ⓘ	roughly like montage

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f 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 or uvular ; 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 . See also Hard and soft G in Dutch.
^ ^a ^b ^c Dutch devoices all obstruents at the ends of words (e.g. a final /d/ becomes ). 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 ('beards') is retained in the singular spelling baard ('beard'), but pronounced as ; and plural ribben ('ribs') has singular rib, pronounced as . Because of assimilation, often the initial consonant of the next word is also devoiced, e.g. het vee ('the cattle') is
^ The realization of the /r/ phoneme varies considerably from dialect to dialect. In "standard" Dutch, /r/ is realized as the alveolar tap , a uvular trill or voiced uvular fricative . In the syllable coda, a velar bunched approximant is very common in the Netherlands.
^ 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 , or even a voiced labiodental fricative . In the south of the Netherlands and in Belgium, it is pronounced as a bilabial approximant (as it also is in the Hasselt and Maastricht dialects), and Standard Surinamese Dutch uses the labiovelar approximant .
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e The alveolo-palatal affricates and , the fricatives and , and the nasal are allophones of the sequences /tj/, /dj/, /sj/, /zj/ and /nj/. and occur only in loanwords. also occurs as an allophone of /n/ before /tj/ (realized as ).
^ /ɡ/ is not a native phoneme of Dutch and only occurs in loanwords, like goal or when /k/ is voiced, like in zakdoek .
^ The glottal stop is indicated sparingly in Dutch transcriptions on Wikipedia: it is mandatorily inserted between and and a syllable-initial vowel, both within words and at word boundaries. Often, it is also inserted before phrase-initial vowels and before any word-initial vowel. This is not indicated in most of our transcriptions.
^ After the schwa, the final /n/ is frequently elided, so that maken is often pronounced , especially in non-prevocalic environments. The nasal may be retained before vowels, yielding a linking /n/. An intrusive /n/ may also occur, as in the phrase red je 't? . In stems ending in /ən/ (such as teken 'I draw') and in the indefinite article een /ən/ the nasal is always retained, except when it is degeminated, but when an additional /ən/ is added to the stem (yielding the infinitive form or the present tense plural form), it behaves regularly, as in tekenen 'to draw' or 'we/you/they draw'. Furthermore, an epenthetic schwa can be inserted between /l/ or /r/ and /m, p, k, f, x/ (in the case of /r/ alone also /n/) within the same morpheme. This is found in all types of Dutch, standard or otherwise. However, in Standard Dutch, it is limited to non-prevocalic clusters. In dialects, it can be generalized to all environments and it can also apply to the sequence /rɣ/, so that morgen 'morning', pronounced in Standard Dutch, is pronounced .
^ ^a ^b 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).
^ ^a ^b ^c For most speakers of Netherlandic Standard Dutch, the long close-mid vowels /eː/, /øː/ and /oː/ are realised as slightly closing diphthongs , and , 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.
^ Mainly found in loanwords.
^ ^a ^b ^c Found in loanwords as a separate phoneme, and as an allophone of its shorter counterpart before /r/ in both native and non-native words.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Found in loanwords.
^ In Belgium, /ɔː/ tends to be pronounced the same as /oː/.

References

Citations

^ ^a ^b Gussenhoven (1999), p. 74.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Collins & Mees (2003), p. 48.
^ Collins & Mees (2003), pp. 197, 201, 216–7.
^ Gussenhoven (1999), p. 76.
^ Collins & Mees (2003), pp. 133–4.

Sources

Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003), The Phonetics of English and Dutch, Fifth Revised Edition (PDF), ISBN 9004103406
Gussenhoven, Carlos (1999), "Dutch", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp. 74–77, ISBN 0-521-65236-7

External links

Nederlands woordenboek

[voiceless-voiced-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f 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 or uvular ; 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 . See also Hard and soft G in Dutch.

[devoicing-4] Dutch devoices all obstruents at the ends of words (e.g. a final /d/ becomes ). 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 ('beards') is retained in the singular spelling baard ('beard'), but pronounced as ; and plural ribben ('ribs') has singular rib, pronounced as . Because of assimilation, often the initial consonant of the next word is also devoiced, e.g. het vee ('the cattle') is

[r-5] The realization of the /r/ phoneme varies considerably from dialect to dialect. In "standard" Dutch, /r/ is realized as the alveolar tap , a uvular trill or voiced uvular fricative . In the syllable coda, a velar bunched approximant is very common in the Netherlands.

[w-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 , or even a voiced labiodental fricative . In the south of the Netherlands and in Belgium, it is pronounced as a bilabial approximant (as it also is in the Hasselt and Maastricht dialects), and Standard Surinamese Dutch uses the labiovelar approximant .

[palatal-7] The alveolo-palatal affricates and , the fricatives and , and the nasal are allophones of the sequences /tj/, /dj/, /sj/, /zj/ and /nj/. and occur only in loanwords. also occurs as an allophone of /n/ before /tj/ (realized as ).

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

[glottal_stop-9] The glottal stop is indicated sparingly in Dutch transcriptions on Wikipedia: it is mandatorily inserted between and and a syllable-initial vowel, both within words and at word boundaries. Often, it is also inserted before phrase-initial vowels and before any word-initial vowel. This is not indicated in most of our transcriptions.

[optional_sounds-11] After the schwa, the final /n/ is frequently elided, so that maken is often pronounced , especially in non-prevocalic environments. The nasal may be retained before vowels, yielding a linking /n/. An intrusive /n/ may also occur, as in the phrase red je 't? . In stems ending in /ən/ (such as teken 'I draw') and in the indefinite article een /ən/ the nasal is always retained, except when it is degeminated, but when an additional /ən/ is added to the stem (yielding the infinitive form or the present tense plural form), it behaves regularly, as in tekenen 'to draw' or 'we/you/they draw'. Furthermore, an epenthetic schwa can be inserted between /l/ or /r/ and /m, p, k, f, x/ (in the case of /r/ alone also /n/) within the same morpheme. This is found in all types of Dutch, standard or otherwise. However, in Standard Dutch, it is limited to non-prevocalic clusters. In dialects, it can be generalized to all environments and it can also apply to the sequence /rɣ/, so that morgen 'morning', pronounced in Standard Dutch, is pronounced .

[checked_free-12] 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).

[mid_vowels-15] For most speakers of Netherlandic Standard Dutch, the long close-mid vowels /eː/, /øː/ and /oː/ are realised as slightly closing diphthongs , and , 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.

[open-mid_front-16] Mainly found in loanwords.

[pre-r-17] Found in loanwords as a separate phoneme, and as an allophone of its shorter counterpart before /r/ in both native and non-native words.

[non-native_vowels-18] Found in loanwords.

[open-mid_back-19] In Belgium, /ɔː/ tends to be pronounced the same as /oː/.

[FOOTNOTEGussenhoven199974-1] Gussenhoven (1999), p. 74.

[FOOTNOTECollinsMees200348-2] Collins & Mees (2003), p. 48.

[FOOTNOTECollinsMees2003197,_201,_216–7-10] Collins & Mees (2003), pp. 197, 201, 216–7.

[FOOTNOTEGussenhoven199976-13] Gussenhoven (1999), p. 76.

[FOOTNOTECollinsMees2003133–4-14] Collins & Mees (2003), pp. 133–4.

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