<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:center"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">=====================================================</font></span><div style="text-align:center">

<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span> </span>L O W L A N D S - L - 28 January 2013 - Volume 02</font></div><div style="text-align:center"><a href="mailto:lowlands.list@gmail.com" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">lowlands.list@gmail.com</font></span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> - </font></span><a href="http://lowlands-l.net/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">http://lowlands-l.net/</font></span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""></span></div>

<div style="text-align:center"><span><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Posting: </font></span><a href="mailto:lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org</font></span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""></span></div>

<div style="text-align:center"><span><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Archive: </font></span><a href="http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html</font></span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""></span></div>

<div style="text-align:center"><span><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Encoding: Unicode (UTF-08)</font></span></div><div style="text-align:center"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> Language Codes: </font><a href="http://lowlands-l.net/codes.php" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">lowlands-l.net/codes.php</font></span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""></span></div>

<div style="text-align:center"><span><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">=====================================================</font></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </font></p>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt" dir="ltr"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font color="#000000"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">From: <span name="Dick van Faassen"><span name="Heiko Evermann">R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com">sassisch@yahoo.com</a></span><span>></span></span></font></font></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt" dir="ltr"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font color="#000000" face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Subject: Phonology</font></span></div>

<span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt" dir="ltr"></div><font color="#000000"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt" dir="ltr"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Dear Lowlanders,</font></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt" dir="ltr"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt" dir="ltr">Having just listened to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=G75hVJiEWHU">Queen Beatrix's abdication speech</a>, also remembering her recent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=vZ3ZbaYbAGI">Christmas address</a> as well as various interviews with Prince Willem-Alexander, I'm reminded to ask if the Royals' Dutch pronunciation is in any way influential with regard to Standard Dutch of the Netherlands. <br>

<br>I find it particularly easy to understand the Queen, not only because she speaks slowly and enunciates carefully.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt" dir="ltr"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt" dir="ltr">

One of the striking features is that she pronounces "g" somewhat softly ([ɣ̊]), though not quite as softly ([ɣ]) as most Belgians do, while many northern Netherlanders I listen to make no distinction between "g" and "ch" ([x̠] ~ [χ]).</div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt" dir="ltr"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt" dir="ltr">Another feature is the Queen's pronunciation of "s" as [s] (as in English and German), while I hear many other Dutch speakers pronounce it as retracted [s̠] (tending toward a "sh" [ʃ] sound). The native phonemic register of Dutch (like the registers of Standard Spain Spanish, Greek, and Finnish) lacks the phoneme /š/ ("sh"), which means that /s/ ([s]) and /š/ ([ʃ]) do not need to be clearly distinguished. (A German-speaking friend of mine described such languages as sounding "<em>so schischisch</em>.") By the way, I have never encountered this "ambiguous 's'" in native Afrikaans pronunciation, nor in Latin American Spanish.</div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt" dir="ltr"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt" dir="ltr"><span class="hps">Bij voorbaat</span> <span class="hps alt-edited">bedankt voor uw</span> <span class="hps">antwoorden!</span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt" dir="ltr"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt" dir="ltr">Groeten,<br>Reinhard/Ron<br>Seattle, USA</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt" dir="ltr">

<span style="font-family:Helvetica;white-space:nowrap"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"></font></span> </div></font></span><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:center"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">=========================================================</font></span><div style="text-align:center">

<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> Send posting submissions to </font><a href="mailto:lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org</font></span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">.</font></span></div>

<div style="text-align:center"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.</font></div><div style="text-align:center"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> Send commands (including “signoff lowlands-l”) to</font></div>

<div style="text-align:center"><a href="mailto:listserv@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">listserv@listserv.linguistlist.org</font></span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> or </font></span><a href="mailto:lowlands.list@gmail.com" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">lowlands.list@gmail.com</font></span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""></span></div>

<div style="text-align:center"><a href="http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html</font></span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> .</font></span></div>

<div style="text-align:center"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#%21/group.php?gid=118916521473498" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=118916521473498</font></span></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> </span><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""></span></font></div>

<div style="text-align:center"><span><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">========================================================== </font></span></div></p></p>