LL-L "Phonology" 2013.01.28 (02) [EN-NL]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L - 28 January 2013 - Volume 02
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Phonology
Dear Lowlanders,

Having just listened to Queen Beatrix's abdication
speech<https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=G75hVJiEWHU>,
also remembering her recent Christmas
address<https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=vZ3ZbaYbAGI>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.

I find it particularly easy to understand the Queen, not only because she
speaks slowly and enunciates carefully.

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]).

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 "*so schischisch*.") By the way,
I have never encountered this "ambiguous 's'" in native Afrikaans
pronunciation, nor in Latin American Spanish.

Bij voorbaat bedankt voor uw antwoorden!

Groeten,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA


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