Dutch language

Dutch
Nederlands
Native to	Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, Indonesia, France
Native speakers	22 million (2005)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Low Germanic Low Franconian Dutch
Official status
Official language in	Aruba, Belgium, European Union, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, Suriname
Regulated by	Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	nl
ISO 639-2	dut (B) nld (T)
ISO 639-3	nld

Dutch (), sometimes referred to as Netherlandic in English, is a Low Germanic language spoken by around 22 million people, mainly in the Netherlands and Belgium (2005 [1]). Dutch spoken in Flanders (Vlaanderen), the northern part of Belgium, is often referred to as Flemish (Vlaams). The latter usage, though widespread, is not formally correct.

History

The West Germanic dialects can be divided according to tribe (Frisian, Saxon, Franconian, Bavarian and Swabian), and according to the extent of their participation in the High German consonant shift (Low Germanic against High Germanic). The present Dutch standard language is largely derived from Low Franconian dialects spoken in the Low Countries that must have reached a separate identity no later than about AD 600.

The Hebban olla vogala fragment.

An early Dutch recorded writing is: "Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan, hinase hic enda tu, wat unbidan we nu" ("All birds have started making nests, except me and you, what are we waiting for"), dating around the year 1100, written by a Flemish monk in a convent in Rochester, England. For a long time this sentence was considered to be the earliest in Dutch, but since its discovery even older fragments were found, such as "Visc flot aftar themo uuatare" ("A fish was swimming in the water") and "Gelobistu in got alamehtigan fadaer" ("Do you believe in God the almighty father"). The latter fragment was written as early as 900. Professor Luc De Grauwe from Ghent University disputes the language of these sequences of text, and actually believes them to be Old English, so there is still some controversy surrounding them.

A process of standardization started in the Middle ages, especially under the influence of the Burgundian Ducal Court in Dijon (Brussels after 1477). The dialects of Flanders and Brabant were the most influential around this time. The process of standardization became much stronger in the 16th century, mainly based on the urban dialect of Antwerp. In 1585 Antwerp fell to the Spanish army: many fled to Holland, strongly influencing the urban dialects of that province. In 1618 a further important step was made towards a unified language, when the first major Dutch bible translation was created that people from all over the United Provinces could understand. It used elements from various (even Low Saxon) dialects, but was mostly based on the urban dialects from Holland.

See also: Dutch literature

Etymology of the word "Dutch"

The word Dutch comes from the old Germanic word theodisk, meaning 'of the people', 'vernacular' as opposed to official, i.e. Latin or later French. Theodisk in modern German has become deutsch and in Dutch has become the two forms: duits, meaning German, and diets meaning something closer to Dutch but no longer in general use (see the diets article). Theodisk survives as tedesco ("German") in modern Italian.

The English word Dutch has also changed with time. It was only in the early 1600s, with growing cultural contacts and the rise of an independent country, that the modern meaning arose, i.e., 'designating the people of the Netherlands or their language'. Prior to this, the meaning was more general and could refer to any Germanic-speaking area or the languages there (including the current Germany, Austria, and Switzerland as well as the Netherlands). For example:

• William Caxton (c.1422-1491) wrote in his Prologue to his Aeneids in 1490 that an old English text was more like to Dutche than English. In his notes, Professor W.F. Bolton makes clear that this word means German in general rather than Dutch.

• Peter Heylyn, Cosmography in four books containing the Chronography and History of the whole world, Vol. II (London, 1677: 154) contains "...the Dutch call Leibnitz," adding that Dutch is spoken in the parts of Hungary adjoining to Germany.

• To this day, descendants of German settlers in southeastern Pennsylvania are known as the "Pennsylvania Dutch", especially those who are members of the plain sects. (Those who are not members of the plain sects often identify themselves as being Pennsylvania German.)

Classification and related languages

Dutch is a Germanic language, and within this family it is a West Germanic language. Since it did not experience the High German consonant shift (apart from þ→d), it is sometimes classed as a Low Germanic language, and indeed it is most closely related to the Low German dialects of Northern Germany. There is in fact a dialect continuum which blurs any clear boundary between Dutch and Low German, and the Low Franconian rural dialects of the Lower Rhine are much closer to Hollandic than to standard German. Dividing the West Germanic languages into low and high in this way, however, obscures the fact that modern Dutch is more closely related to modern standard (high) German than to modern English.

Dutch is grammatically similar to German, for example in syntax and verb morphology. (For a comparison of verb morphology in English, Dutch and German, see Germanic weak verb and West Germanic strong verb.) Compare, for example:

De kleinste kameleon is maar (slechts) 2 cm groot, de grootste kan wel 80 cm worden. (Dutch)

Das kleinste Chamäleon ist nur 2 cm groß, das größte kann auch 80 cm erreichen. (German)

Some less common phrasings and word choices have closer cognates in German:

Der kleinste Chamäleon ist nur (schlechthin) 2 cm groß, der größte kann gut 80 cm werden. (less common German)

(Which translates as "The smallest chameleon is only 2 cm big, the biggest can well reach 80 cm.")

Further examples for the close vicinity of Dutch and German:

Op de berg staat een klein huisje (Dutch) - Auf dem Berg steht ein kleines Häuschen (German)

(in English: "There's a small house on the mountain". Literally: "On the mountain stands a small house")

In de stad leven veel mensen (Dutch) - In der Stadt leben viele Menschen (German)

(in English: "A lot of people live in the town". Literally: "In the city live many people.")

In some places, German and Dutch are spoken almost interchangeably. Dutch speakers are generally able to read German to a considerable degree, and German speakers (who can read English) can generally read Dutch to some extent.

Dutch still has grammatical cases, but these have become limited mostly to usage in pronouns and set phrases. Technically, Dutch still has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. Apart from in more formal language, the old masculine and feminine have fallen together to form the common gender (de), whilst the neuter (het) remains distinct as before. The inflexional grammar of Dutch, for instance in adjective and noun endings, has been greatly simplified in a manner more akin to English than German.

Native Dutch vocabulary (as opposed to loan words) is of common West Germanic stock, and in terms of sound shifts it can be imagined as occupying a position somewhere between English and German.

English	Dutch	German	Remark
eat cat town	eten kat tuin (garden)	essen Katze Zaun (fence)	English and Dutch have kept Germanic t; German has shifted t→s/z/tz
apple pipe Scunthorpe	appel pijp dorp (village)	Apfel Pfeife Dorf	English and Dutch have kept Germanic p; German has shifted p→f/pf
think brother thorn	denken broeder doorn	denken Bruder Dorn	English has kept Germanic þ; Dutch, like German, has shifted þ→d
yesterday yarn day	gisteren garen dag	gestern Garn Tag	Dutch has shifted Germanic g to voiced affricate /γ/, but retained spelling with <g> and thus at least a visual similarity to German; English has shifted further: g→y

Even when written Dutch looks similar to German, however, the pronunciation may be markedly different. This is true especially of the diphthongs and of the letter <g>, which is pronounced as a velar continuant similar to the <ch> in Swiss German. The rhotic pronunciation of <r> causes some English-speakers to believe Dutch sounds similar to a Northern English accent; this is the reason for Bill Bryson's famous remark that when one hears Dutch one feels one ought to be able understand it. Dutch pronunciation is however difficult to master for Anglophones, many of its diphthongs and gutturals being the greatest obstacles. Germans seem to have an advantage with the Dutch grammar, but suffer the same difficulties as the English when dealing with pronunciation. An exception on this all are the North Germans, who can read or understand Dutch after a relatively short period of acclimatisation, speaking however remaining a challenge. Dutch is generally not on the curriculum of German schools, except in some border cities, such as Aachen and Oldenburg.

Geographic distribution

Dutch is spoken by most inhabitants of the Netherlands. It is also spoken by most in the Flemish northern half of Belgium, with the exception of Brussels, where it is spoken by a minority of the population, French being the dominant language. (This minority is typically estimated between 7,5% and 15%.) In the northernmost part of France, Dutch is spoken by a minority and the language is usually referred to as Vlomsch. On the Caribbean islands of Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, Dutch is used but less so than Papiamento. Dutch is spoken in Suriname, and there are some speakers of Dutch in Indonesia. In South Africa and Namibia a language related to Dutch called Afrikaans is spoken.

Official status

Dutch is an official language of the Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, Aruba, and the Netherlands Antilles. The Dutch, Flemish and Surinamese governments coordinate their language activities in the Nederlandse Taalunie ('Dutch Language Union'). Dutch was an official language in South Africa up until 1961, having fallen into disuse since Afrikaans became an official language in 1925. Of the inhabitants of New Zealand, 0.7% say their home language is Dutch (see article on New Zealand). The number of people coming from the Netherlands though is considerably higher but from the second generation on most people changed their language in favour of English.

Standaardnederlands or Algemeen Nederlands ('Common Dutch', abbreviated to AN) is the standard language as taught in schools and used by authorities in the Netherlands, Flanders, Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles. The Dutch Language Union defines what is AN and what is not, for example in terms of orthography. Algemeen Nederlands replaced the older name Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands ('Common Civilized Dutch', abbreviated to ABN) when it was no longer considered politically correct, because it implied that people who didn't speak ABN were not civilized.

Dialects

In Flanders, there are roughly four dialect groups: West Flemish, East Flemish, Brabantian and Limburgish. They have all incorporated French loanwords in everyday language. An example is fourchette in various forms (originally a French word meaning fork), instead of vork. Brussels, especially, is heavily influenced by French because roughly 85% of the inhabitants of Brussels speak French. The Limburgish in Belgium is closely related to Dutch Limburgish. An oddity of West Flemish (and to a lesser extent, East Flemish) is that the pronunciation of the "soft g" sound (the voiced velar fricative) is almost identical to that of the "h" sound (the voiced glottal fricative), thus, the words held (hero) and geld (money) sound nearly the same. Some Flemish dialects are so distinct that they might be considered as separate language variants, although the strong significance of language in Belgian politics would prevent the government from doing so. West Flemish in particular has sometimes been considered as such. Dialect borders of these dialects do not correspond to present political boundaries, but reflect older, medieval divisions. The Brabantian dialect group, for instance, also extends to much of the south of the Netherlands, and so does Limburgish. West-Flemish is also spoken in the Dutch province of Zeeland, in a variant called Zeeuws (or Zealandic, in English) and even in a small part near Dunkirk, France, bordering on Belgium.

The Netherlands also has different dialect regions. In the east there is an extensive Low German dialect area: the provinces of Groningen (Gronings), Drenthe and Overijssel are almost exclusively Low Saxon. Zuid-Gelders is a dialect also spoken in the German land of North Rhine-Westphalia. Brabantian (Noord-Brabant) fade into the dialects spoken in the adjoining provinces of Belgium. Same thing applies to Limburgish (Limburg (Netherlands)), but this variant also has the status of official Minority Language in the Netherlands (but not in Belgium). It receives protection by chapter 2 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Limburgish is Low Franconian, as is Dutch, but is so much more distant (it has been influenced by the Rhinelandic dialects like the Cologne dialect: Kölsch Platt, and has had a very different development since the late Middle Ages) that it is less and less classified as being Dutch.

Zealandic of most of Zeeland is a transitional regional language between West Flemish and Hollandic, with the exception of the eastern part of Zealandic Flanders where East Flemish is spoken. In Holland proper, Hollandic is spoken, though the original forms of this dialect, heavily influenced by a Frisian substrate, are now relatively rare; the urban dialects of the Randstad, which are Hollandic dialects, do not diverge from standard Dutch very much, but there is a clear difference between the city dialects of Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam or Utrecht.

In some rural Hollandic areas more authentic Hollandic dialects are still being used, especially north of Amsterdam. Limburgish and Low German have been elevated by the Netherlands (and by Germany) to the legal status of streektaal (regional language) according to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which causes some native speakers to consider them separate languages. Some dialects are unintelligible to some speakers of Hollandic.

Dutch dialects are not spoken as often as they used to be. Nowadays in The Netherlands only older people speak these dialects in the smaller villages, with the exception of the Low Saxon and Limburgish streektalen, which are actively promoted by some provinces and still in common use. Most towns and cities stick to standard Dutch - although many cities have their own city dialect, which continues to prosper. In Belgium dialects are very much alive however; many senior citizens there are unable to speak standard Dutch. In both the Netherlands and Belgium, many larger cities also have several distinct smaller dialects.

By many native speakers of Dutch, both in Belgium and the Netherlands, Afrikaans and Frisian are often assumed to be very deviant dialects of Dutch. In fact, they are two different languages, Afrikaans having evolved mainly from Dutch. There is no dialect continuum between the Frisian and adjoining Low Saxon. A Frisian standard language has been developed.

Until the early 20th century, variants of Dutch were still spoken by some descendants of Dutch colonies in the United States. New Jersey in particular had an active Dutch community with a highly divergent dialect that was spoken as recently as the 1950s. See Jersey Dutch for more on this dialect.

Accents

In addition to the many dialects of the Dutch language many provinces and larger cities have their own accents, which sometimes are also called dialects. Ethnic communities tend to have varying accents: for example many people from the Dutch Antilles or Suriname speak with a "Surinaams" accent, and the Dutch-Moroccan and Dutch-Turkish youth have also developed their own accents, which in some cases are enhanced by a debased Dutch slang with Arabic or Turkish words thrown in, which serves in making their speech nearly unintelligible to some older speakers of standard Dutch.

Derived languages

The language Afrikaans is derived from Dutch. Its one of the 11 languages of South Africa and is the mother tongue of about 15% of its population and spoken or understood by very many more. Afrikaans originates from modern Dutch (1500 - present).

Before Great Britain took over South Africa from the Netherlands in 1814, the Afrikaans language (which wasn't called or considered Afrikaans at that time) was exposed to a steady stream of Dutch language influence, and the two languages where therefore almost identical. The differentiation and major changes from Dutch started when the Dutch settlers moved deep inland (Trek Boers). In addition, when the Great Britain seized South Africa, the Dutch language spoken in South Africa was practically cut of from other Dutch speaking areas, allowing the language to differentiate and evolve further. In 1922 the Afrikaans language was recognized as one of South Africa's official languages, alongside Dutch and English. Dutch was formally derecognised in South Africa only in 1984 (since 1961 it had merited only a mentionin the legislation). By that time however it had no longer been in everyday official use for a long time.

The distinction of Afrikaans from the Dutch language, was perhaps briefly in danger just after the second world war when a great number of Dutch immigrants chose South Africa as their new homeland. However, the Afrikaans language survived the new influx of Dutch language which presented the danger of turning Afrikaans into a mixed language. Practically all of the Dutch immigrants and their descendants now speak Afrikaans instead of Dutch, be it (in the case of the Dutch-born parents) with a slight accent. A great deal of mutual intelligibility still exists.

Someone who is able to speak Dutch usually can read and understand Afrikaans (being native to a Hollandic, Zealandic, Flemish or Brabantic dialect helps a lot though). There are also Dutch-based creole languages.

Names of the Dutch language in other languages

Because of the turbulent history of both the Netherlands and Belgium and the Dutch language, the names that other peoples have chosen to use to refer to it varies more than for most other languages.

In general, the names for the Dutch language can be arranged in eight groups according to their origin:

Note: Some languages use multiple forms.

1. A variation on "Netherlandic", a translitteration of Dutch Nederlands: Afrikaans: Nederlands Danish: Nederlandsk Old English: Niðerlandisc German: Niederländisch Spanish: Neerlandés Esperanto: Nederlanda French: Néérlandais Basque: Neerlandera Frisian: Nederlânsk Low German: Nederlannsch Norwegian: Nederlandsk Polish: Niderlandzki Latin: Nederlandiensis Romanian: Neerlandeză	2. From the name of the most important region of the Dutch Golden age, Holland: Danish: Hollandsk German: Holländisch Estonian: Hollandi keel Hungarian: holland Icelandic: Hollenska Italian: Olandese Romanian: olandeză	3. From the name of the northern part of Belgium, Flanders: Danish: Flamsk Turkish: Flemenkçe
4. From the proto-Germanic word for "people", "folk": English: Dutch	5. From the ancient germanic tribe the Batavians Latin: Lingua Batava	6. Derived from "White man" as in "caucasian": Indonesian Belanda	7. A literal translation of Nether-landic: Czech: Nizozemština Slovak: Nizozemščina	8. Unknown origin: Welsh: Iseldireg Cornish: Iseldiryek

Popular misconceptions about Dutch

The variant of Dutch in Belgium is not called Flemish

The language of government, education, and, to varying extents, daily life in Flanders, the Northern part of Belgium, is simply called Dutch. The word Flemish can be used to refer to aspects of Flanders other than its official language, and also to the Flemish dialects collectively, which are used by many in daily life and occasionally in broadcasting, but rarely in government or education. The use of the word Flemish (Vlaams) to describe the language of government and education in Flanders, despite its lack of correctness in the face of the hairy politics of language in Belgium, is fairly common even in The Netherlands and Belgium.

Dutch is not a German dialect

The Dutch language, contrary to popular belief in some countries, is not a dialect of German. Both languages share many similarities, but are clearly separate. In fact, at the moment, the Dutch language is dated older than the German language. But Dutch and German did have a common ancestor. The languages began to diverge when Old High German took part in the High Germanic sound shift. Dutch did not participate and thus remained Low.

The word Flemish

Flemish (Vlaams in Dutch) is the collective term often used for the Dutch dialects spoken in Belgium. It can also be used as an adjective to describe things related to Flanders other than its official language. It is sometimes used to describe standard Dutch as spoken by Belgians, but that usage is considered by many Belgians to be incorrect.

There is no officially recognized language called Flemish, and for government and education purposes, both the Dutch and Belgian governments adhere to the standard Dutch (Algemeen Nederlands) defined by the Taalunie.

The actual difference between the speech of Dutch and Belgian speakers when speaking what they perceive as standard Dutch, as opposed to the name they give to the language they are speaking, are comparable to the differences between American and British English. Most of these differences are recognized by the Taalunie and major dictionaries as being interchangeably valid, although certain dictionaries and grammars may mark them as being more prevalent in one region or the other.

Dutch is not the closest related language to English

Dutch and English, like Dutch and German, share a number of superfacial similarities. Modern Dutch, however, is not the closest officially recognized language to modern English. The closest language today is in fact Scots, and after that Frisian is its nearest relative.

Pennsylvania Dutch is not Dutch

Pennsylvania Dutch, called Deitsch by its speakers, is not a form of Dutch. The word Dutch has historically been used for all speakers of continental West Germanic languages, including, the Dutch, Flemish, Austrians, Germans, and the germanophone Swiss. The use of Dutch exclusively for the language of Belgium, The Netherlands and some former colonies, or for the inhabitants of the Netherlands, is relatively recent. The Pennsylvania Dutch language itself is closely related to High German especially its Franconian dialects spoken in the southwest of Germany.

Sounds

Vowels

The vowel inventory of Dutch is large, with 14 simple vowels and four diphthongs. The vowels /eː/, /øː/, /oː/ are included on the diphthong chart because they are actually produced as narrow closing diphthongs in many dialects, but behave phonologically like the other simple vowels. When unstressed, /a/ and /ɑ/ are usually pronounced like [ɐ] (a near-open central vowel), but this change is not phonemic.

IPA chart Dutch monophthongs
IPA chart Dutch diphthongs

Dutch Vowels with Example Words

Symbol	Example
IPA	IPA	orthography	English translation
[[near-close near-front unrounded vowel|ɪ]]	bɪt	bit	'bit'
[[close front unrounded vowel|i]]	bit	biet	'beetroot'
[[near-close near-front rounded vowel|ʏ]]	hʏt	hut	'cabin'
[[close front rounded vowel|y]]	fyt	fuut	'grebe'
[[open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]	bɛt	bed	'bed'
[[close-mid front unrounded vowel|eː]]	beːt	beet	'bite'
[[mid central vowel|ə]]	də	de	'the'
[[close-mid front rounded vowel|øː]]	nøːs	neus	'nose'
[[open back unrounded vowel|ɑ]]	bɑt	bad	'bath'
[[open front unrounded vowel|aː]]	zaːt	zaad	'seed'
[[open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]	bɔt	bot	'bone'
[[close-mid back rounded vowel|oː]]	boːt	boot	'boat'
[[close back rounded vowel|u]]	hut	hoed	'hat'
ɛi	ɛi, ʋɛin	ei, wijn	'egg', 'wine'
œy	œy	ui	'onion'
ʌu	zʌut	zout	'salt'

Consonants

IPA chart Dutch consonants

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive	p b		t d			k g1		ʔ 2
Nasal	m		n			ŋ
Fricative		f v 3	s z 3	ʃ ʒ 4		x ɣ 3	ʁ 5	ɦ
Approximant		ʋ 6			j
Lateral			l

Where symbols for consonants occur in pairs, the left represents the voiceless consonant and the right represents the voiced consonant.

Notes:

1) [g] is not a native phoneme of Dutch and only occurs in borrowed words, like goal.

2) [ʔ] is not a separate phoneme in Dutch, but is inserted before vowel-initial syllables within words after /a/ and /ə/.

3) In some dialects, the voiced fricatives have almost completely merged with the voiceless ones, and [v] is usually realized as [f], [z] is usually realized as [s], and [ɣ] is usually realized as [x].

4) [ʃ] and [ʒ] are not native phonemes of Dutch, and usually occur in borrowed words, like show and bagage (baggage). However, /s/ + /j/ phoneme sequences in Dutch are often realized as [ʃ], like in the word huisje (='little house'). [ʒ] often is realized as [ʃ].

5) The realization of the /r/ phoneme varies considerably from dialect to dialect. In the so-called "standard" Dutch, /r/ is realized as indicated here—as the voiced uvular fricative [ʁ]. In other dialects, however, it is realized as the uvular trill [ʀ] or as the alveolar trill [r].

6) The realization of the /ʋ/ varies considerably from the Northern to the Southern and Belgium dialects of the Dutch language. In the South, including Belgium, it is realized as [w]. Note that in the South /ʋ/ is usually considered an allophone of [v].

7) The "standard" Dutch is that as spoken in Haarlem, not the Amsterdams dialect. Amsterdams dialect is different from standard Dutch in that [z] is replaced by [s]

Dutch Consonants with Example Words

Symbol	Example
IPA	IPA	orthography	English translation
p	pɛn	pen	'pen'
b	bit	biet	'beetroot'
t	tɑk	tak	'branch'
d	dɑk	dak	'roof'
k	kɑt	kat	'cat'
g	gol	goal	'goal' (sports)
m	mɛns	mens	'human being'
n	nɛk	nek	'neck'
[[Velar nasal|ŋ]]	ɛŋ	eng	'scary'
f	fits	fiets	'bicycle'
v	ovən	oven	'oven'
s	sɔk	sok	'sock'
z	zep	zeep	'soap'
[[Voiceless postalveolar fricative|ʃ]]	ʃɛf	chef	'boss, chief'
[[Voiced postalveolar fricative|ʒ]]	ʒyʁi	jury	'jury'
x	ɑxt	acht	'eight'
[[Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]	ɣaːn	gaan	'to go'
[[Voiced uvular fricative|ʁ]]	ʁɑt	rat	'rat'
[[Voiced glottal fricative|ɦ]]	ɦut	hoed	'hat'
[[Labiodental approximant|ʋ]]	ʋɑŋ	wang	'cheek'
j	jɑs	jas	'coat'
l	lɑnt	land	'land / country'
[[Glottal stop|ʔ]]	bəʔamə	beamen	'to confirm'

Phonology

Dutch devoices all consonants at the ends of words (e.g. a final d sound becomes a t sound; to become 'ents of worts'), which presents a problem for Dutch speakers when learning English. This is partly reflected in the spelling, the singular huis has the plural huizen (house(s)) and duif becomes duiven (dove). The other cases, viz. ‘p’/‘b’ and ‘d’/‘t’ are always written with the voiced consonant, although a devoiced one is actually pronounced, e.g. sg. baard (beard), pronounced as baart, has plural baarden and sg. rib (rib), pronounced as rip has plural ribben.

Because of assimilation, often the initial consonant of the next word is also devoiced, e.g. het vee (the cattle) is /(h)ətfe/. This process of devoicing is taken to an extreme in some regions (Amsterdam, Friesland) with almost complete loss of /v/,/z/ and /ɣ/. Further south these phonemes are certainly present in the middle of a word. Compare e.g. logen and loochen /loɣən/ vs. /loxən/. In the South (i.e. Zeeland, Brabant and Limburg) and in Flanders the contrast is even greater because the g becomes a palatal. ('soft g').

The final 'n' of the plural ending -en is normally not pronounced (as in Afrikaans where it is also dropped in the written language), except in the North East (Low Saxon) and the South West (West Flemish) where the ending becomes a syllabic n sound.

Dutch is a stress language, the stress position of words matters. Stress can occur on any syllable position in a word. There is a tendency for stress to be at the beginning of words. In composite words, secondary stress is often present. There are some cases where stress is the only difference between words. For example vóórkomen (occur) and voorkómen (prevent). Marking the stress in written Dutch is optional, never obligatory, but sometimes recommended.

Historical sound changes

Dutch (with the exception of the Limburg dialects) did not participate in the second (High German) sound shifting - compare German machen /-x-/ Dutch maken, English make, German Pfanne /pf-/, Dutch pan, English pan, German zwei /ts-/, Dutch twee, English two.

It also underwent a few changes of its own. For example, words in -old or -olt lost the l in favor of a diphthong. Compare English old, German alt, Dutch oud. A word like hus with /u/ (English "house") first changed to huus with /y/, then finally to huis with a diphthong that resembles the one in French l'oeil. The phoneme /g/ was lost in favor of a (voiced) velar fricative /ɣ/, or a voiced palatal fricative (in the South: Flanders, Limburg).

Grammar

Main article: Dutch grammar

Like all other continental West Germanic languages, Dutch has a word order that is markedly different from English, which presents a problem for some Anglophones learning Dutch.

The Dutch written grammar has simplified over the past 100 years: cases are now mainly used for the pronouns, such as ik (I), mij, me (me), mijn (my), wie (who), wiens (whose masculine singular), wier (whose, feminine or plural), although the latter is quite formal and rarely used in speech, comparable to English ‘whom’. Nouns and adjectives are not case inflected (except for the genitive of nouns: -'s or -'). In the spoken language cases and case inflections had already gradually disappeared from a much earlier date on (probably the 15th century) as in many continental West Germanic dialects.

Inflection of adjectives is a little more complicated: nothing with indefinite neuter nouns in singular and -e in all other cases:

een mooi huis (a beautiful house)

het mooie huis (the beautiful house)

mooie huizen (beautiful houses)

de mooie huizen (the beautiful houses)

een mooie vrouw (a beautiful woman)

More complex inflection is still found in certain lexicalized expressions like de heer des huizes (litt.: the man of the house), etc. These are usually remnants of cases (in this instance, the genitive case which is still used in German, cf. Der Herr des Hauses) and other inflections no longer in general use today. In such lexicalized expressions remnants of strong and weak nouns can be found too, e.g. in het jaar des Heren (Anno Domini), where “-en” is actually the genitive ending of the weak noun. Also in this case, German retains this feature.

Dutch nouns can take endings for size: -je for singular diminutive and -jes for plural diminutive. Between these suffixes and the radical can come extra letters depending on the ending of the word:

boom (tree) - boompje

ring (ring) - ringetje

koning (king) - koninkje

tien (ten) - tientje

Like most Germanic languages, Dutch forms left-branching noun compounds, where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: hondenhok (doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, Dutch (like the other Germanic languages) always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: boomhuis (eng. tree house). Like German, Dutch allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. The longest serious entry in the Van Dale dictionary is wapenstilstandsonderhandeling (ceasefire negotiation). Sometimes hottentottensoldatententententoonstellingsterreinen (hottentot soldiers tents exhibition terrains) is jocularly quoted as the longest Dutch word (note the four times consecutive ten), but outside this usage it actually never occurs. Notwithstanding these rules, many Dutch people tend to write words which should be compound words, separately, which is sometimes dubbed “the English disease”.

Vocabulary

See the list of Dutch words and list of words of Dutch origin at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sibling project

Dutch has more French loanwords than German, but much fewer than English. The number of English loanwords in Dutch is substantial and steadily increasing, especially on the streets and some professions. New loanwords are almost never pronounced as the original English word, or are spelled differently. Like English, Dutch also has words of Greek and Latin origin. There are also some German loanwords, like überhaupt and sowieso. Even though few true loanwords are present, German has had a considerable effect upon the lexicon of the language, mainly by the change of German words into words that seem Dutch (so called germanisme), a process probably to be ascribed to the likeness of the two languages. Most of these forms have become so integral to Dutch that few Dutch notice them; they include words like opname (from German Aufnahme), aanstalten (Anstalten) and many more. The Dutch vocabulary is one of the richest in the world and comprises over 350,000 headwords.

Writing system

Dutch is written using the Latin alphabet, see Dutch alphabet. One of the clues to recognise that a piece of text is written in Dutch, is the occurrence of many doubled letters. This happens both to vowels and consonants. One cause is the many compound words where the same letter ends one part and begins the next part. Another cause is formed by spelling devices used to distinguish the many more vowel sounds in the Dutch language, than there are vowel letters in the Latin alphabet (see Dutch orthography). A prime example is the word voorraaddoos (supply box).

The diaeresis is used to mark vowels that are pronounced separately, and called trema. In the most recent spelling reform, a hyphen has replaced the trema in a few words where it had been previously used: zeeëend (seaduck) is now spelled zee-eend.

The acute accent (accent aigu) occurs mainly on loanwords like café, but can also be used for emphasis or to differentiate between two forms. Its most common use is to differentiate between the indefinite article 'een' (a, an) and the numeral 'één' (one). The grave accent (accent grave) is used to clarify pronunciation ('hè' (what?, what the ...?), 'bèta') and in loanwords ('caissière' (cashier), 'après-ski'). In the recent spelling reform, the accent grave was dropped as stress sign on short vowels in favour of the accent aigu (e.g. 'wèl' was changed to 'wél'). Other diacritical marks such as the circumflex only occur on a few words, most of them loanwords from French.

The most important dictionary of the modern Dutch language is the Van Dale groot woordenboek der Nederlandse taal[2], more commonly referred to as the Dikke van Dale ("dik" is Dutch for "fat" or "thick"), or as linguists nicknamed it: De Vandaal (the vandal). However, it is dwarfed by the "Woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal", a scholarly endeavour that took 147 years from initial idea to first edition, resulting in over 45,000 pages.

The semi-official spelling is given by the Woordenlijst Nederlandse taal, more commonly known as "het groene boekje" (i.e. "the green booklet", because of its colour.)

Dutch as a foreign language

The number of non native speakers of Dutch who voluntarily learn the language is small. This is partly because Dutch is not geographically widespread and because in its home countries The Netherlands and Belgium most of the population is proficient in other European languages. In The Netherlands German is spoken with a high level of proficiency (especially in the regions bordering Germany) and the language is part of the core curriculum in schools for 2-5 years. In Belgium, German is less widely spoken, and not always required, but it still spoken by a considerable number of people.

French is also taught for 3-6 years in the Netherlands, but it is not as widely spoken. In Flanders (Belgium) French is required from age 10 to 18 and is very widely spoken, not so strange when one considers that the southern half of Belgium, Wallonia, is Francophone. But on the other hand, Walloons are far less proficient in Dutch.

In both The Netherlands and Flanders English is taught in schools from a young age - occasionally from age 11 or 12, but typically until the completion of secondary education. Most universities in the two countries, recognising the importance of the English language in the modern world, continue to teach the language to those students who need to improve their skills. As a result English is spoken throughout The Netherlands and Belgium with members of the younger generation sometimes being fluent or near fluent speakers. The majority of the population of both countries speak some English, some in an advanced form of Globish.

Some non native residents of The Netherlands or Belgium have never learnt to speak Dutch - perhaps put off by its guttural sound or by a perception of its difficulties. Moreover, and especially in Belgium, the difference between the standard language and the language people speak (their local dialect or, more often, a version of the standard language heavily influenced by it) can be very important and cause difficulties. There is also the problem that because the native Dutch speakers themselves are often so linguistically proficient they will try and help a struggling Dutch learner by addressing them in their own language!

The Dutch often make fun of their own language — for example Tom Meyer, a radio commentator, used to say on air that "Dutch isn't a language; it's a disease of the throat." Pronunciation can be a challenge as many of the Dutch vowel sounds are difficult for non native speakers. Diphthongs such as the "ui" sound in such words as "huis" (house) and "muis" (mouse), the "eu" in sleutel (key), and the "ij" sound in words like "fijn" (fine) or "wijn" (wine) present difficulties and even though some of these words are superficially like their English equivalents the correct sound is very different. Its cohesiveness sometimes also produces words that might baffle speakers of other languages due to the high amount of consecutive consonants, such as the word "angstschreeuw" (scream in fear), which has grand total of eight in a row (ngstschr). Native speakers of German usually have the biggest advantage of all people when learning Dutch from a grammar and vocabulary point of view but almost always struggle with the pronunciation. However those residents or visitors who do learn some Dutch will be rewarded, not only by the extra fillip this gives to their understanding of Dutch history and culture, but also because it will enable them to converse with people in areas away from the big cities where other languages are less commonly spoken and experience that other Dutch culture.

Quotes about the Dutch language

,Dutch isn't a language; it's a disease of the throat'

Tom Meyer

,Donkey sounds like horse when translated to Dutch'

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799)

Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803) Thought is was impossible to translate 'Homer' to Dutch ,without transvesting him'.

,It is too smooth and blubbery; it reads like butter-milk gurgling from a jug'

Mark Twain about Dutch poetry.

,There have been many definitions of hell, but for the English the best definition is that it is the place where the Germans are the police, the Swedish are the comedians, the Italians are the defense force, Frenchmen dig the roads, the Belgians are the pop singers, the Spanish run the railways, the Turks cook the food, the Irish are the waiters, the Greeks run the government, and the common language is Dutch. '

David Frost.

See also

• Bargoens
• List of common phrases in various languages
• Dutch grammar
• Dutch orthography
• Dutch literature
• Swadesh list of Dutch words

External links

• Linguasphere on dialects of the Dutch language and other languages
• Online Nederlands leren
• Learn the Dutch Language
• History of the Dutch Language
• Nederlandse Taalunie & Taalunieversum (Dutch Language Union -- in Dutch)
• Dutch for Beginners (Introduction to Dutch grammar and vocabulary)
• Algemene Nederlandse Spraakkunst (General Dutch Grammar -- in Dutch)
• Online Dutch Grammar Course (Dutch Grammar -- in English)
• Free online resources for learners
• Ethnologue report for Dutch
• Euromosaic - Flemish in France - The status of Dutch in France
• Sampa for Dutch
• List of online Dutch-related resources
• Dutch Language Tutorial at ielanguages.com
• Dutch pronounced
• Learn and listen to useful expressions in Dutch Each expression is presented with an audio recording and an illustration
• University College London Department of Dutch (Grammar)
• "Nieuwe spelling:" A description of the most recent incarnation of the evolving official Dutch-language orthography

Dictionaries

• WikiWoordenboek, the Dutch Wiktionary
• All Dutch free dictionaries
• Online Nederlands Woordenboek
• Majstro Dutch-English-Dutch Online Dictionary
• Lookwayup English-Dutch-English dictionary
• Freedict English-Dutch-English dictionary
• Travlang Dutch-English dictionary
• Euroglot (Translation Dictionary)
• Van Dale (Dictionary -- in Dutch)
• Woorden-Boek (Online Dictionary -- in Dutch)
• http://www.notam02.no/~hcholm/altlang/ht/Dutch.html - The Alternative Dutch Dictionary
• Flemish - English Dictionary: from Webster's Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition.
• Dutch - English Dictionary: from Webster's Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition.
• A dictionary of Organic Chemistry (in Dutch)
• Dutch all dictionaries project (Dutch-*, in Dutch)