Dutch. A linguistic history of Holland and Belgium

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17 Historical phonology

The field of science known as historical phonology is based on the observation that the sounds of a given language, or dialect of that language, have changed somewhat over a given period of time or over a given geographic distance and/or through contact with other languages or dialects. What follows is a diachronie analysis of the main sound changes in Dutch, or lack thereof, which often explain the differences between Dutch on the one hand and English and German on the other. Because both German and English, but most especially the latter, are progressive languages phonologically speaking, and Dutch has a particularly conservative sound system, comparison with Dutch can often be quite rewarding for people studying the historical developments of those other Germanic languages. For example, the First Germanic Sound Shift, as described above, can be found reasonably intact in Dutch, and all other Low German and Scandinavian languages for that matter, but in German a further shift of p/t/k occurred which momentarily obscures the origin of some sounds (see p. 123).

In the following discussion of the development of the sounds of Dutch I have decided to work back from the sounds as they are today, and thus as they have been discussed in chapter five, rather than to work forward from the sound system of Common Germanic as it has been reconstructed by philologists on the basis of comparative linguistics. My approach differs from that of all the standard works on the topic, which all employ the latter method. To work forward, rather than back, is, I must admit, a very tidy method of approach, but it presupposes that the reader has a thorough knowledge of Gothic, as indeed all neerlandici and Germanists in Holland do. As this is not normally the case in Anglo-Saxon countries, it seemed to me that the utility of this book would be better served by working out from that which is known, the sounds as they are now, but inevitably I have on occasion had to draw on Gothic examples to illustrate certain points. The standard works mentioned above also draw heavily on examples from dialects, older forms, or place names; I have endeavoured to illustrate the concepts purely with modern, everyday words that the non-Dutch reader may be acquainted with.

It is usual and advisable for the sake of clarity in such studies to separate the vowel system from that of the consonants, although this should not imply that there is no mutual influence; more often than not vowel changes, for example, are the direct result of the consonantal environment those vowels find themselves in; consonants too can change under influence of preceding or following vowels, sometimes to the point of becoming vowels themselves. Generally speaking, however, and in this Dutch is no exception, it is the vowels of a language which undergo more changes in the course of time than the consonants; compare, for example, British and American English where the consonants are virtually identical but the

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vowels have diverged considerably in the four hundred years of separation. It is undoubtedly the nature of the articulation of vowels which makes them more prone to shift - slight shifts in the shape of the mouth lead to vowel changes whereas consonantal changes usually involve more active employment of the organs of speech (i.e. teeth, lips, tongue etc.) and thus do not occur as easily.

When discussing vowels, one has to do with two aspects: quality (i.e. whether an a, e, i, o or u) and quantity^1., (i.e. whether short, half long or long). The symbol ˇ is commonly used by philologists to indicate short vowels, and either ^ or ˉ indicate long vowels. In Dutch philological works a distinction is made between â and ā, for example, where ^ is written above vowels which have always been long or were formerly diphthongs (i.e. in Common Germanic) and ˉ is written above those which for one of any number of reasons (see below) have become long i.e. so-called lengthened vowels. This convention has been preserved here.

Although most of the linguistic phenomena one meets in the study of sound changes are described in the glossary, there are several other concepts which will occur repeatedly in the analysis of the sound changes of Dutch; they are looked at in general terms here first.

1. The spelling system of Dutch, as described in chapter 4, is much more efficient than is that of German or English in indicating the length of vowels. In this sense the all important historical distinction between short and long vowels is conveniently preserved in the modern written word in Dutch.

(a) Monophthongisation

A process of vowel assimilation whereby the two elements of a diphthong blend to form one sound, a monophthong, which is always a long vowel e.g. au>ô.

(b) Diphthongisation

A process whereby the speaker glides the articulation of one vowel into the articulation of a following vowel to form one long vowel sound consisting of two elements, a diphthong e.g. î > ij (pron. [εi]).

(c) Lengthening of short vowels in open syllables

When comparing the quantity of Dutch vowels with the quantity of those in cognate words in Gothic or even Old High German, one will often find that Dutch has long vowels where the languages mentioned have short ones. This is usually the result of the lengthening of short vowels in open syllables (see p. 127) which occurred much earlier in Dutch than in German. It is also often the explanation for apparently exceptional forms e.g. pad (path) but paden (paths); dag (day) > vandaag (today) < van dage (+ dative e ending).

(d) The falling together of sounds

Sometimes two (or more) historically different sounds fall together through the later shifting in articulation of one to coincide with the other. e.g. Germanic d and Germanic þ are both found as d in Dutch as þ > d at the end of the OLWF period.

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(e) Contracted forms - syncope/apocope

Intervocalic consonants can be assimilated to the point where they disappear, a process known as syncope, whereas the dropping off of a final sound, whether a vowel or a consonant, is known as apocope e.g. zeil < zegel (sail), vrouw < vrouwe (woman). Another form of contraction is the syncope of a vowel in a preceding unstressed syllable e.g. kroon < corona (crown), bril < beril (spectacles).

(f) Umlaut^2.

Umlaut, or as it is sometimes called in English, vowel mutation, is a very important phenomenon in the historical phonology of Germanic languages. It is a process whereby the quality of a stressed vowel is pulled in the direction of a following unstressed vowel; it is in other words a form of vowel assimilation. The Umlautsfaktor in the following syllable can be an a, a u or an i/j but the most common form of Umlaut is i-Umlaut. The following simple vowel chart will help to clarify the process:

The umlauted form of u is y, of o is ö (a lower variant being ø) and of a is ä i.e. all are drawn towards the high front vowel i.

i-Umlaut, which is present in all Germanic languages except Gothic, is restricted on the whole in Dutch to short vowels; there is virtually no Umlaut of long vowels in Dutch, which contrasts strongly with German and English e.g. D. kaas - E. cheese, G. Käse < Lat. caseus; D. horen - E. hear, G. hören. The absence of umlauted long vowels and the lack of the Second German Sound Shift in Dutch are the main reasons for being able to call the phonology of that language conservative.^3. Umlaut of short vowels is, however, very common, although a knowledge of Gothic and/or Latin is often necessary to be able to see that umlauting has occurred e.g. Gothic badi - D. bed, Lat. asinus - D. ezel (+ lengthening of the short

2. It is common for the layman with a knowledge of German to regard the ˝ on German back vowels as an Umlaut. Words containing ˝ in their spelling have indeed been umlauted and this sound change is indicated by ˝ (derived from thee in Gothic hand writing u, i.e a = a). It is however the changed sound, from a back to a front vowel, which is the Umlaut and not the symbol ˝. Thus Dutch and English words also contain Umlauts but other orthographical means are employed to indicate them e.e. cheese (comp. Käse).

3. As i-Umlaut is a form of fronting (palatalisation) it is consistent with the articulation basis of Dutch that it occurred less there than in English and German which are noted for their more palatal pronunciation (see p. 45).

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vowel in an open syllable). The Umlautsfactor has usually been reduced to e (see p. 126), or been apocopated in Auslaut. Whereas German ü is the result of umlauting, the same sound in Dutch (written u/uu and pronounced [y]) is the result of a spontaneous palatisation of Germanic û without any Umlautsfaktor ever having followed.

(g) Analogy

The role that analogy has played in both phonological and morphological change is not to be underestimated. Very often it is the explanation for apparent exceptions to various sound change laws e.g. the imperfect of binden (to tie) in Middle Dutch is bant (sing.)/ bonden (pl.) but in Modern Dutch it is bond/bonden.

Note: in reading the following analysis of the sounds of Dutch, these points should be kept in mind:

(a)	Where there are several origins of a particular sound, these are numbered; generally speaking, the lower the number, the more numerous are the words in that category. In addition, for the sake of clarity, the list of possible origins of a given sound is not always complete but it does include the vast majority of words.
(b)	a, o, or u + i/j means that the new sound is the result of an Umlaut where either i or j or both have been the Umlautsfaktoren.
(c)	The change from a monophthong to a diphthong or vice versa has often passed through more medial stages than the examples may suggest.

1 Short Vowels

Grapheme a

(1)	< Gmc. ă which was also ă in Indo-European
(2)	< Gmc. ă which was ŏ in Indo-European
(3)	< Gmc. ŭ + r + dental
(4)	< Gmc. â which was in turn the result of compensatory lengthening.

Examples and notes:

(1) akker (field - acre^4.), arm (arm), dag (day), tand (tooth). The vowel in German Tag, also in kam and nahm (compare Dutch dag, kwam, nam) has been lengthened as a result of analogy with the plural form where lengthening of short vowels in open syllables has taken place in both Dutch and German i.e. dagen/Tage, kwamen/kamen, namen/nahmen.

(2) acht (eight), gast (guest), nacht (night), lang (long), wat (what). The cognate forms of these words in Latin preserve the original short o of Indo-European - octo, hostis, nox, longus, quod. The English cognates of the first three words all contain more palatal or fronted vowels; German, however, is the same as Dutch in this case but the plurals of Gast and Nacht, for instance, also show fronting i.e. Gäste, Nächte.

4. In such cases the first word is the translation of the Dutch word in question and the second is the cognate form in English if it happens to be different from the literal translation.

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(3) hart (heart - Germ. Herz), smart (pain - Germ. Schmerz).

This change of short e before r + dental is not very common but it is found on occasions in ABN and is quite frequent in the dialect of Holland - thus its occurrence in ABN.

(4) bracht (brought), dacht (thought), zacht (soft).

The Gothic forms brāhta and dāhta show a long vowel which is the result of compensatory lengthening, Ersatzdehnung i.e. the vowel has been lengthened to compensate for the loss of a nasal. In Dutch and German the -cht cluster has then caused a shortening of the long vowel. English ‘thought’ and ‘brought’ still retain a long vowel sound. Compare Dutch zacht and German sanft, where the nasal has been preserved (see p. 154 for the change of -ft > - cht). In English a before n often changed to o, which is not uncommon in Dutch dialects (docht, brocht) and Frisian.

Grapheme e

(1)	< Gmc. ĕ
(2)	< Gmc. ă + i/j
(3)	< Gmc. ă + r + consonant
(4)	e in unstressed prefixes and suffixes has various origins

Examples and notes:

Historically and even today in the mouths of some speakers the vowels e and i, which are phonetically closely related, often alternate, depending on the consonantal environment: compare Dutch brengen - Eng. bring/Germ. bringen / Afr. bring, Dutch hem - Eng. him, Dutch gisteren - Eng. yesterday / Germ. gestern; also Dutch recht (right) and the verb richten (to direct, lit. righten).

(1) geld (money), helpen (to help), nest (nest), zes (six-Greek hex). Gmc. ĕ is found as ĭ in Gothic except before r, h and hv where it is written aí e.g. hilpan (to help), saíhs (six). Many other short e's and i's in Gothic have ended up as long e in Dutch as a result of lengthening in open syllables e.g. Gothic itan > eten (to eat), Gothic stilan > stelen (to steal).

(2) bed (bed), hen (hen), mens (person); dekken (to cover), denken to think), kennen (to know), leggen (to lay), zetten (to put).

As Gothic does not know i-Umlaut, all cognate forms of the examples given still contain an a in that language e.g. badi (bed), mannisks (mens, adj.), satjan (zetten). This Umlaut is very common in verbs which formerly belonged to a class of weak verbs whose infinitive ended in -jan and thus contained an Umlautsfaktor. Compare the umlauted and unumlauted forms within Dutch itself: dak (roof) - dekken (to cover), hals (neck) - omhelzen (to embrace), lang (long) - verlengen (to lengthen); the last English example also shows Umlaut.

(3) erg (terrible - Germ. arg), merk (brand - mark), scherp (sharp), sterk (strong - Germ. stark), verf (colour - Germ. Farbe), zwerm (swarm).

ă + r + consonant often led to a palatalisation of the a to e. Such an e is often heard in Dutch dialects where ABN has retained an a e.g. Ernhem (= Arnhem), standerd (= standaard), perd (= paard, horse; see p. 137 for long a from short a in ABN).

Dutch er often occurs as ir in German e.g. berk - Birke (birch), hert - Hirt (deer), kerk - Kirche (church), werken - wirken (to work).

(4) The origin of e (pron. ә) in unstressed syllables is also discussed on p. 126. The

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prefixes be- and ge- and the suffix -en are found in Gothic as bi-, ga- and -an i.e. with full vowels; even the prefix ver- is derived from unstressed voor (for). In some instances the prefix has been unstressed to the extent that there has been a contraction with the following syllable e.g. buiten < bi-uiten (outside), gunnen < ge-unnen (to grant); compare also Dutch geloven and Germ. glauben (to believe). Other examples of such contractions are bril < beril (spectacles), klant < calant (customer), krant < courant (newspaper).^5.

5. It is interesting to note that the reverse is sometimes the case in Germanic loan words in French e.g. canif (pocket knife) < knif, hanap (goblet) < hnap; the insertion of such a vowel glide is known as anaptyxis or svarabhakti, a Sanskrit term.

Grapheme i

(1)	< Gmc. ĭ which was also ĭ in Indo-European
(2)	< Gmc. ĭ which was derived from IE. ĕ + n + consonant or IE. ĕ + i/j
(3)	< Gmc. ĭ with shortening before the cluster -cht

Examples and notes:

For the interchange of ĭ and ĕ see p. 134.

(1) dis (dish - Lat. discus), pil (pill), vis (fish - Lat. piscus).

(2) a - binden (to tie), drinken (to drink), kind (child - Lat. gens), twintig (twenty).

b - is (is - Lat. est < * esti), midden (middle - Lat. medius), nicht (niece, cousin - Lat. neptis).

c - gillen (to yell), gist (yeast), gisteren (yesterday).

The change of IE. ĕ > ĭ before a nasal + consonant (group a), but not in other positions, accounts for the division in group 3 of the strong verbs i.e. vinden (to find), zinken (to sink) but helpen (to help), sterven (to die) (see p. 178).

Group b gives examples where the Latin cognates still show the Umlautsfaktor.

Group c contains examples of the change of ĕ > ĭ before -st and -ll which occurred in a few instances.

(3) licht (light - Germ. leicht, Gothic leihts^6.).

This change occurs rarely. Note that the unstressed ending -ig, which contains an original short i, has undergone the same fate as the ending -lijk, which contains an original long i - both have been weakened to schwa; it is pronounced [әX], whereas in English the g was palatalised under influence of the preceding i to produce the ending -y. Similarly Dutch -lijk = Eng. -ly.

6. Note that the spelling ei in Gothic stands for long i.

Grapheme o

(1)	< Gmc. ŏ
(2)	< Gmc. ŭ
(3)	< Gmc. ô with shortening before the cluster -cht

Examples and notes:

Just as ĕ and ĭ have alternated historically, and still do in dialects, so have and do o and ŭ. Many Dutch words containing o will be found to have u in their cognate forms in German and English e.g. borstel - Bürste (brush), dorst - Durst (thirst), mond - Mund (mouth), ons - uns (us), worm - Wurm (worm).

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The two pronunciations of o in the Dutch of many speakers are discussed on p. 48. The difference, which is partially due to different origins of o (i.e. from o or u), but in some instances is the result of the phonetic environment, is not usually phonemic and is thus usually ignored in ABN; certain dialects, particularly Zuidhollands, do not distinguish between the two either. The more closed ó (i.e. < ŭ) is always heard before nasals, regardless of origin; preceding labial consonants also tend to favour the more closed sound e.g. bók (goat), wólf (wolf), vós (fox) - compare klòk (clock), dòl (mad).

(1) dochter (daughter - Germ. Tochter), hok (kennel - hutch), kok (cook - Germ. Koch), pond (pound - Germ. Pfund), pot (pot), rond (round - Germ. rund).

(2) dom (dumb - Germ. dumm), gordel (belt - girdle, Germ. Gürtel), hond (dog - hound, Germ. Hund), jong (young - Germ. jung), pols (pulse - Germ. Puls), pop (doll - Germ. Puppe), wolf (wolf - Germ. Wolf)

The German examples show that there has not been the same degree of falling together in that language as in Dutch, as indeed do the English translations, although, as is so often the case, the spelling of the English words is not a very reliable indicator of the pronunciation. Pairs such as druppel/droppen (drop/to drip), vullen/vol (to fill/full) and nut/genot (use/enjoyment) show o as the usual development of ŭ in Dutch; however, it became u (pron. ü) when the original ŭ underwent umlauting.

(3) zocht (past tense of zoeken, to seek), ochtend (morning - Gothic ûchtwo).

There are a few instances of an original long o which has undergone shortening before the consonant cluster -cht - compare bracht and dacht p. 134.

Grampheme u

(1)	< Gmc. ŭ + i/j
(2)	< Gmc. -wi-

Examples and notes:

There is no short u as such in Dutch as all Germanic ŭ's changed to ŏ (see ŏ); the grapheme u in Dutch usually represents ŭ's which have undergone umlauting.

(1) bus (box - Germ. Büchse), dun (thin Germ. dünn), hulp (help - Germ. Hilfe), mug (midge - Germ. Mücke), put (well - Germ. Pfütze).

The German forms all show Umlaut also. English ‘thin’ and ‘midge’ show unrounding of umlauted u, as does Germ. Hilfe.

Sometimes in dialect, and thus in Afrikaans, this u appears as o e.g. konst (kunst - art), mos (mus - sparrow).

(2) tussen (between - betwixt, Germ. zwischen), zulk (such -Goth. swaleiks), zuster (sister - Germ. Schwester).

2 Long Vowels

Grapheme a/aa^7. (also written ae in older texts; this is still the case in some proper nouns)

7. The long vowels a, e, o and u also know an allograph aa, ee, oo and uu. (see p. 37)

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(1)	< Gmc. â (but æ̂ in West Germanic^8.)
(2)	< Gmc. ă with lengthening in open syllables
(3)	< Gmc. ă or ĕ + r dental

Examples and notes:

(1) daad (deed), jaar (year), laten (to let), schaap (sheep), slapen (to sleep).

The falling together of 1 and 2 in ABN is not reflected in all dialects; some preserve a long e (< Westgmc. æ̂), as do English and Frisian. This more palatal vowel can thus be regarded as an Ingwaeonism (see p. 128). Hypercorrect Hèègs (i.e. Haags, p. 18, footnote 14) accentuates this palatal pronunciation of long a and attempts to elevate it out of the realm of dialect speech.

(2) dagen (< sing. dag, day), kamer (room), maken (to make), vader (father), water (water).

Forms like Germ. machen and Wasser retain a short vowel because of the double consonant in them which is the result of the Second German Sound Shift (see p. 123); the double consonant locked the vowel into a closed syllable and thus lengthening could not occur. Also Germ. Tag (with a long a) is by analogy with the plural (Tage) where lengthening in an open syllable has occurred; Dutch, however, preserves the original short vowel in the singular.^9. This is a further example of the phonological conservatism of Dutch as opposed to German.

(3) aarde (earth - Germ. Erde), aarts- (arch - Germ. Erz-), baard (beard - Germ. Bart), paard (horse - Germ. Pferd).

8. This sound is found as long e in Gothic and is called e₁. (see p. 138, footnote 12)

9. Similarly in the fourth and fifth Ablaut series Dutch nam/namen (< nemen, to take, group 4) and lag/lagen (< liggen, to lie, group 5) contrast with Germ. nahm/nahmen and lag/lagen where the vowels in both are long because analogy with the plural has taken place in the singular.

Grapheme e/ee

(1)	< Gmc. ai
(2)	< Gmc. ĕ or ĭ with lengthening in open syllables
(3)	< Gmc. î + r + dental
(4)	< Gmc. ă + i/j with lengthening in open syllables

Examples and notes:

(1)een (one - Germ. eins), lenen (to lend, loan - Germ. leihen), steen (stone - Germ. Stein), teen (toe - Germ. Zehe), twee (two - Germ. zwei).

The monophthongisation of Gmc. ai > ê did not take place equally in all words in all dialects of Dutch. Even in ABN one finds the diphthong ei (see p. 146) where one would expect ê e.g. bereid (prepared, ready) beside gereed (finished, ready), eik (oak) beside eekhoorn (squirrel). Afrikaans has taken teiken (target - token) and vleis (meat - flesh) from Dutch dialects whereas ABN has teken (sign) and vlees in these instances.

In the dialects of the west of Holland (N. and S. Holland and Utrecht), there is a tendency to give ê a diphthongal pronunciation. It could thus be said that a complete monophthongisation of ai never took place in these regions (see p. 13). This is even heard somewhat in the ABN of the west, but to a lesser extent. The

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distinction in pronunciation between ê < ai and other long e's, which is known to some dialects (e.g. Zeeuws), was the reason behind the following distinction in the spelling of De Vries and Te Winkel i.e. beenen (legs,ê < ai), eten (to eat, ē < ĕ)^10. (see p. 40).

In Frisian and Saxon the change from ai > ê was complete, unlike in Dutch, whereas in German ai remained a diphthong (now spelt ei) and was usually only monophthongised before final h, r, w and in Auslaut e.g. Ehre (honour), See (sea), Zehe (toe).

Cognate forms in English usually show o (sometimes spelt oa) as Gmc. ai was monophthongised to â in Old English and changed to ô in Middle English (see above examples). In a few Dutch words and place names Gmc. ai appearsas â,as in Old English e.g. klaver (clover - Germ. Klee), ladder (ladder - Germ. Leiter), Haamstede (haam = heem, home); these forms are regarded as Ingwaeonisms.

(2) From ĕ: breken (to break), eten (to eat), zeven (seven).

From ĭ: hemel (heaven), schepen (ships, plural of schip). In open syllables Gmc. ĕ and ĭ fell together, as did ŏ and ŭ in that position (see p. 140).

(3) veertien (fourteen), veertig (forty) - compare vier (four).

This change is not common.

(4) beter (better - Gothic bătiza), rede (speech - Gothic răþjo).

This is also the result of lengthening in open syllables and is not common; most cases of Gmc. ă + i/j are found as short e in Dutch (see p. 134).

10. A similar distinction in spelling existed for long o (see p. 140).

Compound grapheme ie^11. (also written'ij in the Middle Ages. see p. 38)

(1)	< Gmc. eu
(2)	< Gmc. î before r
(3)	< Gmc. ê (so-called e2)^12.
(4)	In contractions
(5)	In French words borrowed after the Middle Dutch period

Examples and notes:

(1) bieden (to offer - Gothic biudan), dief (thief - Gothic þiufs), diep (deep - Gothic diups), gieten (to pour - Gothic giutan), ziek (sick - Gothic siuks).

The Old Germanic diphthong eu, which occurs in Gothic as iu, developed in two ways in Dutch; there were already two variants in Proto-West Germanic. In Middle Dutch it is found as two separate monophthongs, î and ŷ. Those with ŷ diphthongised in Modern Dutch to ui (see p. 142) and those with î in Middle Dutch still have î today; the falling together with words with original long i, which is present in Middle Dutch, has been avoided in Modern Dutch by the diphthongisation of original î to ij (see p. 142). In Flemish, Zeeuws and Brabants î alone was preserved

11. Of all the long vowels in Dutch only ie, eu and oe are written the same whether they occur in open or closed syllables. These sounds are all rendered by compound graphemes in Dutch. Their equivalents in German orthography are ie, ö and u respectively. NB: an alternative for ö in German is oe.

12. In Gothic, Westgmc. aê (â in Dutch) and ê (ie in Dutch) fell together as ê; to distinguish between the two, philologists gave them the names e₁ and e₂ respectively.

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and thus one sometimes finds double forms in ABN where those with ie (< eu) are southern forms and those with ui or ŷ^13. (< eu) are northern forms e.g. Diets/Duits (see p. 4), dierbaar/duur (dear), lieden/luiden (people), rieken/ruiken (to smell).

The two-way development of the original Germanic diphthong accounts for the two sorts of verbs in Ablaut series two (see p. 64) e.g. schieten (to shoot), buigen (to bend).

(2) gier (vulture), mier (ant), spier (muscle), wierook (incense). Gmc. î, which was diphthongised to ij in early Modern Dutch (see p. 142), remained a monophthong before r (see footnote 13); wierook thus contrasts with the cognate form wijden (to consecrate) which contains a hypercorrect d (see p. 156) - compare Middle Dutch wien (= wijden).

(3) a	- Fries (Frisian), Grieks (Greek), hier (here).
b	- biet (beet), brief (letter), riem (belt), spiegel (mirror).
c	- hield (held), liet (let - past tense)

Old West Germanic ê (i.e. e₂), which was not very common, developed into a new monophthong in Dutch and German, probably via a series of diphthongs - compare the development of Gmc. ô > û, p. 141. This ie has fallen together with ie < eu but not with Gmc. î which has shifted to ij. The words in group b. are early Latin loan words where Latin had ŭ or ê and those in group c. are preterites of some formerly reduplicating verbs in Ablaut series seven (see p. 180).

(4) tien (ten - Gothic taíhun), zien (to see - Gothic saihvan). A few Dutch words with ie are the result of a contraction having occurred in bisyllabic words; there are many more such contracttons in Middle Dutch e.g. bevrien (to liberate - Dutch bevrijden^14.), gescien (to happen - Dutch geschieden^14.), tien (to pull - Gothic tiuhan).

(5) kritiek (critical), petieterig (tiny), romantiek (romance), trampolien (trampoline).

Words of French origin containing long i which were borrowed in the Middle Ages underwent the shift of î > ij (see p. 142). French loan words of younger origin retain the French vowel and have usually been adapted to the spelling rules of Dutch. In addition, French words ending in -tion/-sion occurin Dutch with -tie e.g. oppositie (opposition), relatie (relation) etc.

13. ŷ did not diphthongise to ui before r (see p. 142).

14. Bevrijden and geschieden contain a hypercorrect d - compare Germ. befreien and geschehen (see p. 156).

14. Bevrijden and geschieden contain a hypercorrect d - compare Germ. befreien and geschehen (see p. 156).

Grapheme o/oo (also written oe or oi in Middle Dutch texts^15.)

(1)	< Gmc. au
(2)	< Gmc. ŏ or ŭ with lengthening in open syllables
(3)	< Gmc. ŏ + r + dental

Examples and notes:

(1) boom (tree - beam, Germ. Baum), kopen (to buy - Germ. kaufen), oog (eye - Germ. Auge), oor (ear - Germ. Ohr).

15. The spelling oe is often ambiguous in Middle Dutch; it can designate either long o or long u whereas these days it stands only for the latter. The alternative spelling oi, which is not quite as common, is preserved today in certain place names and a few archiac words e.g. Oirschot, Oisterwijk (compare Germ. Voigtländer), oir (descendants - a legal term). Some Dutch people are misled by the spelling into pronouncing such words oy instead of ō.

[p. 140]

The monophthongisation of Gmc. au > ô runs parallel with that of ai > ê except that in this instance the shift was complete in Dutch^16., unlike ai > ê (see p. 137).

In German, as with ai > ê, the diphthong was preserved, except before h and dental consonants e.g. Auge (eye - Dutch oog), Haupt (head - Dutch hoofd), laufen (to run - leap, Dutch lopen)^17. but hoch (high - Dutch hoog), hören (to hear - Dutch horen), tot (dead - Dutch dood). As with long e in Dutch, long o also has a somewhat diphthongal pronunciation in the plat speech of the Randstad and even its pronunciation in ABN is not, phonetically speaking, an absolutely pure monophthong; this applies equally to the words with long o < ŏ or < ŭ. This long o is heard as eu (i.e. ö) in quite a number of dialects - compare Afrikaans deur (= door, through) and seun (= zoon, son) (see p. 141). Long o < au and long o < ŏ/ŭ are pronounced differently in some dialects (e.g. Zeeuws) i.e. they have not fallen together; this is also the case with ê < ai and ĕ < ĕ/ĭ in those dialects. The distinction was still made in Hollands too until the seventeenth century. The two spellings of long o in open syllables in the spelling of De Vries and Te Winkel was based on the different origin of the two sounds and the distinction made between them by some speakers i.e. boomen (trees) but boter (butter) (see p. 40). In English Gmc. au > ea e.g. bread (Dutch brood), dead (Dutch dood), lead (Dutch lood) etc.

In a few Dutch words and place names au is found as â e.g. baken (beacon), Kaag (= koog, polderland); these forms are regarded as Ingwaeonisms since Gmc. au developed regularly into â in Old Frisian, for example; it has since diphthongised again in Modern Frisian beaken.

(2) boter (butter), koning (king), noot (nut), zoon (son, Gothic sunus), vogel (birdfowl, Gothic fugls).

As with ĕ and ĭ, ŏ and ŭ fell together when lengthened in open syllables; the long vowel in monosyllabic noot and zoon, both closed syllables, is the result of analogy with the lengthened vowel in other cases forms and/or the plural where the addition of a syllable placed the vowel in the root of the word in an open position (see p. 37).

(3) doorn (thora), noord (north), oord (place), poort (gate - portal), soort (sort).

Lengthening of o before r + dental also occurred with ă and ĕ and is a typically Dutch phenomenon.

16. There is one minor exception, however: before w a diphthong was preserved e.g. houwen (to hew), beschouwen (to regard).

17. In German, original au as illustrated here, fell together with au < û (ui in Dutch) e.g. faul (lazy - Dutch vuil), Raum (room - Dutch ruim). Dutch thus preserves an important historical distinction here. The same is the case with German ei > ai and ei > î e.g. Stein (stone - Dutch steen), Eis (ice - Dutch ijs). As the examples show, English also preserves the distinction.

Compound grapheme oe (also written oo, ue and ou in Middle Dutch texts)^18. (1) < Gmc. ô

Examples and notes:

(1) bloem (flower - bloom, Gothic blôma), broeder (brother - Gothic brôþar), boek (book - Gothic bôka). The German cognates all also have û, written u i.e. Blume, Bruder, Buch.

18. Even today recent loan words from French can be written with ou or oe e.g. tourist/toerist, bouquet/boeket.

[p. 141]

Germanic ô was able to develop into û in Dutch because Gmc. û had undergone spontaneous palatalisation to [y] (later > ui, see p. 142). Words such as groen (green - Germ. grün), zoet (sweet - Germ. süβ), moe (tired - Germ. müde) show Umlaut in German, and Umlaut plus unrounding in English; Dutch consistently shows no Umlaut of long vowels.

The change from ô to û in Dutch was already complete by the tenth century i.e. prior to the Middle Dutch period. In German the same change occurred via various diphthongal forms which are clearly given in Middle High German texts (spelt oa, au, uo) and can still be heard in southern German dialects today. A change via such intermediary stages may also have been the case in Dutch, or else this change, and also ê > î (see p. 139), may have been direct in coastal areas. Possible evidence of this is the spelling oo for û in Holland until quite late(± 1500). The present-day spelling oe may be a remnant of an intermediary stage orelse a remnant from the time when long o (as well as long a) were indicated by placing an e (also an i) after the vowel rather than doubling it as is done today. A considerable amount has been written on the so-called oe-relicten i.e. words and place names (mainly in North Holland) containing oe < û in areas where Gmc. û > ŷ or ui. ABN words with oe < û must have been borrowed from the dialects (mainly the east of the country, see map 10) where û was not palatalised to [y] e.g. boer (farmer) versus buur (neighbour), poes (puss), schroef (screw), smoel (mug i.e. face), snoet (snout); Souburg (pron. û, a place name).

Compound grapheme eu (adopted from French orthography since the end of the Middle Ages and also found as ue in Middle Dutch texts and thus easily confused with oe and uu)

(1)	< Gmc. ŭ + i/j with lengthening in open syllables
(2)	< Gmc. ŏ [+ i/j] with lengthening in open syllables
(3)	< Gmc. ĕ with lengthening in open syllables + rounding
(4)	In French loan words

Examples and notes:

(1) euvel (evil - Germ. übel), heuvel (hill - Germ. Hügel), keuken (kitchen - Germ. Küche), sleutel (key - Germ. Schlüssel).

Forms such as breuk (a break) versus breken (to break), keur (choice) versus kiezen (to choose), sleutel (key) versus sluiten (to lock) show eu in Ablaut variation with other sounds.

(2) zeug (sow), veulen (foal).

Generally speaking oo forms (unumlauted) often vary with eu forms (umlauted) from dialect to dialect, with a preference for the latter in the coastal areas, sometimes even without the presence of an Umlautsfaktor e.g. deur (= door, through), veugel (= vogel, bird). The eu forms are not common in ABN where the Brabants forms with oo have won out - zeug and veulen are exceptions in this regard. Afrikaans sometimes has the eu forms e.g. deur (through), seun (son).

(3) leunen (to lean), reus (giant), steunen (to support), zeuven (seven).

Gmc. ĕ in open syllables was usually lengthened to ē (see p. 137); however, in quite a number of dialects this e was rounded to eu and as this phenomenon is not uncommon in Hollands, some words with eu < ē(< ĕ) have made their way into ABN.

[p. 142]

A rounded pronunciation of zeven is common throughout the country now when saying telephone numbers etc. (Compare Germ. zwo/zwei), Similarly speulen (= spelen, to play) and veule (= vele, many) are dialectal in origin but commonly heard (never written, however).

(4) fleur (bloom, hey-day), kleur (colour, < couleur), directeur (director).

The original French spelling and pronunciation with eu is preserved in loanwords of French origin. Greek words with eu, however, are pronounced ui in Holland e.g. fysiotherapeut, eunuch.

Grapheme u/uu

Examples and notes:

(1) duur (dear), duwen (to push), muur (wall), nu (now), puur (pure), u (you).

Germanic û was spontaneously palatalised to [y] in Low Franconian in the pre-literary period. As the same occurred in the Vulgar Latin of Gaul (compare French mur, pur) it has been suggested that this sound in Dutch may be the result of Celtic substrate, all the more so as it is not evident in the Saxon-based dialects of the east where there is also less archeological evidence of Celtic presence (see map 10). Forms such as huus/tuus/muus (house/louse/mouse) are the norm in Middle Dutch but the diphthongisation of this ŷ to ui (see ui), except before r, w and in Auslaut, accounts for the relative scarcity of the sound in Dutch today. The diphthongisation of î > ij, which was concurrent with ŷ > ui, also did not occur before r (see p. 139).

In Hollands ŷ in Auslaut and before vowels is often heard as ou e.g. douwen (to push), nou (now); also the form jou (you, obj.). The first two forms are very common in the spoken ABN of the Randstad, and the third is of course both spoken and written ABN. In the spoken language one often hears duvel (= duivel, devil), duzend (= duizend, thousand) and buten (= buiten e.g. een boertje van buten, a yokel), but these are forms borrowed for euphemistic or humorous effect from dialects that did not diphthongise.

3 Diphthongs

Because of certain parallels in the development of the diphthongs ui and ij, it is advisable to look at this important development in the phonology of Dutch in general terms before looking at the two sounds individually. Certain sociolinguistic factors have played a role and there are also interesting parallel and contemporaneous developments in English and German.

It is difficult to date precisely when ŷ and î diphthongised to ui and ij respectively, not simply because we only have the written word to go by, but also because the spellings ui and ij had been used throughout the Middle Ages to indicate long y and i; i was often used as a lengthening symbol in the same way as e was, and j was considered simply a scribal variant of i. (Compare long ʃ and s at the end of words in older English, Dutch and German texts.) It is, however, generally regarded as a post Middle Dutch/early Modern Dutch development and can thus be said to have been gathering ground during the sixteenth century. It is believed to have begun in Brabant and that its spread in the north, and thus its ultimate incorporation into

[p. 143]

ABN, is possibly the result of the immigration of the Brabanders into the cities of the north during the Eigthy Years' War. The diphthongisation undoubtedly took root in the urban areas of Holland first, where the Brabanders formed a large influential proportion of the population, a group worthy of emulation (see p. 101). It did not reach all parts of the country, nor do the ij isoglosses completely overlap with those of ui (see maps 10 and 11). Generally speaking however, it is possible to say that ŷ and î diphthongised at much the same time over much the same area starting in the south in the sixteenth century and becoming the norm in both the north and south (urban areas) during the seventeenth century. It was complete among the upper classes by the beginning of the eighteenth century. West Flanders and Zeeland (as well as Friesland) are the best known, most cited cases of areas where this diphthongisation did not occur.

One of the most interesting and yet puzzling aspects of this diphthongisation is that the same sounds were affected in English and German at more or less the same time and in the same way i.e. in English mûs/hûs/lûs > mouse/house/louse; îs/wîf/pîp > ice/wife/pipe and in German mûs/hûs/lûs > Maus/Haus/Laus; îs/wîb/pfîfe > Eis/Weib/Pfeife. In England and Germany too, the development started in the south and spread rapidly over large areas but certain important areas were unaffected, notably Scotland in the case of English, and the Low German area and Switzerland in the case of German. It seems unlikely that such a change could occur over such a large area affecting three related but separate languages without there being some connection, but the precise course of events is unknown. The connection is probably to be found in sociolinguistic factors, if at all.

Compound Grapheme ui

(1)	< Gmc. û (via ŷ in Middle Dutch)
(2)	< Gmc. eu + i/j (via ŷ in Middle Dutch)
(3)	< Gmc. ŭ + n + þ (only in place names)
(4)	A small group of words that have always contained a diphthong

Examples and notes:

(1) bruin (brown), huis (house - Goth. hûs), muilezel (mule - Lat. mūlus), ruim (room - Goth. rûms), vuil (dirty - foul, Goth. fûls).

Gmc. û, which underwent spontaneous palatalisation in Dutch in the pre-literary period, was diphthongised in the west and south to ui (pron. oey) shortly after the end of the Middle Dutch period. The spellings u/uu/ue/ui are all found in Middle Dutch texts for the monophthongal predecessor of the modern ui. The exceptions to this shift are dealt with under long u on page 142.

The new diphthong is heard clearest in Auslaut e.g. lui (people); in Inlaut it is not as open and is closer to a monophthong.

In German and English, Old Germanic û remained û, i.e. it was not spontaneously palatalised as in Dutch, and thus shifted directly to au (written ou or ow in English) at the end of the middle period.

(2) Duits (German), duivel (devil), kruipen (to creep, crawl), lui[den] (people), ruiken (to smell), sluiten (to close).

In class 2 of the strong verbs there is a two-way division into those with ie (see p. 64) and those with ui. Both are derived from Germanic eu and occur in Gothic with

[p. 144]

Map 10: The ui isogloss, as in the word muis (mouse), showing the areas unaffected by the diphthongisation of [y:] to [œy] where several monophthongal variants still exist. Taken from A. Weijnen, Nederlandse Dialectkunde, Assen, 1966.

[p. 145]

iu.^19. Those followed by the Umlautsfaktoren i/j were monophthongised to ŷ (written u) in OWLF, whereas the others were monophthongised to ie.^20. This division is not limited to verbs of this class but applies to all words e.g. ziek (Goth. suiks), Middle Dutch Duutsc (< Gmc. * þiudisk) etc. The distinction is also found in German as eu/ie.

With the diphthongisation ŷ > ui words in this group shifted together with those in group 1. There is thus a falling together in Dutch of ui < û and ui < eu which is not present in German - compare ruim/Duits, Raum/Deutsch, huis/buit (booty), Haus/Beute. German saugen/saufen (Dutch zuigen/zuipen) prove that the ui in these two verbs developed from û and not from eu.

(3) Arnemuiden, IJsselmuiden, Muiden, Plymuiden (Plymouth), zuiden (south).

Place names in Holland and Zeeland in particular with varieties of the word muid (mouth, Dutch mond) preserve a compensatory lengthening of Gmc. ŭ, an Ingwaeonic feature - compare Gothic munþs, Old English mūþ, Modern English mouth (with diphthongisation). This means that toponymically a form muud existed alongside mond in Middle Dutch and these forms too diphthongised to ui. Dialectically in coastal regions uus/uis is also found for ons - compare Old English ūs, Modern English ‘us’. A non-Ingwaeonic example, because it also occurs in German, is zuid(en) < *sunþ (Germ. Süd).

(4) bui (storm), fluit (flute), fruit (fruit), lui (lazy), ruilen (to exchange).

These words (list not complete) have always contained a diphthong, even in the Middle Dutch period before the dipthongisation of ŷ > ui; Middle Dutch texts show a great variety of spellings for this sound: oi/oy/oei/oey/eui/euy/eu. Some, like fruit and fluit for example, are early borrowings from French.

19. Proto-West Germanic must also have known this division: eu > iu + i/j(> û) and eu > io (> ie).

20. There are a few verbs in group 2 that contained a monophthong û even in Gothic and which thus occur in Middle Dutch with [y:] e.g. luiken (to shut - Goth. lûken), zuigen (to suck), zuipen (to booze).

Compound grapheme ij (for the history of the symbol ij see p. 38)

(1)	< Gmc. î
(2)	< Gmc. ĭ in Auslaut
(3)	< Gmc. ĭ + n + f

Examples and notes:

(1) bij (by - Germ. bei), ijs (ice - Germ. Eis), prijs (price - Germ. Preis), slijm (slime - Germ. Schleim), tijd (time - Germ. Zeit); Berlijn (Berlin), Parijs (Paris).

The post Middle Dutch diphthongisation of i > ij (except before r, see p. 139^21.) caused a falling together with ei, an original dipthong, but the written word distinguishes between the two.^22. In German the new diphthong (written ei) < î fell together with ei < ai (in Dutch ai > ê); Dutch did not experience a falling together of these two important sounds and comparison with Dutch cognate forms can thus be a quick method of determining the origin of ei in German e.g. Eis/Stein,

21. In German î > ei in all positions e.g. gier/Geier (vulture), wierook/Weihrauch (incense).

22. In Middle Dutch there were two long i's: î < Gmc. eu or < e₂ (now ie) and î < Gmc. ;(now ij). They must have been pronounced differently, however, because the former did not undergo diphthongisation.

[p. 146]

ijs/steen.^23. In English the two did not fall together either e.g. ice/stone. Note the English tradition of putting an -e at the end of the word to indicate the long vowel.

The fact that habijt (nun's habh), patrijs (partridge), appetijt (appetite) and other such French loan words contain the new diphthong indicates that they were current in Dutch before the diphthongisation of î > ij took place; likewise with the place names Berlijn and Parijs. French loan words of more recent origin preserve the long î of the original language e.g. paniek (panic), sjiek (chic), statistiek (statistics).^24.

The adjectival-adverbial ending -lijk (pron. -lәk) contains an etymologically long vowel (Goth. -leiks = body) and thus the present spelling, although the ending is now pronounced short due to the lack of stress - compate gelíjk (pron. εi) and iets dérgelijks (pron. ә).

(2) hij (he), mij (me), zij (she).

The stressed pronominal forms with final ij underwent lengthening of ĭ > î in Old Dutch and were thus later also diphthongised (see p. 61).

(3) vijf (five), vijftien (fifteen), vijftig (fifty).

The word vijf and its compounds is the only example of an ij < î which is the result of an (Ingwaeonic) compensatory lengthening - compare: Eng. five/Fris. fiif and Germ. fünf/Goth. fimf.

23. Similarly the diphthongisation of û > au in German caused a falling together with the original diphthong air, in both Dutch and English this did not occur - compare Haus/Baum, huis/boom, house/beam.

24. Sound shifts can be a useful means of dating borrowings; see p. 124 for the importance of the Second German Sound Shift in this regard.

Compound grapheme ei

(1)	< Gmc. ai [+ i/j]
(2)	< Gmc. ăgi (via the umlauted form ĕgi)

Examples and notes:

(1) a	- bereid (ready), eik (oak), geit (goat), -heid (-hood), klein (small), scheiden (to separate).
b	- dreigen (to threaten), eigen (own), heilig (holy), leiden (to lead).

Germanic ai monophthongised to ê; before i/j, however, a diphthong was preserved (group b above) but other words without an Umlautsfaktor also show ei (group a above - see p. 137).

In ABN there has been a falling together in speech of the old diphthong ei and the new diphthong ij (see p. 145) but Lambert ten Kate, writing on Dutch ± 1700 (see p. 112), maintained that the two sounds were then still separate except in Amsterdam (and thus now in ABN) and plat Brabants. In Amsterdams the fall was towards [εi] and in plat Brabants towards [ai], still one of the characteristics of the dialect of Antwerp today.^25.

(2) meid (maid - German Magd/Mädchen), peil (level - pail, Germ. Pegel), steil (steep), zeil (sail - Germ. Segel), zei[de] (said).

In a few words the diphthong ei is the result of a contraction of ĕ + g + i (< ăgi) where the g has been palatalised after Umlaut and syncopated.^26. English ‘rain’

25. Compare the pronunciation of ‘to die’ and ‘today’ in Australian English; here both also tend towards [ai].

26. See p. 153 for the palatalisation of g in coastal areas.

[p. 147]

Map 11: The ij isogloss, as in the word ijs (ice), showing the areas unaffected by the diphthongisation of [i:] to [εi]. Taken from A. Weijnen, Nederlandse Dialectkunde, Assen, 1966.

[p. 148]

(regen) and ‘hail’ (hagel) show a similar development. Meisje (girl) < meid (milk-maid) < maagd (virgin), and zei < zegde < *zegide. In plat speech hij zeit (he says) and hij leit (= hij ligt/legt, he lies/lays) are commonly heard; such forms can be regarded as Ingwaeonisms.

Compound graphemes ou(w)/au(w)

(1)	< Gmc. al or ol + t/d
(2)	In a few Dutch words with peculiar etymologies
(3)	In foreign words

Examples and notes:

The diphthong [au] is more commonly represented by ou than au in Dutch spelling; there are very few indigenous words with the au spelling.

(1) goud (gold), houden (to hold), hout (wood - holt), koud (cold), oud (old), vouwen (to fold).

Already in the pre-literary period al and ol must have fallen together (e.g. mout - malt, goud - gold) - the pronunciation of the English examples gives evidence of a similar development in that language. Also prior to the first texts, l after o before t and d was vocalised to produce a new diphthong ou, which did not fall together with original Germanic au, as this had changed to ô (see p. 139). Thus the above Dutch examples contrast with the following German cognates: alt, falten, halten, kalt, Gold, Holz. French shows a similar alternation of u and l e.g. beau/belle, veau/veal (Norman French), chaud/Ital. caldo.

(2) beschouwen (to view), houwen (to hew); gouw (province - Germ. Gau); blauw (blue), klauw (claw), wenkbrauw (eyebrow); gauw (soon); jou (you, obj.), nou (now).

Those few Dutch words with ou which are not derived from ol + t/d show either ou or au in spelling and are of various origins.^27. Beschouwen and houwen, for example, retain an original au which did not change to ô before w; gouw is a contraction of -awi (Goth. gawi); the diphthong in blauw, klauw, brauw is the result of â + w and gauw (< MNL gâ) is by analogy with such words; for jou and colloquial nou see p. 142.

(3) auteur (author), auto (car), automatisch (automatic).

Such words are usually pronounced [au] but some people still preserve the French pronunciation [o:].

27. The difference in spelling reflects a difference in pronunciation in Zeeland and the islands of South Holland - the different origin of each is obviously still felt by those speakers. The distinction was also preserved in ABN until the beginning of the nineteenth century.

4 Double Vowels

Peculiar to Dutch are the double vowels which are different in origin and pronunciation from the true diphthongs since they are formed from two phonemes. They have various etymological histories.

[p. 149]

Compound grapheme aai

(1)	< Gmc. â + j (especially in verbs)
(2)	< âd- in open syllables (only in speech)

Examples and notes:

(1) draaien (to turn - Germ. drehen), kraaien (to crow - Germ. krähen), maaien (to mow - Germ. mähen), zaaien (to sow Germ. sähen). Also in related nouns: draai (a turn), kraai (a crow) etc.

(2) The double vowel aai is heard in such words as raden (to guess - pron. raaien), laden (to load - pron. laaien), kwade (evil - pron. kwaaie) where d is vocalised - see p. 155). This is not reflected in the standard written language.

Compound grapheme ooi

(1)	< Gmc. au + j
(2)	< ôd- in open syllables

Examples and notes:

(1) dooien (to thaw), hooi (hay), kooi (cage), strooien (to strew).

There are etymological connections between these words and those with ouw (see p. 148, group 2).

(2) dooier (yolk - Germ. Dotter), ooievaar (stork, < MNL ôdevâre), rooie (red, < rode), rooien (to clear forest, < MNL rôden).

Unlike aai < âd- (see above), ooi < ôd- has made its way into written ABN in certain words; rooie, a colloquial pronunciation of the adjective rood + inflectional ending, is seldom written however.

Compound grapheme oei

(1)	< ô +j
(2)	< oed- in open syllables (only in speech)

Examples and notes:

(1) bloeien (to bloom), gloeien (to glow), groeien (to grow), roeien (to row).

Such words show a regular development of ô to oe; German cognates show regular umlauting due to j - blühen, glühen.

(2) goeie (good, < goede), poeier (powder, < poeder).

Occasionally in speech, d after oe in an open syllable is vocalised to i, or more correctly the semi-vowel j.

Compound grapheme eeuw

(1)	< Gmc. ai + w
(2)	< Gmc. ê + w

Examples and notes:

In OWLF intervocalic w developed into an u and gave rise to this double vowel (see also the diphthong ou(w)/au(w) and the long vowel u).

(1) eeuw (century), Zeeuw (Zeelander, < zee), sneeuw (snow- Goth. snáiws), meeuw (seagull).

(2) leeuw (lion - Lat. leo), geeuwen (to yawn).

[p. 150]

5 Consonants

The consonantal system of Dutch has remained unchanged since the beginning of the Middle Dutch period with the phonemically insignificant exceptions of the pronunciation of r and w, as well as the devoicing of voiced spirants in certain positions (see g in all positions, v and z in Anlaut). There is, however, more uniformity in spelling now than in the Middle Dutch period - for example, the devoicing of voiced stops in Auslaut was often reflected in the spelling in Middle Dutch texts (lanc < lang, hep < heb, hant < hand) but nowadays the ‘rule of uniformity’ (regel van gelijkvormigheid) is adhered to. But it is not applied in the case of spirants e.g. ik geef (< geven), ik reis (< reizen).

The consonants are best dealt with not alphabetically but in groups of graphemes that alternate historically for various reasons.

Grapheme b

Dutch b is the product of a complicated pre-history in Old Germanic times involving the First German Sound Shift (see p. 121). Final b was devoiced, as in German, and thus often appears as p in Middle Dutch texts (see above).

Graphemes v and f

Dutch v in Anlaut corresponds to English f and German f or v (pron. f). It is derived from Germanic f which in turn is derived from Indo-European p via the First German Sound Shift e.g. vader - Eng. father, Germ. Vater but Lat. pater, voet - Eng. foot, Germ. Fuβ but Lat. ped.^28. In the pre-literary period, the f in Anlaut and Inlaut became voiced e.g. vogel (bird - fowl, Goth. fugls), wolf/wolven (wolf/wolves). The famous West Flemish sentence from the Old West Low Franconian period (see p. 127) also has uogala (where u = v).

Nowadays in the ABN of the Randstad initial v is usually devoiced to f, possibly due ultimately to’ Frisian substrate in Holland. The dialects of this region have thus probably never voiced it. The same applies to z (see p. 13).

Grammatical change (see p. 122) often accounts for the occurrence of a v intervocalically (Goth. Ҍ) where German has b e.g. geven (to give, Germ. geben), sterven (to die - starve, Germ. sterben). In such words v alternates with f in Auslaut e.g. ik geef (I give); also lief (dear, Germ. lieb) but liever (dearer, Germ. lieber). Compare also Dutch zeven (seven, Germ. sieben), zilver (silver, Germ. Silber), doof/dove (deaf, Germ. taub/taube).

Otherwise f is only found in the following cases:

(1) gemination: heffen (to lift, Goth. hafjan), laffe (cowardly, < laf, a checked vowel).

(2) very occasionally before t: bruiloft (wedding), vijftig (fifty) (see p. 154).

(3) in words of foreign (often Frisian) origin: folteren (to torture, Germ. foltern), forel (trout, Germ. Forelle), frank < (< French franc), fris (fresh, compare Dutch vers), Fries (Frisian, compare the surname De Vries); in older texts Friesland and

28. When such comparisons are made with Latin or Greek, the layman often believes this to mean that the Germanic word has been derived from that Latin or Greek cognate form. This is not the case, as Latin and Greek, belonging to different sub-divisions of IE., have simply preserved related words which the shifts that have taken place in Germanic have not affected.

[p. 151]

Frankrijk often appear with the truly Low Franconian spelling Vriesland and Vrankrijk - they are often pronounced that way today too.

(4) in a few indigenous words of obscure origin: fiets (bicycle), foei (an exclamation). This f may have something to do with accentuation in pronunciation.

Even in areas where initial v is normally pronounced as v and not as f (i.e. south of the rivers), v is often devoiced when a voiceless consonant precedes i.e. assimilation: hij ziet veel - pron. hij ziet feel.

There are parallels between the alternation of f/v and s/z where the phonetic similarity is also one of voiceless versus voiced spirant.

Graphemes z and s

As with f, Germanic s in Anlaut and Inlaut was voiced in the pre-literary period, as it was somewhat later in German too; it is still written as s in German, however, as it was in Middle Dutch. This accounts for the many words beginning with the letter z in Dutch. S did not become voiced in Auslaut e.g. huis (house), reis (joumey), gans (goose), vers (verse) - compare the plural forms huizen, reizen, ganzen (see sch below), verzen. S also did not become voiced in the combinations sch (<sk), sl, sm, sn, sp and st e.g. schoen, slapen, smijten, snijden, spelen, steen. In the combination sw, s did become voiced e.g. zweren (to swear), zwemmen (to swim). Here German shows no deviation from the other combinations - all underwent palatalisation in early New High German e.g. Schuh, schlafen, schmeiβen, schneiden, spielen, Stein; schwören, schwimmen (see sj for the situation in Limburg).

Otherwise the exceptions to Germanic s > Dutch z are similar to those for Germanic f > Dutch v:

(1) in words of foreign origin e.g. suiker (sugar), soep (soup)

(2) before a syllable with a short vowel followed by gemination e.g. beseffen (to realise), sommige (some), sukkelen (to be ailing, < ziek).

(3) in positions where it is assimilated to neighbouring unvoiced consonants e.g. ik heb ze - pron. ik heb se, 's zondags - pron. sondags, samen (together < tezamen).

Final s in Dutch is often the product of an assimilation of Germanic -hs (pron. Xs). This assimilation is unique to Dutch as English, High German and Frisian all preserve -ks e.g. Dutch bus, vos, was, zes versus English/German box/Büchse, fox/Fuchs, wax/Wachs, six/sechs. The Dutch island Texel (occasionally spelt Tessel) is pronounced in two ways - Teksel (Frisian pronunciation) or Tessel (Low Franconian pronunciation). Any other occurrence of the combination ks in ABN must also be due to foreign influence e.g. boksen (< Eng. to box), heks (witch, < Germ. Hexe), tekst (< Latin).

See p. 122 for Dutch z in verliezen/vriezen versus r in German verlieren/frieren.

Compound grapheme sch

The shift of Germanic sk to OWLF sch (pron. sX) was a partial assimilation of the stop k to the preceding fricative s. This shift only occurred at the beginning of stressed syllables (e.g. schoen - shoe, schip - ship, landschap - landscape) and sch was otherwise assimilated completely to s. In North Holland, probably due to Frisian substrate, sk has been preserved (see p. 13).

The increasing frequency of the uvular pronunciation of r (see p. 54) has brought

[p. 152]

with it an assimilation of the gutteral fricative in the combinations gr and sehr e.g. schrijven (to write, pron. sRεivan).

That words such as mens (person), vers (fresh) and ruisen (to rustle) retain s when a vowel follows^29., is also to be attributed to the fact that these words did not originally end in s but in sch; they were probably still pronounced as sk or sX in the pre-literary period. This spelling, which appears as sc in Middle Dutch, was retained right up till 1936 (see p. 41) but was not reflected in pronunciation e.g. menschen, versclie, visch - vischen, ik wasch - wasschen.^30.

Hypercorrect spellings such as langsch (< langs, along) and lansch (< lands, gen. of land) in Middle Dutch texts prove that the final ch had already been assimilated to s.

In English and German, Germanic sk was palatalised to sh in the pre-literary period. Early English orthography still often used the compound grapheme sc, however, and German now uses sch were English uses sh e.g. Dutch schip (pron. sXIp), Eng. ship (pron. ʃIp) and German Schiff (pron. ʃlf).

29. Compare gans (goose) - ganzen, vies (dirty) - vieze, verhuizen (to shift house).

30. As Germanic -ks > i and -sch > s in Dutch, the following words fell together: wasschen (Eng. to wash, Germ. waschen) > wassen and wassen (< *waksen, Eng. to wax/ grow, Germ. wachsen).

Compound grapheme sj

As the above development of sch in Dutch illustrates, the sound [ʃ] is generally speaking foreign to Dutch and typical of its more palatal relatives, English and German.^31. The compound grapheme sj is used, however, in foreign loanwords (sometimes of Frisian origin) where the spelling of the host language has been abandoned for a ‘Dutch’ spelling: sjaal (shawl), sjoelbak (a Frisian game), sjouwer (doek-hand). It also occurs incidentally in the diminutive of nouns ending in s e.g. huisje, reisje.

It is interesting to note at this point that the shift of initial sl, sm, sn, sp^32., st^32. and sw to schl, schm etc. in early New High German^33. also partly affected the Dutch and Belgian provinces of Limburg (see the Panninger Line on map 5); initial [ʃ], in lieu of Dutch [sX], is found over an even larger area of Limburg.

31. This sound followed by another consonant (as in Spiel, Stadt etc.) causes Dutchmen more problem than any other when speaking German.

32. Words such as Spiel and Stein are still pronounced without the palatal spirant by many educated speakers of High German in the north of the country.

32. Words such as Spiel and Stein are still pronounced without the palatal spirant by many educated speakers of High German in the north of the country.

33. i.e. the sixteenth century, the period parallel with that of early Modern Dutch.

Grapheme g

Dutch g is identical in origin to g in the other Germanic languages as it too is the product of the complicated pre-history involving the First German Sound Shift (see p. 121).

Historically the graphemes ch and g alternate, as do s/z and f/v, to indicate the voiceless and voiced gutteral fricatives respectively. As mentioned on p. 51, both ch and g are now pronounced voiceless in ABN, a pronunciation which is considerably harder than even the German ach-Laut. In Middle Dutch texts the ‘rule of uniformity’ (see p. 150) did not apply to ch/g and thus alternations of the following kind

[p. 153]

are found: loech/loeghen, sloech/sloeghen (singular/plural of the preterite of lachen - to laugh and slaan - to hit); nowadays one writes sloeg/sloegen.^34.

The spelling gh is common in old Dutch texts, particularly before e and i - compare the spelling of Van Gogh and Brenghel as well as the English spelling of Ghent (now Gent in Dutch).

Certain pecularities of Middle Dutch spelling suggest that g in gemination and after [ƞ] was still pronounced as a plosive at the time; for example, spellings like licghen (= liggen - to lie) and dinc (= ding - thing) with Auslautverschärfung, suggest alternation with g not ǥ, as is still the case with b/p and d/t,^35. Ǥ, or rather X, has taken over since the seventeenth century in gemination (e.g. liggen, zeggen - to say), and ƞg has assimilated to ƞ (e.g. dingen - things); note however the pronunciation of the loan words evangelisch and geëngageerd as well as Gronings surnames in -ga e.g. Huizinga (all with ƞX).

The devoicing of ǥ to X, which runs parallel with the devoicing of v and z, has however occurred in all positions in ABN. It cannot be directly due to Frisian influence, as is the case with v and z, but ǥ has probably followed by analogy v and z, whose devoicing is believed to be due to Frisian substrate in Holland.

For the syncope of intervocalic g > ei see p. 146.

Dutch words with g often contrast with English words with y, a sound for which the Dutch alphabet uses j e.g. gist (yeast), gisteren (yesterday), dag (day), zeggen (to say). The contrast is one of palatalisation in English versus gutteralisation in Dutch. Palatalisation of g > j, like several other forms of palatalisation, is an Ingwaeonic phenomenon and is present only to a certain degree in Dutch (see j). On the other hand, in OWLF sometimes g < j occurred before stressed palatal vowels gij (Goth. jus), gene (that - yon, Germ. jener), ginder (yonder).

34. Even in Northern Germany g in Auslaut is pronounced as [X].

35. Note the modern spellings jonkheer (< jongheer, junker), koninkje (< koning, king).

Compound grapheme ch

See g for the historical relationship with that grapheme.

Germanic X (now written ch in Dutch) has undergone various developments in Dutch depending on where it occurs in a word. Dutch ch has two possible origins:

(1) < Gmc. X

(2) < Gmc. -ft.

(1) Germanic X was preserved in gemination e.g. lachen (to laugh - Goth. hlahjan) and before the dental -t e.g. acht, nacht (compare Lat. octo, nox, see p. 122). In Anlaut it shifted to h (see h). In all the following cases, Germanic X was syncopated or apocopated:

(a) in Anlaut before a consonant, a combination common in Old Germanic, it dropped off e.g. waar (where^36. - Goth. hvar) lachen (Goth. hlahjan), roepen (to call - Goth. hrôpjan). As a result of metathesis occurring before the loss of h before r in English, English ‘horse’ contrasts with Dutch ros.

(b) in Inlaut between vowels e.g. slaan (to hit - Goth. slahan) - compare geslagen,

36. The English compound grapheme wh (with metathesis) and the hypercorrect pronunciation of it taught by some elocution teachers are remnants of this Germanic sound combination.

[p. 154]

an example of grammatical change; zien (to see) - compare Germ. sehen, where the h is still written but no longer pronounced.

(c) X + s, which appears as ks (sometimes written x) in other Germanic languages, was assimilated to s in Dutch e.g. vos (fox), was (wax) - (see s).

(d) the combination -sX in Auslaut was also assimilated to s (see sch p. 152).

(e) X in Auslaut was sometimes apocopated by analogy with inflected forms e.g. dij (thigh), schoen (shoe, MNL scoe + plural n, Germ. Schuh), vlo (flea - Germ. Floh); also door (through - Germ. durch).

In West Germanic the combination g + t, common in Auslaut, shifted to -cht; compare the following couplets:

buigen	(to bend)	- bocht (bend, curve)
dragen	(to wear)	- klederdracht (costume)
plegen	(to care)	- plicht (duty)
wegen	(to weigh)	- gewicht (weight)
mogen	(to be allowed)	- mocht (past tense - might)
brengen	(to bring)	- bracht (brought)
also denken	(to think)	- dacht (thought)
zoeken	(to seek)	- zocht (sought)

(2) The above -cht < g + t falls together in Dutch (but not in Frisian, English or German) with -cht < f + t e.g. gracht (canal) < graven (to dig) - compare Germ. Gruft/graben, achter (after), schacht (shaft), zacht (soft), lucht (air - Germ. Luft); also the past tense kocht < kopen (to buy).^37.

This shift began in the tenth century in the Low and Middle Franconian areas. It did not occur in Frisian and thus Hollands with its Frisian substrate, did not undergo the shift until quite late; -ft still occurred there in the seventeenth century. Middle Dutch texts, mostly of southern origin, show the shift as complete. Words such as bruiloft (wedding) and deftig (distinguished) are relicts. Sometimes -ft has been restored by analogy e.g. helft (< half), vijftig (< vijf) but vichtig still occurs in Middle Dutch. Heeft and hoofd are contractions of hevet and hoved which have occurred since the shift of -ft > -cht.

37. Eng. f and Dutch X altemate sometimes outside the combination ft/cht e.g. enough/genoeg, laugh/lachen, this is an Ingwaeonic feature of English.

Grapheme h

Germanic h (X) developed from Indo-European k via the First German Sound Shift (see p. 121); in Anlaut before vowels it is now found as h, in other positions as ch (see p. 153) or not at all. The words hond (dog - Lat. canis), hoofd (head - Lat. caput), huis (house - Lat. casa) all contrast with cognates beginning with c in Latin based languages, for example.

The combination hw (pron. Xv or Xw) in Germanic usually dropped the h in favour of the w e.g. waar (where, Goth, hvar), welk (which, Goth hvileiks) but in the case of hoe (how, < Gmc. *hwo), the reverse occurred - compare the pronunciation of Eng. what, where, who.

In Flanders, Zeeland and parts of Brabant h is not a phoneme and is thus often

[p. 155]

dropped, as in Cockney English. In these dialects, the space left by the dropping of h in the phonemic system is filled by g, which is pronounced as h i.e. een gele hoed (a yellow hat) - pron. een hele oed.

Confusion with regard to h in Anlaut is already evident in the eleventh century West Flemish sentence mentioned on p. 127 i.e. hic = ic. Throughout the Middle Dutch period texts of southern origin show such misspellings - huut (< uut = uit), us (< huus = huis).

The pronoun het (it - Germ. es) also has no h historically, as the English and German cognate forms indicate; it has been added by analogy with other pronominal forms with h e.g. hij (he), hem (him), haar (her). Similarly the neuter definite article het, which, like the pronoun het is usually pronounced [әt], is by analogy spelt in the same way (see p. 163).

For the frequent occurrence of h in Inlaut and Auslaut in German, which is not found in Dutch, see p. 154 i.e. sehen, gehen, Schuh, Floh etc.

Grapheme d

Dutch d also has a complicated prehistory involving the First German Sound Shift (see p. 121). The two sounds which are found in Germanic as d (< IE. dh) and þ/ð (< IE. t), occur as d in Dutch (see p. 126 for the development of þ/ð > d).

In High German, Germanic d > t and thus the following words contrast: Tag - dag/day, Tal - dal/dale, Tat - daad/deed, trinken - drinken/drink etc. Where both German and Dutch have d, this d is derived from þ, as the English cognates indicate e.g. das/dat - that, denken - think, dünn/dun - thin etc.

Final d in Dutch is pronounced voiceless, as in German (see p. 150).

Vocalisation and syncope of d:

Depending on the preceding vowel, d in the combination vowel + d + e has been a) vocalised to i/j or w^38. or b) syncopated (probably via j).

(a) ooievaar (stork < MNL. ôdevâre), rooien (to dig up, MNL. rôden); beneden (beneath, pron. beneje), goede (good, pron. goeje), poeder (powder, pron. poeier or poejer), snijden (to cut, pron. snijen).^39. The long vowels or diphthongs which precede d in such words require a j-type glide between the two syllables to facilitate pronunciation. This vocalisation of d is heard much more than it is written, as the above spellings indicate. In a similar way, d after ou before e is often vocalised to w e.g. houden^39. (to hold, pron. houwen), koude (cold, pron. kouwe), oude (old, pron. ouwe); it is written as w in very few words, however e.g. gouwe (a flower, < *goude), vouwen (to fold, < MNL. vouden < *volden < * Gmc. faldan).

(b) kou (cold, < koude), lui (people, < luide), sla (salad, < salade), slee (sleigh, < slede), zou (should, < zoude < *zolde); blaren (leaves, < bladeren), een boel(a lot, < boedel), broer (brother, < broeder), kwalijk (angry, < kwadelijk), leeg (empty, < ledig), lelijk (ugly, < ledelijk), weer (weather, < weder).

When a long vowel + d + e occurred at the end of a word, the syncope of d led to apocope of the final syllable, as the first examples above illustrate. The other

38. The term semi-vowel for j or w is particularly apt in this context.

39. The first person singular of the present indicative and the interrogative of the second person singular of such verbs show apocope of d in both the spoken and the written word e.g. ik snij, snij je; ik hou, hou je.

39. The first person singular of the present indicative and the interrogative of the second person singular of such verbs show apocope of d in both the spoken and the written word e.g. ik snij, snij je; ik hou, hou je.

[p. 156]

examples show the loss of a syllable in the middle ofa word due to syncope of d. Occasionally in formal or older texts words of both types are written out fully e.g. leder (leather, > leer), mede (with, > mee), weide (meadow, > wei). Sometimes the syncopated and unsyncopated forms coexist with a differentiation in meaning e.g. boel/boedel (a lot/possessions), broer/broeder (brother/brother in an order), moer/moeder (nut/mother), Nederland/neerlandicus (Netherlands/graduate in Dutch), vergaren/vergaderen (to gather/meet).

Vocalisation of d, whether to j or nothing, is very widespread in Modern Dutch, but is found somewhat less frequently in Middle Dutch texts. It is not limited to Dutch but is also heard in Plattdeulsch and Danish. In French too, intervocalic d was syncopated (e.g. ouïr < Lat. audire). The origin of the phenomenon in Low Franconian could thus have been in West Flanders(see p. 21). It certainly started in the south any way and became common in Amsterdam only after 1585 with the arrival of the southern immigrants (see p. 101). This is also consistent with the occurrence of j < ij, a sound the Brabanders are believed to have introduced into the north.

An interesting example of the effect vocalisation of d can have on a word is the variety of spellings of the name Bredero, a famous seventeenth century writer: Brederode, Bredero, Breero (with a double syncope).

As the cause of this vocalisation of d is to be found in lazy articulation (it is even more common in plat), there is still a feeling that it is not always beschaafd to apply it. This has led to a stylistic distinction sometimes being made e.g. broer (the relative), broeder (the cleric), goeie but Goede Vrijdag (Good Friday), tevree or tevreje but tevredenheid (satisfaction), mee (with) but medeklinker (consonant), neer (down) but nederlaag (deïeat). This had led to hypercorrect forms with d where etymologically d never existed e.g. bevrijden (to liberate - Germ. befreien), geschieden (to happen - Germ. geschehen), wijden (to dedicate - Germ. weihen). A well-known Dutch politician who represents the farmers of Holland talks of the politieke partijden (= partijen) in his regular television broadcasts.

For the occurrence of d in words such as kelder (cellar), donder (thunder) and puurder (purer) see r.

Grapheme t

Dutch t is also a product of the First German Sound Shift (p. 121). German words with ss/tz where Dutch has t have undergone the Second German Sound Shift e.g. essen - eten (to eat), setzen - zetten (to put). Dutch t is pronounced unaspirated unlike in English and German.

In Middle Dutch texts one often finds t in Auslaut where Modern Dutch has d e.g. hant - hand (hand), vant - vond (found); nowadays the ‘rule of uniformity’ has been applied to the spelling i.e. hand because of handen and vond because of vonden.

Final t after fricatives (i.e. cht, ft, st) is apocopated in Limburg and the big cities along the rivers: Utrechtenaars in particular are noted for this and are thus humorously known as theedieven (tea-thieves) e.g. Utrech < Utrecht. The same phenomenon is found consistently throughout Afrikaans, inherited from plat Hollands.

For the history of -tje < -ke as a diminutive ending, see p. 157.

For rendering foreign words which contain the Eng. ch sound, the Dutch alphabet uses tj (adopted by Indonesian originally) - compare sj for Eng. sh.

[p. 157]

Grapheme p

Dutch p, also a product of the First German Sound Shift (see p. 121), has remained unchanged since Old Germanic times. It is pronounced unaspirated however, unlike in English and German. In addition p, along with t and k, was one of the sounds affected by the Second or High German Sound Shift and thus Dutch words with p contrast with German words with ff/pf e.g. dorp/Dorf (Ihorpe), heup/Hüpfe (hip), peper/Pfeffer (pepper), pond/Pfund (pound).

Grapheme k

Dutch k is also a product of the First German Sound Shift. In Middle Dutch texts it often occurs as c or ck e.g. ick - ik. It only occurs in the combination ks in foreign words e.g. boksen (to box), tekst (text) - (see p. 151).

Like the other unvoiced stops t and p, it is unaspirated in Dutch but aspirated in English and German.

Also like the stops t and p this sound underwent the Second Sound Shift in High German^40. and consequently Dutch words with k contrast with German words with ch e.g. boek/Buch (book), ik/ich (I), maken/machen (to make), steken/stechen (to sting). In Limburg k > ch, depending on the position in a word, and is found over a large area (see the Uerdinger Line on map 5).

The Middle Dutch diminutive ending -kijn, still found in southern dialects as -ke(n), is found in northern speech as -tje, the most frequent diminutive ending, depending on the preceding sound. This tj is believed to be a Hollands (therefore coastal, Ingwaeonic) palatalisation of k such as one finds in other positions too in English and Frisian e.g. cheese/kaas, church/kerk, bench/bank. K was not otherwise palatalised in Low Franconian, however.

40. Standard High German, which is based on Middle German (i.e. of central Germany), does not show a shifted k in Anlaut; this is only found in the dialects of the far south, particularly in Switzerland.

Grapheme j

The grapheme j fulfils in Dutch the function of y in English, but as it is a very palatal sound and many Germanic g's > y in English, it is not nearly as common as that letter in English e.g. gelukkig - lucky (from Gmc. g), lag - lay, but ye - jij, year - jaar, yoke - juk (all from Gmc. j). There are but a few examples of such palatalisation of initial g in Dutch and these can be regarded as Ingwaeonisms - jenever (Dutch gin, sometimes still written genever), jegens (towards - Germ. gegen). Where Dutch has g instead of etymologically correct j (gene, gij, ginder), the cause may be hypercorrection of the above.

Grapheme 1

Dutch l is a thicker, more velar sound than l in German or English, where it is also pronounced differently according to its phonetic environment and position in a word - thus the vocalisation of al and ol + t/d > ou in OWLF (see p. 126). The l in such words was still written in the north for a long time. Sometimes l has been restored by analogy e.g. gelden/gold/gegolden (to be valid), smelten/smolt/gesmolten (to smelt). Otherwise the combinations old/olt and ald/alt are only found in words of foreign origin e.g. altaar (altar) - but autaar also exists, bushalte

[p. 158]

(bus stop), folteren (to torture, from Germ.), gehalte (quality), soldaat (soldier). In the Saxon areas of the north and east l has not been vocalised e.g. Paterswolde and Oldenzaal.

In Germanic hl (pron. Xl) was common in Auslaut, as were hr and hw, but these h's had dropped off by the time of Middle Dutch e.g. lid (eyelid, < *hlid), Lodewijk (Louis, < Hlodowîk).

Although r is the sound that most frequently underwent metathesis in Dutch, metathesis of l in the combination þ + l also occurs e.g. naald (needie - Germ. Nadel).

Grapheme m

M has changed little since Old Germanic times. The combination mb (compare Eng. comb, lamb) is found in Middle Dutch as mp in Auslaut (see p. 150) and as mm (i.e. by assimilation) in Inlaut e.g. lamp - lammeren (lamb - lambs); nowadays, however, the singular or uninflected forms also show m by analogy with forms with mm in Inlaut e.g. kam - kammen (comb - combs), dom - domme (dumb - infl. form).

Historically one also finds m in Auslaut which has been weakened to n nowadays e.g. Middle Dutch ic hem - Modern Dutch ik ben (I am), Middle Dutch hem/hum - Modern Dutch hen/hun (them). The masculine and neuter dative m, so evident in German, also weakened to -n in Dutch e.g. tenslotte (at the end, finally) < te den (= n. dat. sing.) slot. However, several words beginning with b preserve m in Auslaut, where English also keeps m but German shows n e.g. bezem (broom - Germ. Besen), bodem (bottom - Germ. Boden), boezem (bosom - Germ. Busen).

Grapheme n

The tendency for final n after ә to be apocopated (e.g. lopen - to walk, pannen - pans) in most Dutch dialects, except those based on Saxon, was already present in Middle Dutch. However, even in areas where it is usually dropped (also in ABN), it is often retained to avoid hiatus e.g. eten en drinken (eating and drinking); it is also commonly heard in such positions where there is no n in the written language e.g. wat zien ik (> wat zie ik - plat), toen hoorde-n-ie (< toen hoorde hij). Although infinitives have always ended in -en, -en has not always been as widespread as a plural ending (see p. 166).

For the development of n in Auslaut from m, see m.

For the combination ng (pron. ƞ), see g.

Historically n has been syncopated and caused lengthening of the preceding short vowel in some words i.e. compensatory lengthening in the combination short vowel + n + X/f/þ/s (i.e. fricatives) e.g. bracht (brought, < brengen), vijf (five - Goth. fimf), muiden (river mouth in place names, Goth. munþs). In part of South Holland and North Brabant the combination short vowel + n + s causes nasalisation and lengthening of the vowel e.g. mens (compare the pronunciation in Afrikaans).

Grapheme r

Dutch r has a double origin - either Germanic r or Germanic z. The latter origin explains why Dutch has z in verliezen (to lose) and vriezen (to freeze), for example,

[p. 159]

while German has verlieren and frieren (compare also Eng. to lose - forlorn). As a result of Verner's Law (see p. 122), s and z alternated in certain words in Germanic; z in Inlaut could change by a process known as rhotacism to r. This process, often aided by analogy, produced the following cognate forms with r and s/z alternating e.g. kiezen (to choose)- voorkeur (preference), meer (more)- Goth. máiza, oor (ear) - Goth. ausô, verliezen (to lose) - verloren (lost)^41.. The process is common in English and German too, as the examples illustrate.

The alternation of dental and velar r, depending on the area, is discussed on p. 54, the original Dutch r was a dental one, however.

Many monosyllabic Dutch words show metathesis of r i.e. r + short vowel + dental > short vowel + r + dental e.g. borst (breast), kerstmis (Christmas), pers (press), vers (fresh). This did not occur, however, in Anlaut or in combination with nt/nd e.g. rust (rest), branden (to burn). Many more instances of metathesis are found in Middle Dutch texts, even in polysyllabic words, than exist in ABN today.

Where (originally sonant) r immediately followed l, n or r, a medial d often developed in Dutch e.g. daalder (dollar - Germ. Taler), donder (thunder - Germ. Donner), kelder (cellar - Germ. Keller); beenderen (bones, < been, bone), boerderij (farm, < boer, farmer). It is common in the comparative of adjectives that end in r e.g. duurder (dear, < duur), puurder (purer, < puur).

R has often had various effects on preceding vowels depending on the phonetic environment: for example, it often caused lengthening of the vowel (baard - beard, woord - word). Such changes have been dealt with under the respective vowels.

41. Germ. verlieren - verlor/verloren - verloren and Dutch verliezen - verloor/verloren - veloren contrast with Middle Dutch verliesen - verloos/verloren - verloren where Middle Dutch shows r only where historically z occurred; the Dutch and German paradigms show a partial and complete analogy respectively.

Grapheme w

North of the rivers w is now a labio-dental sound and thus also in ABN; in the Middle Ages, and even nowadays south of the rivers, w was and is a bilabial sound as in English.

Germanic hw in Anlaut (i.e. kw < IE. kw via the First German Sound Shift) has been simplified to w e.g. waar (where), wat (what, < *hwat - compare Lat. quod), welk (which) etc.; thus hw and w in Anlaut fell together, as in German.

The combination wr in Anlaut was retained in Dutch but was simplified to r in German e.g. wreken (to revenge - Germ. rächen), wrijven (to rub - Germ. reiben), wringen (to wring^42. - Germ. ringen). In this position wr is pronounced as Dutch vr, however.

For the effect of Germanic w after vowels where diphthongs and double vowels were created see p. 148.

Words like schaduw (shadow), zenuw (nerve - sinew), zwaluw - (swallow) have preserved w in Auslaut where it historically followed a consonant; the German

42. Compare also Eng. ‘to write’ where the w is preserved in the spelling but not pronounced; similarly with hw in ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘who’ etc.

[p. 160]

cognates either show no trace of w or it appears as b e.g. Schatten, Sehne, Schwalbe - also gelb (yellow - Dutch geel).

In some instances w in Auslaut after r became v which was devoiced to f e.g. nerf (woodgrain - Germ. Narbe), verf (paint - Germ. Farbe).

Bibliography

LOEY, A. van Schönfeld's historische grammatica van het Nederlands. Thieme, Zutphen, 1959. This is the last word on Dutch historical grammar. A wonderfully detailed book that takes some effort to become acquainted with, but it is an effort which is well worthwhile for the enthusiast.

LOEY, A. van Inleiding tot de historische klankleer van het Nederlands. Thieme, Zutphen, 1967. The original intention of this booklet was to offer a synopsis of the chapters dealing with historical phonology in the above book. The result is disappointing because more of the book is devoted to general Germanic phonology than to the sounds of Dutch.

BREE, C. van Leerboek voor de historische grammatica van het Nederlands. Wolters-Noordhoff, Groningen, 1977. This book was intended as a more palatable update of Schönfeld (see above). In this it has failed in my opinion; Schönfeld remains insurpassable.

TIESEMA, H.D. Abriβ der historischen Laat- und Formenlehre des Deutschen. Van Walraven, Vaassen, 1969. This is an excellent synopsis of the historical grammar of German but as it was written by a Dutchman for use by Dutch tertiary students of German, much of what is described is compared with developments in Dutch.

WEIJNEN, A.A. Het schema van de klankwetten. Van Gorcum, Assen, 1970. This is a terse lucid summary of the development of the sounds of (West) Germanic into those of Dutch.

GOOSSENS, J. Historische Phonologie des Niederländischen. Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen, 1974. A Standard work on the subject. It is compact and quite technical in approach but very good.