Dutch phonology is similar to that of other West Germanic languages, especially Afrikaans, Low Saxon, Limburgish and West Frisian.
Standard Dutch has two main de facto pronunciation standards: Northern and Belgian. Northern Standard Dutch is the most prestigious accent in the Netherlands. It is associated with high status, education and wealth. Although its speakers seem to be concentrated mainly in the densely populated Randstad in the provinces of North Holland, South Holland, and Utrecht, it is often impossible to tell where in the country its speakers were born or raised. Therefore, it cannot be considered a regional dialect in the Netherlands. Belgian Standard Dutch is used by the vast majority of Flemish journalists and is sometimes called VRT-Nederlands ("VRT Dutch"; formerly BRT-Nederlands "BRT Dutch"), after VRT, the national public broadcaster for the Flemish Region.
Consonants The following table shows the consonant phonemes of Dutch:
Labial Alveolar (Alveolo-)palatal Dorsal Glottal Plosive () () () () Fricative () () Nasal () Approximant Rhotic
Apart from , all alveolar consonants are laminal and may be realised as denti-alveolar in Belgium.
Obstruents
The glottal stop is not a phoneme because it occurs only optionally in a few specific predictable environments: It always separates and other vowels. It often occurs at the beginning of vowel-initial words after a pause. Moreso when separate vowel articulations are present within words (e.g. IQ-onderzoek, milieu-imago, toe-eigenen, coöperatie, and beaam). And even more common in the case of compounds where both elements have the same vowel at the syllable-boundary (e.g. hippie-ideaal, mee-eten, glijijzer, bui-uitdoving, kilo-ohm, trouwauto). Stops: Voiceless: Unlike in English and German, Dutch's are unaspirated word initially: both English tip and German are , but Dutch is with an unaspirated . Voiced: and are fully voiced. is not a native phoneme of Dutch and occurs only in loanwords like goal ('goal') but is analyzed as a phoneme because minimal pairs exist: goal and kool ('cabbage'). Additionally, in native words, occurs as an allophone of when it undergoes regressive voicing assimilation like in zakdoek . /Pj/: In onsets, the sequence is commonly realised as a tenuis alveolo-palatal affricate , or intervocalically as a stop or fricative , barring some loanwords and names. In onsets, the sequence is commonly realised as a tenuis alveolo-palatal affricate , or intervocalically as a stop or fricative , barring some loanwords and names. The sequence is often realised as a voiceless post-palatal affricate . Fricatives: Voicing: In the Netherlands, can devoice and merge with . According to , hardly any speakers of Northern Standard Dutch consistently contrast with . In low-prestige varieties of Netherlandic Dutch (such as the Amsterdam accent) can also devoice and merge with . Speakers who devoice and may also hypercorrectively voice and : concert "concert" may thus be compared to the more usual . Some speakers pronounce as a voiceless . Coronal: In the Netherlands, and may have only mid-to-low pitched friction, and for many Netherlandic speakers, they are retracted. In Belgium, they are more similar to English . The sequences and are often assimilated to palatalised , alveolo-palatal , postalveolar or similar realisations. are not native phonemes of Dutch and usually occur only in borrowed words like show and bagage "baggage". Depending on the speaker and the position in the word, they may or may not be distinct from the assimilated realisations of the clusters . If they are not distinct, they have the same range of realisations as noted above. Dorsal In the north, is often realised the same as ; the quality of that merged sound has been variously described as a voiceless post-velar or uvular fricative. Popularly, this is called harde g . Although they share a common phone, the two phonemes aren't said to have merged as the past tense suffix, whose voicing status is determined by the previous consonant's, still bases itself on the underlying phonemes, e.g. + -e > loogde but + -e > lachte . In the south, the distinction between and is generally preserved as velar or post-palatal . Some southern speakers may alternate between the velar and post-palatal articulation, depending on the backness of the preceding or succeeding vowel. Often referred to as zachte g . In Zeeland and West Flanders, there is also a third variant, called zwakke harde g , in which is realised as and is realised as . They are h-dropping areas, so does not merge with glottal variants of and . Some dialects, particularly those from the southwest, exhibit h-dropping.
Sonorants Nasals assimilate in the following manner. This also occurs across word-boundaries in allegro speech and may not happen word internally when overenunciating: and to a following labial obstruent: before bilabials they merge into . before labio-dentals they merge into . to a following dorsal consonants: before velars , it merges with . The realisation of in turn depends on how a following velar fricative is realised. For example, it is uvular for speakers who realise as uvulars. before palatals, , -assimilated and loan introduced-, it is realised as . varies mostly according to regional dialect: In central and northern Netherlands, it is a labiodental approximant or even a voiced labiodental fricative . Speakers in southern Netherlands and Belgium (also Hasselt and Maastricht dialects) use a bilabial approximant . It is like but without velarisation. may join the allophony. In Suriname and among immigrant populations, is common. The exact pronunciation of varies regionally: In the North, is 'clear' before vowels and 'dark' before consonants and pauses. Intervocalic tends to be clear except after the open back vowels . However, some speakers use the dark variant in all intervocalic contexts. Some accents, such as in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, have dark in all positions. Conversely, some accents in the eastern regions, along the German border (for example around Nijmegen), as well as some speakers of Standard Belgian, have clear in all contexts. The quality of dark varies: In the North, it is pharyngealised , e.g. . In a final position, many of such speakers produce a strongly pharyngealised vocoid with no alveolar contact () instead, . In Belgium, it is either velarised , e.g. ; or post-palatalised , e.g. . Palatal may appear before . varies considerably from dialect to dialect and even between speakers in the same dialect area: Coronal realisations are the historical pronunciation of the phoneme, spearheaded by the alveolar trill and the alveolar tap as common allophone. There is, in fact, a considerable amount of speakers who never realise alveolar /r/ as a trill, although most have at least some trills. At most, a few speakers were observed to have over 50% of their alveolar realisations as trills. Fricative realisation can also nowadays be heard: [~], authors do not say where exactly it is used; word finally and before /s/, is not uncommon, e.g. Uvular continuants are rising in popularity, the uvular trill serving as flagship. It is found particularly in the central and southern dialect areas and increasingly in the Randstad. e.g. . There is only a small number of uvular r speakers without at least some trills. There are also speakers who always trill. Many speakers, of course, are in between the two extremes, and mix trilled realisations with non-trilled ones (typically approximant ) in all possible proportions. In prevocalic context, most uvular speakers have at least a few fricative realisation, but very few people have very many of them (although for speakers who have very many of them, they are almost general). In codas, the uvular fricative realisations (typically voiceless) take the lead, particularly in the Belgian Dutch accents. But they are very rare in the Northern ones. The coastal dialects of South Holland produce a voiced uvular fricative . In Hague and Leiden, and remain the 2 most common rhotics in onset positions (with the former being more frequent). However, the Uvular fricatives or are not uncommon, though they are rare in other Randstad cities (especially Amsterdam). Alveolar realizations are practically non-existent in The Hague, while it's a noticeable minority in Leiden. In the post-vocalic positions, the velar bunched approximant is overwhelmingly common in both cities. In Rotterdam, there is a half-half split between and , with some speakers mixing both. is somewhat more frequent than for Uvular speakers, fricative realizations are relatively rare. remains the most frequent one in post-vocalic positions, for both Uvular and alveolar users. In Utrecht, the uvular realizations and dominate the onset positions (the former being more frequent, parallel to Amsterdam). The alveolar realizations are present but are a minority. overwhelmingly dominates the post-vocalic positions, just like the other cities. In Amsterdam, as well as in Flanders, the voiced uvular approximant is a minority. Alveolar realizations form the majority of onsets in Amsterdam, the most frequent variant among them is the alveolar tap . However, uvular variants are increasing, particularly among younger speakers. The most frequent among the uvular variants are uvular approximant and uvular trill , the approximant is slightly more frequent. Uvular fricatives are quite rare. Approximately 62.5% of the people use alveolar, 20% uvular and 17.5% mix both. In codas, is the most frequent. In most of the Flanders, especially Bruges and Antwerp, the /r/ is alveolar. In onsets, the most common alveolar variant is voiced alveolar tap and to a lesser extent, voiced alveolar trill . In codas, the voiceless alveolar fricative trill remains the most common. In some flemish cities, particularly in Ghent, Hasselt, Brussels etc, the uvular variants form the majority. Though alveolar users are a significant minority, forming around 35% of speakers in Hasselt. In onsets, the uvular approximant and uvular trill remain the most frequent. In codas, voiceless uvular fricative trill and voiceless uvular fricative are frequent. In Nijmegen, uvular /r/ is majority. Alveolar realizations are very rare. The most frequent in onsets is the uvular approximant . Uvular trill , uvular fricative trill and uvular fricative also occur but not as frequent as the approximant. There are various common realizations in coda, they include the uvular approximant , velar bunched approximant , schwa and voiceless uvular fricative . Coda r-elision isn't uncommon. Most speakers use multiple coda realizations. Syllable-finally, they may be vocalised to , much as in German, which is more common in the (south)eastern areas (Limburg, southeast Brabantian, Overijssel), e.g. . The uvular trill can also be found within the Dutch Low Saxon dialect area, where it is attested in the cities of Zutphen, Steenwijk,De Taal van Overijssel. Over de taal van Steenwijk. Kampen,De Taal van Overijssel. Over de taal van Kampen. ZwolleDe Taal van Overijssel. Over de taal van Zwolle. and Deventer.De Taal van Overijssel. Over de taal van Deventer In IJsselmuiden, a locality situated near Kampen, it can also be heard.Ph Bloemhoff-de Bruijn, Anderhalve Eeuw Zwols Vocaalveranderingsprocessen in de periode 1838–1972. IJsselacademie (2012). In rural areas of the Low Saxon region, the alveolar trill remains the prevailing realization of /r/.Ph Bloemhoff-de Bruijn, Anderhalve Eeuw Zwols Vocaalveranderingsprocessen in de periode 1838–1972. IJsselacademie (2012). The velar bunched approximant (the Gooise R, which sounds similar to the retroflex approximant) is found at the end of a syllable in the pronunciation of some speakers in the Netherlands, especially those from the Randstad, but not in Belgium. Its use has been increasing in recent years. E.g. .