Characteristics

Modern Standard Dutch has the following consonants, given here in the usual spellings: stops,p, b, t, d, k; fricatives, f, v, s, z, ch, g; nasals, m, n, ng; liquids, l, r; glides, w, h, j.

The voiced stops and fricatives b, d, v, z, and g are unvoiced to p, t, f, s, and ch, respectively, as final letters of a word. The spelling shows this in the case of v and z (plural dieven ‘thieves,’huizen ‘houses,’ but singular dief ‘thief,’ huis ‘house’) but does not show it in the case of b, d, and g (plural ribben ‘ribs,’ bedden ‘beds,’ dagen ‘days,’ but singular rib ‘rib,’ bed ‘bed,’ dag ‘day,’ pronounced “rip,” “bet,” “dock”).

Dutch has three classes of vowels and diphthongs: (1) six checked vowels, which are short and always followed by a consonant, (2) 10 free vowels and diphthongs, most of them usually long, which need not be followed by a consonant, and (3) a vowel that occurs only in unstressed syllables. (See table—the traditional spelling is to the left, and to the right is a notation, used by some linguists, that indicates the distinctive sounds [phonemes] of the language.) Unlike the English spelling system, which in its basic design has remained essentially unchanged since the days of Chaucer (died 1400), the Dutch spelling system has undergone a series of official reforms to keep it in line with changes in pronunciation. The principal inconsistencies in the spelling of vowels are the spellings ij and ei, which both symbolize the same diphthong, pronounced somewhat between the ai of English aisle and the ai of English maid (bijt ‘he bites’ rhymes with feit ‘fact’), and the spellings ou and au, which both symbolize the same diphthong, pronounced somewhat between the ow of English now and the ow of English low (bouw‘building’ rhymes with nauw ‘narrow’). Free vowels are written with double letters in closed syllables (vuur ‘fire,’ boot ‘boat’), but with single letters in open syllables (vuren ‘fires,’ boten‘boats’). In contrast the checked vowels are always written with single letters.