Dutch phonology
Got another little question if I may:
Does Dutch have a phonemic distinction between clusters like /ns/ and /nts/ (Hans vs. iemands), or /ŋt/ and /ŋkt/ (zingt vs. zinkt), that is: nasal + plosive with the same place of articulation + another consonant?
(German doesn't, except by prescription.)
It certainly does, yes, though they can be simplified in the way you describe as well. The contraction of /ŋkt/ seems more natural to me than the contraction of /nts/, though.
Thanks a lot! In German, Gans and ganz are homophones and either of them can be pronounced both [gans] replace g with ɡ, invalid IPA characters (g) and [gants]] replace g with ɡ, invalid IPA characters (g]). As I mentioned, the official standard prescribes a distinction, but it has hardly any foundation in actual speech.
Interesting. My German prof in university pronounced these differently, as [ganz] replace g with ɡ, invalid IPA characters (g) and [gants] replace g with ɡ, invalid IPA characters (g) respectively. I don't know where in Germany she grew up. My high-school German teacher also pronounced these differently, and I think I remember her saying her family was from the old Prussian area.