Dutch phonology

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.)

Kolmiel (talk)05:45, 14 September 2016

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.

CodeCat10:54, 14 September 2016

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.

Kolmiel (talk)16:28, 14 September 2016

Sounds like English in this respect. At least in my speech, prince sounds like prints, both something like [pɹɪ̃ˀt͡s].

Benwing2 (talk)02:34, 20 September 2016

I think the difference in Dutch may be that in "gans" the n is articulated weakly and may become a nasal vowel to some speakers (at least for me), whereas with "gants" there is no such weakening, and it remains fully occluded.

CodeCat18:49, 20 September 2016
 

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.

‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │Tala við mig21:19, 20 September 2016