Five Brothers and a War

The Dutch Language—Consonants

DUTCH

SOUND

COMMENT

d

d, t

A “d” at the end of a word is pronounced as a “t”, otherwise as a normal “d” As in “meisje” (“girl”) which is pronounced with the “m” sound then the “a” as in “apple” followed instantly with the “y” sound of “yolk”, then “shə” =m αy shə Either s+gutteral “g”, such as “school”=s§ol, or if toward the end of a word, s alone, because in old Dutch, the “ch” were silent. Thus, the Dutch beer “Grolsch” is pronounced with the guttural “g” followed by the rolling “r” and ending “ols”, with a sharp “s” sound, like the English “ss”=§rolss. Is pronounced the same as in English, NOT the German way, which would add an “h”, as “strüdel” which would be pronounced shtru del, or “Gestapo”, which would be Ge-shtop-o Again, pronounced the same as in English, NOT the German way, which would also add an “h”, as with the German wine, Spätlese, which is pronounced Shpayt laysa.

sj

shoot

sch

st

street

holland sp

sport

kn

kn

Unlike English, both sounds are pronounced.

nk

ngk

An English “ing” sound is inserted before the “k”.

th

t

When a combined consonant, the “h” is silent. If the “t” ends a syllable and the “h” begins another, both are pronounced, as occurs in the English word “pothole”.

Five Brothers and a War

Page 10