Re: YAPT: Dutch ij and ui

--- Carsten Becker <post@...> wrote:
> My parents decided the day before yesterday's noon
> to visit the
> Netherlands the other day. When reading the road
> signs, we weren't sure
> how to pronounce <ij>, <u> and <ui>. My father
> always said [i:] or [Ei)]
> for <ij>, [y] for <u> and <ui> I don't remember
> anymore. I always
> thougth that <ij> would be [Ai)] (IJsselmeer is here
> usually pronounced
> ["Ai)sl=me:6]) and <ui> would be either [Oi)] or
> even [9i)]. <g> is
> always [x] or [X]. And <sch> is [sx], because it's
> ["Ens.xId@] AFAIK
> (Enschede, German ["EnS@d@]). At least in the news
> they always said it
> that way when there was a big bomb explosion (or was
> it a train crash?)
> in Enschede some years ago.
>
My aunt explained me all these sounds when she was
still alive (she was a Dutch teacher in Belgium). I
could reproduce them more or less orally, but I find
them rather difficult to explain.

"ij" would be something like French "è" (like in
même), followed by a short e muet (schwa ?). The
German correspondance would be "ei", but this is not
the way it is pronounced.

"ui" would be [9], like in French "neuf", also
followed by something between schwa and i. The German
correspondance would probably be "eu" (same remark).
You have both of these sounds "ij" and "ui" in
"IJmuiden".

"sch" is 's' followed by something like 'kh'. It is
not German "sch", and the throat doesn't work like in
German "Bach". To utter it, I put both sides of my
tongue root in contact with my upper rear molars, and
I force air out of my throat while leaving little
place for it. It's a little like when you clean your
throat before spitting, except that the throat itself
isn't part of the process (maybe in some dialects it
is ?)

There certainly are official names for all these
sounds, which are very specific of Dutch. But since
you've been in the Netherlands, why didn't you stop
somebody on the street and ask him to pronounce them
himself in front of you ? Or ask in a shop ? You would
have got first hand information.



=====
Philippe Caquant

"High thoughts must have high language." (Aristophanes, Frogs)


		
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