Re: YADPT (D=Dutch)

--- Tristan McLeay skrzypszy:

>> Note: possible, due to the recent spelling reform, the spelling ought to
>> be "casuaris". But I'm not sure if that matters much to you... ;)
>
>Silly little spelling reformers. When K and when C?
Well, until our recent spelling reform, there used to be two different
spellings for many Latin-derived words: the "old spelling", which used _c_
in for example "product", and the "new spelling", which used _k_ and
wrote "produkt", "produktie", etc. Both spellings were accepted, but we
were taught that the New Spelling was preferable.
However, the last spelling reform abolished these multiple spellings; now
only the c-spellings are allowed. However, that does not apply in all cases
(for example, we still write "oktober" and not "october"). I simply don't
know how it applies to "kasuaris". Actually, my intuition tells me that it
would rather be "casuaris".

>> Hm, would you remember the other word, then?
>
>durske or durksa. (I tried spelling it as dirska, thinking more in
>English :)
Never heard of these before. Must be some dialect, indeed.

>> >> No. <ie> is always [i], and [i] is always [I].
I should have added that this is the case only for native words.
Borrowings follow their own rules, and in syllables without a coda
<i> can be pronounced [i], like in "vice-premier", "biseksueel",
"anti", "caffeïne", "pi", etc.

>Oh, and een and twee are pronounced the way they would seem in English in
>Mum/Oma's dialect of Dutch, so the <w> is /w/ and the ee is [i:] or
>something.
No no, it is [e:n] and [tve:].

> I guess the [w] > [v] would've been excluded after consonants
> too?
No. [w] exists in Dutch only in word- or syllable-final positions, and
AFAICT it is always representated by /uw/. Normally, /uw/ is the second
half of a diphthong, the first half being /a/, /ee/, /ie/, or /o/.
When /uw/ is not preceded by a vowel, /u/ assumes the role of "first half".

>And Mum suggests that you might be Protestant (or have had a Protestant
>upbringing) and that that explains the difference in Hollands vs
>Nederlands.
Well, I'm not a religious person, and neither were my parents. But yes, my
background is definitely more Protestant than Catholic.
Whether or not Catholics prefer the term "Hollands" over "Nederlands...
well, it seems strange to me, but I can't tell for certain. Perhaps
Christophe can enlighten us here...

Jan

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