Re: Dutch questions

Rob Haden wrote:
> Speaking of Dutch and vowels, I was wondering if anyone could provide a
> list of the Dutch vowels and their correspondences in English.  I've tried
> to do so myself but have found some apparent irregularities, so I'd like
> to see what others have come up with. :P
>
Here's the list from my "Kramers' Engels Woordenboek" (23d ptg., 1953)-- it
actually uses IPA, though it appears to be British-oriented...

Dutch: bad [A] (script a)-- Engl. "shorter than bath"
baden, haast [a] -- fast, father
bed [E] -- gat
feest, lezen [e] -- face
pit [I] -- pit
riet [i]  --free
bot  "ò" (not IPA) -- between full and pot
pot [O] -- pot
boot, lopen [o] -- dote
hoed [u] -- foot (I would have thought more [u] than [U])
put "ü" (not IPA) -- unstressed V in ago
minuut, uren [y] -- Fr. minute
reus [o-slash] -- Fr. peu
gave (for the e) [@] -- unstr. V in ago

In foreign words only:
crème [E:] -- air
contrôle [O:] -- draw
freule [long oe-lig] -- pearl
+ the four nasal vowels of French [a~, E~, o~, oe~] as in dans, enfin, ton,
and Verdun resp.

Diphthongs
Du. ai [ai] -- line
ijs, reis [Ei] --- eye (I think this is just "close enough")
koud [Ou] -- loud (ditto above comment)
darri [a:i] -- a of fast + ee of free
eeuw [e:u] -- a of face + oo of foot
nieuw [i:u] -- free + foot
nooit [o:I] -- dote + free
huis [oe lig+y] -- pearl + unstr.V of ago
toeit [u:i] -- foot + free
duw [y:u] -- Fr. minute + foot

That pretty much matches what I've been told by L2 Du. speakers in
Indonesia, and a few L1 speakers elsewhere (correcting my atrocious
pronounciation).  But I read it quite well :-))

I'm sure there are regional variations. Coming soon to your browser-- YADPT.

When early 20th Du. missionaries tried to reduce Indonesian langs. to
written form, they often followed Du. conventions. The very worst ex. was
the Kei language; even after 20+ years I'm still not sure what the guy meant
with some of his spellings.