Re: German Spelling Reform (fwd)

On Mon, 9 Aug 1999, dirk elzinga wrote:

> Well, it kind of is pronounced. I've noticed definite nasalization of
> the final vowel of Dutch infinitives and plurals in -en. It may not be
> an alveolar nasal as the orthography might suggest, but there is
> something there!
Depends on the region - in my speech (cultured Noord-Holland) it's
just a shwa, in northern speech it's just the /n/ (realized as [m]
after labials). That is, I say ['lop@], they say ['lopm] with an
almost syllabic /m/.

I've noticed that our kids (five and almost four) go through periods
of using the -n for emphasis, a habit that they probably picked up
from their grandmother, who is a retired schoolteacher.

   Irina

            Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay.
                     irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself)
       http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/index.html (English)
    http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/backpage.html (Nederlands)