Het Nederlandse Accent 3: Devoicing Final Consonants

[moha19bouch]

2007 ---> 2011 you changed a lot haha

[mattgick]

I noticed your comment on dutch television. You are aware of uitzendinggemist.nl right? It offers all show aired on dutch national television. Ranging from 'Journaal 20:00l' (8 o'clock news broadcast of about 20 minutes) and 'Jeugdjournaal' (children's news) to 'Breaking Bad'.

I've tried accessing it from the states and that seems to work. Hope you have tons of dutch fun!

Groetjes uit Nederland!

[kevino176]

Ik was naar de bioscoop gegaan jonge kut;)

[1987marjo]

Accent: you really want to see this!

Look up on Youtube " hoe goed spreekt de Nederlander Engels" .

Hillarious!

[rvistaworkbench]

to the point,jesussup ... why all vlogers must talk shit, before they go to actual content?

[Haledesu]

This is awesome, i was trying to find videos for my girlfriend in Florida ( because she wants to learn how to speak dutch ) and this video helped me and her both. Thanks for that, I knew it wasnt totally right with some words, but now I know what to pay attention to.

[T4b4sc0p3pp3r]

Very strange... but in Dutch the L sometimes changes into a W.

For example school. When vocalizing the L, your tongue does not touch your teeth, so you hear a W.

[1987marjo]

@T4b4sc0p3pp3r I'm dutch, and I don't know what you mean? Do do have an example?

[ratelslangen]

Steenkolen engels

watch?v=N9-4ycMmoXk

[ratelslangen]

smurf?

[ratelslangen]

had is comletely devoiced

[ManolitoMystiq]

Finally, many Dutch don't understand the silent b's and l's in both BrE and AmE, and silent r's in BrE, and t's in AmE. Like: 'bom-ber-man', 'debt' with a voiced b, 'could' (pronounced c[u]ld with a voiced l), 'walk' with a pronounced l. Also, we don't have the [ɒ] (to my ears in between [ɔ] and [ɑ]. Words with an [ɒ] vowel seem to be replaced with [ɔ], simply because the difference isn't heard. Then again, I don't think the [ɒ] vowel is common in AmE at all, either.

[ManolitoMystiq]

Also, the reason why many Dutch use the [u] vowel instead of [ʊ], might be, because we tend to think that a letter combination would always sound the same. We have 'soft versions' and 'hard versions' for each vowel. [A: a, aa]; [E: e, ee]; [I: i, ie]; [O: o, oo], [U: u, uu] and one for [u]: oe (well, sometimes ou). So the Dutch automatically think that boot has to rhyme with book, cook, etc. On the other hand: 'blood', 'door' we do pronounce correct, as far as I know.

[ManolitoMystiq]

However, the IPA shows it's the same, but to my (Dutch) ears, they are different. Actually, I stumbled on this subject, because I realized that our 'pause fillers' (is that the word?) "uhm" sounds different to the AmE "uhm", even though the IPA says it's both using a schwa. Then again, the -ər of finger, to me, sounds different from ə of but, the former more like 'our ə'. Do you agree?

[ManolitoMystiq]

Dear Prepoceros, I think I have an interesting question for you: It's part of our language to not pronounce the slot-n of plurals in Dutch, like 'hebben' — you mentioned in a previous video. The -e of -en is, according to my sources, a schwa (upside down e). It's our most used vowel sound, like your schwa is your most used vowel sound. (cont.)

[TheMasenko]

- Id like to order the crab

- The crap ?

- Yes the crab

- Heres it.

- Man this tastes like shit, what is this ?

- Its the crap you wanted.

Ha haa

[MufferNl]

There really is no rule for the devoicing. It's just the way words are pronounced. This most likely grew over time like the difference between British and American English. These two grew apart from each other over time and so did the Dutch written and spoken language.

[LemonVX]

How can I lose the dutch 'th'

[svenskacat]

my dutch friend went to park her CAH the other day. lol

[saazee90]

had had had ik had een hond??

[kenchy12]

I'm a native Dutch speaker and I live in Belgium. The dialects here differ so much from each other that I am barely able to understand people that live on the other side of the country.

You should go and listen to some Flemish Dutch accents.

After checking all these videos I realized the only thing that's wrong with my accent is the th sound. Sometimes I get it and sometimes I don't.

[jiska111111111111111]

'Experimentencomplex' Say that you fuck!

Sorry, I apologize.

[vzzzbx13]

"had" in Dutch is indeed totally devoiced. We say "hat", not even a bit voiced :)

[sterkenpictures]

ze heeft wel gelijk met die letters :D

[elchasai]

you arir fuckind beautifow

[amgoo12]

We don't say, "Ik heb een niewe hond" or "Ik hep een nieuwe hond"

In the south, it's: 'kep 'n nieuwe hond

[Flaphand]

Hey there, I am dutch here. And I've been watching Dutch Accents quite awhile. Like the Amsterdamish one the most. Since it's more clear. Anyhow. About the devoicing. It's partialy true. The B, and P are very different. Yes when saying: Heb, it sounds like the P, but if you literally speak the P in the word Heb, it sounds odd. You still form your mouth to the letter B, but just short it in. With a silent P'ish like sound at the end. Same goes for: Had. (matter of Emphizing really)

[toothpick1th]

Haha! You are so right about the dutch accent! ' I hef a dok':p

It is so embarrassing to hear most Dutch politicians, reporters etc. speak English! When I hear it I'm like: 'oh god not another one!'

The funny thing is:

English with ze german akzzent zoundz funny:P

enlieash wis se freanch eaccent sounds funny eass weal:P

But Inglsih wit the Duts aksent just sounts terrubul!:P:P:P

Anyway, cool and interesting video's!

I really enjoyed them!

Ga zo door!

Groetjes uit Nederland!

[RietjeRox]

omg this way i finally know how to pronounce stuff the right way!!! we dont even learn this at school >.>

[globalexpatriate]

Great movies! I'm a Dutch guy, trying to improve my American English

[EdEditz]

As a dutch person I must say you're pretty spot on with you analysis.

[hotxkisses]

lol why am I listening to this... Im Dutch hahahah nice tho!

[vagegast37]

Een dok is weer iets anders

[dune2online]

Oh hi! I like your video's. BTW you're super attractive to me. just wanting to share that :D

groetjes van een Nederlandse man

[twiddict]

had is a bit more voiced than heb, but not that much.

The worst word for Dutch to pronounce in English is 'bathroom', I think... I heard so many people say 'Bètrrrrrrrroem' and yes, they meant your 'crap'

I love your vids btw, I've been watching your coverage (that's not a word, is it? Feat?) on Dutch and it's cool :)

[twiddict]

had is a bit more voiced than heb, but not that much.

The worst word for Dutch to pronounce in English is 'bathroom', I think... I heard so many people say 'Bètrrrrrrrroem'

[DavorNL]

oh lol you watched the same program i did

[DavorNL]

Alot of dutch people pronounce ''crab'' like ''crap''

Can i have a craP salad?

[AEneArts]

I like your videos about Dutch or Dutch things, like those holiday videos :). It's interesting to see how non-Dutchies experience things.

Keep up the good work and good luck with your Dutch!

[Dilhorne]

OH, yeah, don't know that de-voicing is the right word it's just that at the end of the word , the sounds take a different value.But what really gets my goat is the way that Dutch people have been taught to say stuff like "camping" becomes "kemping", "Manchester" ---- becomes "Menchester" Whereas if you just to pronounce like you do in Dutch, then you pronounce it like you do in Dutch, with a Dutch "a" sound. Your pronounciationis way off anyway because og the American way of speaking English.

[WhiskyRomeo]

My name is Wieger, good luck with that one :-)

Here the (strong) accent is actually quite laughed at, so I'm trying to reduce it. Though I will keep in mind that some people actually like it :).

[JaneFokster]

Oh, about the last part of the video: After years of studying & practising English phonetics, my Dutch accent is virtually non-existent. But my British accent is now so strong, that for me, it's very difficult to sound American. I try it sometimes but it always sounds ridiculous. I like the British accent, so I don't mind, but it seems weird that I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Most Dutch people sound more American than British though, probably from watching American movies & tv series.

[JaneFokster]

Another excellent video!

Did you know that this devoicing that we do in Dutch has actually made some people want to change the official spelling of Dutch? So 'hond' (dog) would then be spelt 'hont'. Which looks terrible to me. But that way it would be easier for kids (& non-native speakers?) to learn, they say. Thankfully it doesn't look like this is going to happen, because I wouldn't be able to spell my own language anymore. :D 1 'honT' but 2 'honDen' (2 dogs). Now THAT would be inconsistent!

[WhenDoubtGuessE]

Wow! You're right! I never realized that... Although I already passed that point in my English learning :P

And by the way, crab > crep could lead to the Dutch/French word crèpe (or crêpe?) which is a thin pancake...

[grotemaarten]

I don't like lobster, it tastes like crab.

[koen3456]

I'm doing a bilingual education and we actually get taught by native speakers of English (both English and American) who also watch our pronunciation. You do sometimes get a mix of American English and British English though.

[nick26695]

hehe im dutch and this sounds soo funny

[splog]

I think your observation is accurate. Most Dutch aren't mad aware of this in English lessons, or they simply forget. For myself I must say that I have to be constantly aware of not devocalizing. The tendency is strong. When I hear myself back on tapes speaking english I notice that along the way as I'm getting less focussed the Dutch accent kicks in again...

By the way: the animal crab is called krab in Dutch and yes, it's pronounced as krap

[ekneinniuk]

thank you, I really paying attention now to devoicing. I never knew what really went wrong with my accent and now I know. thank you!

If anyone in the netherlands would say crep, i think most of the people would think of the english curse. I actually use it a lot :P I've got some questions.. Do english and american people also use smileys like these? I never see them. :D :) :P ;) -.-"

and question number two: when do you use "to" and when do you use "too"

thanks x

[anber2000]

crep is no Dutch word. I think the most people would assosiate it with crepe, the French word for some sort of pancakes. well, they are pancakes, they're just a lot thinner

[MickeyMacabre]

I love you doing these Dutch language vids because my boyfriend is American and he and his little sister want to learn Dutch but couldnt find any good books or videos on it..so thank you and I hope you do more of these :)

[henk102]

thanks, that was very interesting.

[kipstrange]

It's used in the Scots dialect as well.

[xRedster]

I'm thinking of making a video response to this since I would like to know what other people think of my accent and if there's any sort of uniqueness to my accent, since I moved to the Dutch Caribbean when I was 10 and from then on mostly, if not only, spoke American English.

[boredness123]

Yay, a new accent video :D

I'm going to amsterdam in April, very excited.. will see if I can recognise this kinda stuff there :)

[R0ZZA]

Actually just yesterday I saw a Dutch interviewer asking Tom Jones a bunch of questions and she pronounced the word important as impordand. So you also get these Dutchies who are very well aware of their accent and try to 'Americanize' it. Maybe I'm one of them.

[Prepoceros]

@R0ZZA Oooh, interesting! When I say 'impordand,' that sounds exactly like a Dutch person would say it, so I think that's very typical of the accent.

I think it's a different phenomenon, though, instead of a Dutch person consciously trying to "revoice" the ends of words. In English, the 't's in 'important' are unvoiced to begin with. (cont.)

[Prepoceros]

(cont.) In fact, they're not even pronounced, at least in my dialect. I pronounce it 'impor-n-.' At the dashes, I just stop the air in my throat, I don't even really make the 't' sound.

Are there any Dutch words that are pronounced that way? It seems very English to me.

[chrisformatik]

@Prepoceros You mean silent letters? Like in spanish when u say 'Hi!' it's Hola, but you do not pronounce the H. I can think of words that u use as well, like caberet, we do not pronounce the t at the end. But i think that word is derived from french. Mostly dutch spelling and pronunciation is the same.

[chrisformatik]

@chrisformatik I just remembered that we do say caberet with a T, both are correct in dutch. The french way is just more posh i guess.

[R0ZZA]

Hahaha it's so funny to hear you say those English words with a Dutch accent because you're so right. I really like your videos because I've always had a little obsession with languages and it's fun to see how you analyze the most important elements of our accent. Don't think I'll ever get rid of it but I'm trying! Congratulations on your wedding btw.

[Wildenborch1]

NEDERLANDSE BULLSHIt haha wat een facking rare video dit. ^

[Gyroglle]

Maybe it's just because of the images of words I make in my mind, but I can sometimes somehow feel that the supposedly unvoiced voiced consonant at the end of a Dutch word like in Heb, is actually always a tiny little bit voiced. Especially in casuel speak, when you usually let air through anyways.

[Prepoceros]

@Gyroglle Yes, I think you're right. It sounds somewhere in between to me, too.

[meamjustme]

Yup. I am trying so hard to get rid of that dutch accent.... It is sooooo annoying.

And i love these vids :)

[DutchHouseMusic1]

wow ive never looked at my language like that ! :D

Geweldige video !

[JustCallMeBen]

Also you made a small mistake at the end: at the end of a word we don't make a G into a K (those are related sounds in English, not in Dutch though)

For example, we write 'vlug' but we pronounce it 'vluch'. I don't have an example of a CH-sound in English, but I figure you already know how to pronounce that :)

[Prepoceros]

@JustCallMeBen You're right, the 'g/ch' sound in Dutch is not related to the 'k' sound.

But I'm talking about the way native Dutch speakers speak English, where the devoiced version of the 'g' sound is the 'k' sound. I don't know of any Dutch words that end with the English 'g' sound (as in jug, bug, dog, etc.), so it's hard to say how it would be pronounced in Dutch.

[JustCallMeBen]

Why aren't we taught this in school??? This would be SO helpful to improve the English accent for Dutch speakers.

[MeneerVerspiller]

You seem to have some problems with pronouncing 'had' in dutch. Dont pronounce it like the english 'hut'. The dutch 'a' is more like the short vowel sound in bar or jar.

[samipso]

Cool, keeping this in mind surely will improve my english.

It seems to me that this must be the number 1 cause for the bad dutch accent.

[MeneerVerspiller]

Its funny you like the dutch accent so much. I am dutch and i hate it and am trying now really hard to get an RP english accent.

One problem is that there are simply not enough ways to distinct words with a dutch accent. Like bet, bed, bad, bat are all pronounced like bet. Moreover, the dutch orthography is really consistent in how it is pronounced. Using this in english they will pronounce 'but' with the dutch 'u' and 'done' with the dutch 'o' while they should have the same /^/ sound.

[kyzylDersu]

@MeneerVerspiller

bat has a more stretched a than bet, but if I have to pronounce it myself I can't make a distinction. Idem for Bed and bad. Mijn Engels is toch niet zo goed als ik dacht

[747knarf]

YES I WAS WAITING FOR ANOTHER DUTCH ACCENT VIDEO!!!!!!

Do you know you make some words (english and dutch) sound very weird.

But great vid.

[Prepoceros]

@747knarf Which ones?

[747knarf]

@Prepoceros almost all of them, not your fault but if you say wordt over and over again, they automaticly sound weird.

[guslacerda]

@Prepoceros Thanks for the analysis. I'd love to watch parts 1 and 2, but can't find them.

[Withamask]

Yeah, I guess you said 'had' alright :P

And I don't agree, a substantial part of the dutch citizens do ahve horrible accents. I am really ashamed when I see some of our politicans speak English, it's disgusting :P But we are one of the best in using the english language, with 90% of the dutch people you can communicate in english without much problems.

And we know that the word 'crap' is some sort of swear word in English, but we are not used to using it ;)

[Prepoceros]

@Withamask Hey, we're impressed that your politicians can speak English, accent or no. Most of ours *only* speak English.

[amgoo12]

@Withamask, Swearing in your own language feels way better.

[Lidespam]

As far as I know the final devoicing is completely, entirely consistent. Most Dutch speakers have no idea they're doing it, though! Which is probably why it's difficult to imagine a language where you DON'T devoice the final consonant.

I took a phonology class last semester. According to our book final devoicing happens in Dutch, because the phonological process that causes it is *stronger* than our need to keep the original word intact. In English it's reversed ^_^