Het Nederlandse Accent 3: Devoicing Final Consonants

Has it really been TWO AND HALF YEARS since I uploaded Part 2? I still get comments on the first two videos (and the u vs. je one) every day!

Well, here's the third installment, on the devoicing of consonants at the ends of words. This striking feature of spoken Dutch is, to me, also the most distinctive feature of the Dutch accent in English.

Quick tip: If you can master the word "have," you've come a long way toward sounding like an American.

I have no idea why the video is so blue. I guess it's a white balance thing. You can see a similar effect in a video from early . . . 2006? . . . in which I eat ice cream.

Oh, and I filmed this using a friend's camera. That's why you can see and hear me. I haven't tried mine again since the wedding.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• prepoceros
• dutch
• nederlands
• accent
• speak
• english
• devoicing
• consonants
• final
• sound

[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.

[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.

[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!

[1987marjo]

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

[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.

[ratelslangen]

Steenkolen engels

watch?v=N9-4ycMmoXk



[ratelslangen]

smurf?