pronounced as /notice/In the Dutch language, hard and soft G (Dutch; Flemish: harde en zachte G) refers to a phonetic phenomenon of the pronunciation of the letters and and also a major isogloss within that language.
In southern dialects of Dutch (that is, those spoken roughly below the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Waal), the distinction between the phonemes pronounced as //x// and pronounced as //ɣ// is usual, with both realized as cardinal velars pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|x}}, {{IPAplink|ɣ}}]/ or post-palatal pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|ç˗}}, {{IPAplink|ʝ˗}}]/, hereafter represented without the diacritics. The allophony between those two types of fricatives is termed soft G in Dutch dialectology. It is almost the same as the distinction between the German: Ach-Laut and the German: Ich-Laut in German, with an additional contrast of voicing.
In northern dialects of Dutch, the distinction (if present at all) is not consistent and is best described as a fortis–lenis contrast, rather than a contrast of voicing. In those varieties, pronounced as //x// and pronounced as //ɣ// are no more front than cardinal velars, with pronounced as //x// usually being uvular: pronounced as /link/. pronounced as //ɣ//, if distinct from pronounced as //x//, is typically a voiceless velar fricative pronounced as /link/. This is termed hard G in Dutch dialectology. It is also used in Afrikaans, so that the Afrikaans word Afrikaans: goed 'good' has the same pronunciation as in Northern Dutch (pronounced as /[χut]/), in addition to having the same meaning in both languages.[1]
Speakers normally use those pronunciations in both standard language and the local dialect. The only exception to that are speakers from the southern Netherlands that have undergone accent reduction training, in which case they will use a trill fricative when speaking standard Dutch. It is very rare for speakers to use the hard G when speaking Brabantian or Limburgish.
In Southern Dutch, the phonemes pronounced as //x// and pronounced as //ɣ// are either cardinal velars pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|x}}, {{IPAplink|ɣ}}]/ or post-palatal pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|ç˗|ç}}, {{IPAplink|ʝ˗|ʝ}}]/. More specifically, post-palatals occur in contact with phonemic front vowels and pronounced as //ə//, whereas the cardinal velars occur in contact with phonemic back vowels (including pronounced as //aː// and pronounced as //ɑ//). The phonemes usually contrast by voicing, but pronounced as //ɣ// can be devoiced to a lenis pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|x|ɣ̊}} ~ {{IPAplink|ç|ʝ̊}}]/ that differs from pronounced as //x// in a less energetic articulation. Verhoeven and Hageman[2] have found that 70% of word-initial and 56% of intervocalic lenis fricatives (which includes pronounced as //v// and pronounced as //z//) are realized as fully voiceless in Belgium. In Maastrichtian Limburgish, initial pronounced as //ɣ// is often partially devoiced as well.
In Ripuarian (spoken in the southeastern part of Limburg), pronounced as /link/ has been so fronted and weakened as to merge with the palatal approximant pronounced as /link/; compare Standard Dutch Dutch; Flemish: goed pronounced as //ɣut// with jód pronounced as //jot// in the Kerkrade dialect, with both words meaning 'good'. Those dialects are also an exception to the rule, as they switch over to the respective standard pronunciation when speaking Standard Dutch (in which case pronounced as /link/ is used) or, on the other side of the border (e.g. in Herzogenrath, where the Kerkrade dialect is also spoken), Standard German (in which case pronounced as /link/ is used). The pronunciation with pronounced as /link/ is marked on both sides of the border. On the Dutch side of the border, the standard pronunciation of pronounced as //ɣ// is only approximated after phonological back vowels pronounced as //u, ɔ, oː, aː//, being uvular pronounced as /link/ as in Ripuarian. On the German side, the standard German pronunciation pronounced as /link/ is usual.
In many cases, pronounced as /link/ still patterns as an obstruent, an allophone of pronounced as //ɣ// in Ripuarian. The plural form zeëje pronounced as /[ˈzeəjə]/ 'saws' has an underlying pronounced as //ɣ//: pronounced as //ˈzeəɣə// because it alternates with a voiceless fricative in the root zeëg pronounced as /[ˈzeəç]/ 'saw', phonemically pronounced as //ˈzeəɣ//. Compare this with the alternation in vroag pronounced as /[ˈvʁoəχ]/ 'question' - vroage pronounced as /[ˈvʁoəʁə]/ 'questions' (phonemically pronounced as //ˈvroəɣ//, pronounced as //ˈvroəɣə//) or with the plural-singular pair löcher pronounced as /[ˈlœçəʁ]/ - laoch pronounced as /[ˈlɔːχ]/, which has underlying voiceless fricatives: pronounced as //ˈlœxər//, pronounced as //ˈlɔːx//. The pronounced as //j// phoneme is a sonorant and thus cannot participate in alternations like the first two. Furthermore, Ripuarian features a different pronunciation of pronounced as //x// and pronounced as //ɣ// after back vowels, as uvular pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|χ}}, {{IPAplink|ʁ}}]/, not dissimilar from the Northern Dutch pronunciation in the first case. The realization of pronounced as //ɣ// as pronounced as /link/ results in a phonetic merger with pronounced as //r// and is thus an example of rhotacism. The consonants surrounding the diphthong in vroage pronounced as //ˈvroəɣə// are indistinguishable from each other: pronounced as /[ˈvʁoəʁə]/). This is a typical feature of Ripuarian. This merger is also not phonemic as pronounced as //r// too is a sonorant and thus cannot participate in alternations such as pronounced as /[ˈvʁoəχ]/ - pronounced as /[ˈvʁoəʁə]/ mentioned above.
In Northern Dutch, pronounced as //ɣ// appears immediately before voiced consonants and sometimes also between vowels, but not in the word-initial position. In the latter case, the sound is not voiced and differs from pronounced as //x// in length (pronounced as //ɣ// is longer) and in that it is produced a little bit further front (mediovelar, rather than postvelar) and lacks any trilling, so that Dutch; Flemish: vlaggen pronounced as //ˈvlɑɣən// 'flags' has a somewhat lengthened, plain voiceless velar pronounced as /link/ (hereafter represented with (IPA|ɣ̊)): pronounced as /[ˈvlɑɣ̊ə(n)]/, whereas Dutch; Flemish: lachen pronounced as //ˈlɑxən// 'to laugh' features a shorter, post-velar fricative with a simultaneous voiceless uvular trill, transcribed with (IPA|x̠͡ʀ̥) or (IPA|ʀ̝̊˖) in narrow IPA but normally written with (IPA|χ) or (IPA|x). In this article, (IPA|χ) is used (pronounced as /[ˈlɑχə(n)]/), even though the fricative portion is usually more front than cardinal uvulars. In Northern Dutch, the contrast between pronounced as //x// and pronounced as //ɣ// is unstable, and Dutch; Flemish: vlaggen is more likely to feature pronounced as /link/: pronounced as /[ˈvlɑχə(n)]/. Apart from Ripuarian, the voiceless trill fricative pronounced as /link/ appears in very different contexts in Southern Dutch, being an allophone of pronounced as //r//.
The phrase Dutch; Flemish: zachte G 'soft G' is pronounced pronounced as /[ˈzɑxtə ˈʝeː]/ in Southern Dutch, whereas the Northern pronunciation is pronounced as /[ˈzɑχtə ˈχei]/. The Ripuarian-influenced Standard Dutch pronunciation is pronounced as /[ˈzɑχtə ˈʝeː]/, that of Dutch; Flemish: vlaggen is pronounced as /[ˈvlɑʁə(n)]/ (as if spelled Dutch; Flemish: vlarren), whereas that of Dutch; Flemish: lachen is pronounced as /[ˈlɑχə(n)]/.
The hard is used in most of the Netherlands, except the provinces of Limburg and most parts of North Brabant, and some dialects of Gelderland and Utrecht. It is also used in Afrikaans, a daughter language of Dutch. It is spoken in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The soft is used primarily in the southern part of the Dutch language area in Europe:
Ripuarian dialects spoken in the extreme southeast part of Limburg in the Netherlands have a special allophony that does not match the soft G used in the rest of Limburg but the German dialects of Aachen and Cologne; see above.
Dialects of West Flanders and western East Flanders also do not align with any other dialect group in this aspect, as they feature h-dropping and use weak glottal fricatives pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|ɦ}}, {{IPAplink|h}}]/ for standard pronounced as //ɣ, x//. This pronunciation is also used in Zeelandic dialects spoken in the Netherlands.