The closest language to English

>I agree, it's an horrible place, and I also agree it's for learning English (and languages) in any case, not the place to insult Flemings.

Hallo Sander,

Beantwortest Du meine letzte Frage über die holländischen Diphthongen deswegen nicht, oder weil Du diese Frage übersehen hast?
Sonst, da ich interessiert bin, weiter Holländisch zu lernen, kannst Du mir einen anderen forum empfehlen, wo es geduldige Holländer gibt (versteh mich nicht falsch, Du bist auch geduldig, das Problem ist, daß Du hier der einziger Holländer bist), die mir dabei weiter helfen können?

tot later,

Arthur, I seem to have missed your question. What was it about ?

Hi Sander,

It was about the diphthongation of some long vowels, actually graphic diphthongs. It would be better if you look at it in the "Similarities between Danish and Dutch" thread.

It's embarrasing for me not to be able to write anything in Dutch this time, but I don't feel quite confident to do that today!!!...

>>The vowel inventory of Dutch is large, with 14 simple vowels and four diphthongs. The vowels /eː/, /øː/, /oː/ are included on the diphthong chart because they are actually produced as narrow closing diphthongs in many dialects, but behave phonologically like the other simple vowels.

I found this somewhere in Internet. If this is true, can you tell me how do they diphthongise, i.e., in which direction do they change? <<

I'm not sure what the question is here, but if it's about "ee", "aa" and "oo" not being dipthongs then it's correct, they are long vowels written with 2 letters to indicate lenght.

Sander,

They are talking about ee, eu and oo. It is meant in this text that they are sometimes pronounced like a diphthong. As a foreigner I was questioning this, and I decided to ask your opinion on this.

I could imagine that this is possible, since in Swedish, also in some dialects, long 'e', long 'å' and long 'ö' are often pronounced like a diphthong rather than like a sustained, long vowel sound, i.e., the sound changes a bit towards the end of the vowel. I speak Spanish, phonetically far more simple than any Germanic language, and for any Sp speaker this difference would be a nuance, even ridiculous, but I have learnt that this would not be the case in other languages, where the people who are listening this would immediately notice.

So, would you say, that in standard Dutch they must be pronounced as long vowels and not as slight diphthongs?

eu /øː/ is a "regular" dipthong. ee and oo are simply long vowels.

what do you mean by "regular" diphthong?

As in commonly regarded as a dipthong ... soundwise rather than spellingwise.

>eu /øː/ is a "regular" dipthong.
ok. How does it sound then? I mean if you can write it aproximately.

Dan bedankt voor jouw reactie.

How "eu" sounds in English. pfff, that's a good one.

I guess one could vaguely compare it to "sow" (as in "Sowing") with a heavy RP accent.

So, this ö sound trends towards an 'u' or 'w' in the end, doesn't it?

Here is an old poem in both English and Frisian. See how similar they look.

Lyk az Gods sinne weiet uus wrâld oerschijnt;
Like as God's sun sweetly our world o'ershines;

Her warmtme in ljeacht in groed in libben schinkt;
Her warmth and light and growth and life sends;

Lijk az de mijlde rein elke eker fijnt:
Like as the mild rain each acre finds:

So dogt eak dat, wat ijn uus, minksen, tinkt.
So does eke that, what in us, men, thinks.

Dij sprankel fen Gods fjoer, ijn uus lein, jouwt
That sparkle of God's fire, in us laid, gives

Oeral eak ljeacht in FREUGDE oon Adams team.
O'erall eke light and JOY on Adam's team.

Wer dij wenn't, hulken, of paleisen, bouwt
Where they dwelt, hulk, or palaces build,

In fen wat folk hij iz, ho hij him neam
And of what folk he is, how he him names.

The one word that seems really different is the words for 'Joy'. Most of the other words are very similar.