Orsmaal-Gussenhoven Dutch phonology

This article is about the phonology of the Orsmaal-Gussenhoven subdialect of Brabantian.

Obstruents

 * are bilabial, while are labiodental.
 * are alveolar, while are postalveolar.  does not consider  to be soft counterparts of . They have been placed in the table in a manner which saves space.
 * is restricted to word-initial position in loanwords from French. It tends to become devoiced or an affricate.
 * are velar.
 * The exact place of articulation of varies:
 * Velar before and after back vowels and, in case of, also when it is preceded by a back vowel in an intervocalic position between stressed and unstressed syllable.
 * Palatal before and after front vowels and, in case of, also after.
 * Word-initial is restricted to the sequence, otherwise it appears only intervocalically and word-finally.
 * tends to be voiceless lenis ( or, depending on the preceding vowel) word-initially and intervocalically.
 * is restricted to morpheme-initial position. It may be dropped by some speakers, either sometimes or always.
 * In pre-pausal position, may be affricated: . Sometimes  are also affricated:, but in the latter case,  does not specify the environment(s) in which the affrication takes place.
 * are voiceless intervocalically, which is also often the case in word-initial position. In the latter case, either the first half or the whole sound is voiceless.

Sonorants

 * are bilabial.
 * are alveolar.
 * before is pronounced as follows:
 * , if belongs to another morpheme ( before allomorphemic );
 * , if belongs to the same morpheme.
 * Word-final appears only in loanwords from French.
 * tends to be velarized, especially postvocalically.
 * has a few possible realizations:
 * Apical trill or an apical fricative  before a stressed vowel in word-initial syllables.
 * Intervocalically and in the onset after a consonant, it may be a tap.
 * Word-final is highly variable; the most frequent variants are an apical trill fricative, an apical fricative  and an apical rhotic affricate . The last two variants tend to be voiceless  in pre-pausal position.
 * The sequence can be realized as, as in many varieties of German. Alternatively,  can be dropped:.
 * is velar, whereas is palatal.
 * appear only word-initially and intervocalically.

Final devoicing and assimilation
Just like Standard Dutch, Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect devoices all obstruents at the ends of words.

Morpheme-final may be voiced if a voiced plosive or a vowel follows.

Vowels
The Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect contains 18 monophthong and 12 diphthong phonemes. A notable feature of it are quite unusual contrasts between and, as well as between  and.

Monophthongs

 * Notes about close vowels:
 * is near-close advanced near-front unrounded.
 * is close front unrounded.
 * is near-close near-front rounded.
 * is close near-front rounded . The short version of it occurs only in few loanwords from French.
 * is near-close near-back rounded.
 * is close somewhat advanced back rounded.
 * Notes about mid vowels:
 * is close-mid front unrounded.
 * is close-mid near-front rounded.
 * is close-mid somewhat advanced back rounded . The short version of it occurs only in few loanwords from French.
 * is mid central unrounded . It occurs only in unstressed syllables. Sometimes it may be inserted in non-homorganic consonant clusters in coda, if the first element of the cluster is or.
 * is raised open-mid somewhat retracted front unrounded.
 * is open-mid front unrounded.
 * is raised open-mid near-front rounded.
 * is open-mid near-front rounded.
 * is mid near-back rounded.
 * Notes about open vowels:
 * are open central unrounded.
 * are near-open somewhat advanced back rounded . Aside from length, the only difference between those is that is somewhat more front. The difference however is very small.


 * Other notes:
 * often are fairly close, but never as close as.
 * When stressed, short vowels cannot occur in open syllables. Exceptions to this rule are high-frequency words like 'what', and loanwords from French, such as  'depot'.
 * before within the same syllable may be realized as centering diphthongs, often with a labial glide before the schwa. Alternatively, in place of the schwa an unrounded variant of the first vowel may appear: . In the same environment,  can be realized as.

Diphthongs

 * Notes about diphthongs with a close starting point:
 * is phonetically . It begins close back rounded, ends near-close near-front unrounded.
 * is phonetically . It begins close front unrounded, ends close-mid near-front unrounded. It occurs syllable-finally and before labial and alveolar consonants, where it contrasts with.
 * Notes about diphthongs with a mid starting point:
 * is phonetically . It begins close-mid front unrounded, ends slightly lowered close front unrounded.
 * is phonetically . It begins close-mid near-front rounded, ends slightly lowered close near-front rounded.
 * is phonetically . It begins close-mid front unrounded, ends lowered close-mid near-front unrounded. It occurs syllable-finally and before labial and alveolar consonants, where it contrasts with.
 * is phonetically . It begins mid central unrounded, ends slightly lowered near-close near-back rounded.
 * is phonetically . It begins open-mid, slightly retracted front unrounded, ends lowered near-close near-front unrounded.
 * is phonetically . It begins slightly raised open-mid slightly retracted front unrounded, ends raised open-mid near-front unrounded. It occurs syllable-finally and before labial and alveolar consonants, where it contrasts with.
 * is phonetically . It begins open-mid near-front rounded, ends lowered near-close near-front rounded.
 * appears only before tautosyllabic.
 * is phonetically . It begins open-mid central rounded, ends slightly lowered near-close near-back rounded.
 * Notes about diphthongs with an open starting point:
 * is phonetically . It begins near-open central unrounded, ends lowered near-close near-front unrounded.
 * is phonetically . It begins near-open central unrounded, ends lowered near-close near-back rounded.

Stress
Stress location is the same as in Belgian Standard Dutch. In compounds made of two nouns, primary stress may in some words fall on the head noun, e.g. 'town house'.

Many loanwords from French preserve their original stress, which may cause the preceding vowel to be reduced, e.g. 'cadeau'.

Non-distinctive accent
Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect does not have a lexical tone distinction. However, states, that "it appears to use 'non-distinctive accent', which shows phonetic features of accent 2 of Limburgian dialects."

Sample
The sample text is a reading of The North Wind and the Sun, read by a female native speaker. The orthographic version is written in Standard Dutch, adjusted by to match the dialectal version more closely.

Orthographic version
De noordenwind en de zon hadden een discussie over de vraag wie van hun tweeën de sterkste was, toen er juist iemand voorbij kwam met een dikke, warme jas aan. Ze spraken af dat wie de voorbijganger zou ertoe krijgen zijn jas uit te trekken de sterkste zou zijn. De noordenwind begon uit alle macht te blazen, maar hoe harder dat hij blies, des te dichter trok de voorbijganger zijn jas toe. Uiteindelijk gaf de noordenwind op. Daarna begon de zon krachtig te stralen, en direct trok de voorbijganger zijn jas uit. De noordenwind moest toegeven dat de zon de sterkste was.