Many people probably don’t know that the tiny country of the Netherlands’ official language, which is Dutch is spoken by nearly 23 million people. The majority of the Dutch speaking people live in Belgium and the Netherlands. Given this fact, the Dutch language ranks among one of Europe’s most popular.
About five centuries ago Dutch was not yet really standardised. During that time people spoke many different dialects. Due to the difficult communication, the beginning of the Dutch standardisation took place.
When the Dutch languages’ standardisation was completed, it became less difficult to identify the differences between standard Dutch and its related dialects. However, developments with regards to the Dutch language were significant during the 19th and 20th century. Due to influences from main spoken languages such as English, French and German, standard Dutch language is continuesly changing and modernising.
One of the Dutch language’s most remarkable change over the past century is the pronunciation. The voiceless pronunciation of certain syllables and letters have now become a part of the standard language and is a rare feature that was mostly heard in certain North Holland province’s dialects. The voiceless pronunciations that are most significant include: ‘Z’ as ‘S’, ‘G’ as ‘X’, and ‘V’ as ‘F’ . This recent trend indicates the desire for a more logical spelling and make the Dutch language sound much more phonological. The result is that each special sound is made clear by just one letter or that there’s only one particular way with regards to a grapheme.
The pronouncement of three diphthongs also changed. These diphthongs include; ou, ei, and ui. The recent changes for these are now moving towards aau, aai, and ou. This difference was first noticed among upper middle class, well-educated and middle-aged females. The majority of these women can be found in the world of politics, academia, literature, and arts.
Eventually these langual changes became also common among women from other social statussus. Today, even the male population has embraced this change in language, as well as teenagers with various backgrounds.
In a large area of the country these changes can be heard, particularly among women of Moroccan and Turkish descent.
The Dutch language