ITALIAN Man Tries To Pronounce DUTCH And FAILS MISERABLY
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- Link to the original videos
• LEARN DUTCH FOR BEGINN...
• Learn Dutch in 30 Minu...
The Dutch language, spoken primarily in the Netherlands and parts of Belgium, stands as a fascinating testament to centuries of cultural exchange and linguistic evolution. As a West Germanic language, Dutch shares deep historical roots with both German and English, making it uniquely positioned as a bridge between these major European languages.
Throughout its development, Dutch has been shaped by numerous influences, from Latin and French during the Middle Ages to more recent borrowings from English in the modern era. The language's characteristic features include its distinctive guttural 'g' sound, which often poses a challenge for non-native speakers, and its tendency to create compound words by combining existing terms, much like German but with its own unique patterns and rules.
The Dutch language reflects the pragmatic nature of its speakers through its relatively straightforward grammar compared to other Germanic languages. While it maintains three genders for nouns, modern Dutch has largely simplified its case system, making it somewhat more accessible to learners than German. However, it presents its own challenges, such as the intricate word order rules in subordinate clauses and the proper use of separable verbs.
In the realm of pronunciation, Dutch offers an interesting mix of sounds found in both English and German, along with some distinctive features of its own. The language's vowel system is particularly rich, including sounds that don't exist in many other languages. This complexity in pronunciation contrasts with the language's relatively regular spelling system, which underwent standardization in the 19th century.
The global influence of Dutch, while not as extensive as some other European languages, has left its mark through colonialism and trade. Many languages, including English, Indonesian, and several African languages, have borrowed words from Dutch. Common English words like 'cookie,' 'boss,' and 'yacht' trace their origins to Dutch, highlighting the historical connections between Dutch and English-speaking maritime nations.
Modern Dutch continues to evolve, particularly in response to technological advancement and globalization. The language has shown remarkable adaptability in creating new terms for modern concepts, often preferring to craft native compounds rather than simply borrowing English terms. This linguistic creativity helps maintain the language's distinctive character while allowing it to remain relevant in the contemporary world.
The dialects of Dutch present another layer of complexity, with variations ranging from the Netherlands to Belgium, where the language is known as Flemish. These dialectal differences not only encompass pronunciation but also vocabulary and expressions, reflecting the rich cultural diversity of the Dutch-speaking regions. Despite these variations, Standard Dutch serves as a unifying force in education, media, and formal communication.
The future of Dutch appears secure within its traditional territories, where it maintains strong institutional support and cultural significance. However, like many languages in the globalized world, it faces the challenge of maintaining its distinctiveness while adapting to international influences. The Dutch approach to this challenge, balancing preservation with innovation, offers valuable insights into how smaller languages can thrive in the modern world.
In the academic sphere, Dutch has contributed significantly to linguistics, particularly in the study of second language acquisition and bilingualism. The Netherlands' high level of English proficiency among its population has made it an interesting case study for understanding how languages can coexist productively in a society.
The Dutch language ultimately stands as a remarkable example of linguistic resilience and adaptation. Its ability to maintain its distinctive character while embracing change and innovation speaks to the enduring vitality of this important European language. As the world continues to evolve, Dutch demonstrates how a language can preserve its heritage while remaining thoroughly modern and relevant to its speakers' needs.
#dutch #pronunciation #learning
Link to the original videos
th-cam.com/video/Dbv79prOMEk/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/nE-lwiHkiEs/w-d-xo.html
PS: I had to trim it a bit at the end due to a copy claim from the second channel.
The legend!
hiiiii
@metatronacademy I just tried to send you an E-mail with an offer to give you lessons in Dutch. My specialty is pronunciation. Unfortunately I got a message back that it couldn't be send. 😅 Let me know if you're interested. 😁
Edit: including a g with far less aspiration. The soft G from Noord Brabant is pretty well known throughout the "Dutchaphone world?"/the Dutch speaking places.
The harsh "g/ch" pronunciation isn't used in the southern provinces of Noord-Brabant and Limburg. So the "g" sound there is called the "soft g" and is a lot easier on the throat ;) And yes, you did very well in the pronunciation.
Nederland ISH?????? We're not Brit-ISH or Ital-ISH we're Real People. Not like you Pasta-Arabs ;-)
Dude, I'm Dutch and I've never heard a first time speaker pronounce the words this well. Bravo, amazing!
Agreed!
I know he said it almost just like someone from the Netherlands
i was also supprised
Ik ook
He is Italian, you are used to the atrocious pronounciation of English and French speakers, so there is a low bar.
Dutchie here. Your pronunciation of the G or Sch - sound is the best I've ever heard from a non-native beginner, it is very hard to do.
As someone from Noord Brabant it sounds all wrong though. Soft G is so much nicer 😂
De meeste G's spreek je in de praktijk amper uit, als je normaal 'goedemorgen' uitspreekt hoor je eigenlijk geen harde G, maar wel als je het zo langzaam zegt zoals die vrouw doet..
Not for Czechs though. We in Czechia tend to regard Dutch as a mildly easier version of German, and pronunciation-wise, much easier than Polish.
@@zwenkwiel816 Als iemand die geen regionaal spraakgebrek heeft, ben ik het daar mee oneens... 😏
His Dutch is better then mine. Don't ask me to pronounce that G and R 🤣.
We don't have those in the south of The Netherlands.
Dutch speaker here. You are doing very well, dragon!
Netherlands...."There be dragons."
@@anthonyoer4778
And mermaids! Zuiderzee mermaids!
Agreed 😂, tien punten
Agreed, i've heard a lot worse
...heard a lot worse...mind you, the lad is Italian...hasn`t had the US brainrot yet...😂
i’m actually impressed how you pronounced words in dutch. Way better than most non native speakers.
Stop da cap
@osamabama3057 His pronunciation is insanely good for an Italian person, especially compared to those videos of Americans trying to speak Dutch, even though Italian isn't even a Germanic language.
I actually agree man
@@Frikandelicious ye this is a nice pronunciation (im belgian)
Bro this pronounciation is the best i've ever seen from someone who doesn't speak Dutch, respect.
You did very well! As a Dutch person myself I do have to note though that I have my doubts about the second channel you showed; the teacher used the phrase 'Zeer bedankt' and I have never heard anyone say that in my life. As far as I know those words are not used together like that. To say thank you very much, I would say 'heel erg bedankt'.
Yeah, I agree. “Zeer bedankt” would technically not be wrong, but is not something people tend to say. “Heel erg bedankt” is indeed a much more common phrase.
Queen Juliana woud say something like that. And maybe Sinterklaas.
"Zeer bedankt" is sometimes used a a sarcastic way to say "thanks ... not".
i usually go with "hartstikke bedankt" (which can sound very sarcastic too if you stress the words a bit differently, especially if you pad it out with "nou" and "hee" on either side )
"zeer bedankt" isn't really in my arsenal either :D
Zeer bedankt is still very commonly used in the south of the Netherlands. I work in customer service and we use it daily.
The reason you got confused about the R is because native speakers of Dutch each have their own way they pronounce it, often influenced by family or friends, and maybe a bit by the region where one was born (being Dutch myself, I know that the pronunciation of the R can differ in many subtle ways even within the same town, hence why I think it's influenced mainly by your upbringing).
Also: don't worry, you did pretty darn well for someone who spoke Dutch for the first time.
Hoi,
't is vrij simpel, it is quite simple :
Italian R (although less RRRRRRRRROLED) in most of Belgium, Suriname, and as an initial letter in the western part of Netherlands.
French/German R in most of Brabant & Limburg (the Dutch ones and the Belgian ones) & often after a consonant in other regions.
American or English R at the end of words, after a vowel in most of the Netherlands, especially the west.
@@torrawelThere is more detail, but yeah, this is mostly it. It should be noted that always using the Italian rolled or tapped r is also completely correct. Many Belgians always do this (many also don't) and there are native speakers who speak the standard language that way even in the Dutch Randstad region, though it is certainly not the majority pronunciation there.
@sjuns5159 ik weet 't :) thanks for adding!
@@torrawelnot quite that simple, there's actually like 20 different pronunciations of r
@smittoria I know, ik weet 't, maar 't zijn varianten.
Dutchie here, well done. I think you put yourself down to much, you did excelent!
As a dutchie I can say your pronounciation is pretty good.
Ja zeker
I'm Scots, and I speak Dutch, for no other reason than I really like Dutch polonaise (party) music. Though I find it difficult, I persevere, as I've fallen in love with the Dutch
language. A lot of Dutch words are hilarious, such as 'snurken' (to snore), 'ontploffen' (to explode) and 'swaffelen' (to slap a certain part of the male anatomy against something).
And your Dutch pronunciation is bloody impressive.
Swaffelen is probably the best Dutch word after neuken.
@@PropagandasaurusRex As in 'mierenneuken' (literally 'f***ing ants'), which means, to be obsessed with unimportant details.
@@hamishmackinnon2231 I love the idea of a Scottish pub where they dance to Dutch polonaise music haha.
An important part of "swaffelen" that most people forget, is that your male body part needs to be semi erect so you have the perfect ratio between flexibility and top heaviness.
@@Herobox-ju4zdit's an art honestly
The word 'herfst' (autumn) is actually related to the English word 'harvest'.
Farmers harvest in the fall (autumn) and plant in the spring
It reminds me of the German word Herbst 🍂 which also means autumn
And we also see the relation with the german word "Herbst" 🍺
"Harvest" was also an English name for the season at one point, along with both "autumn" and "fall", (this was all before the existence of the US and other British colonies) but I guess it was one word too many for the same thing so it got relegated to being mostly a verb.
yup exactly
Dutchie here, your G's are on point. That is quite rare for a first time speaker
Your pronunciation is really good. Apart from the first bit of the rain segment, I can't really fault any of it. I'm impressed with how well you did with the g pronunciation.
Soft G > hard G
@@nextlifeonearthzuiderbarbaar
Hoooi 😂
I am an Italian man who has been struggling with learning Dutch for the past 18 months and this was really entertaining 😂. I've now reached a B2/C1 level and I still happen to butcher the "g" and "ch" from time to time. And, as an Italian, the "oe" (like in "moeten" sounds like the Italian "u" in "tu") is much easier to pronounce than the "u" (like in "kunnen")
But in spite of the pronunciation struggles, I would still pick Dutch over German any time! Much simpler grammar
Thank you Metraton! Your language videos were really helpful in my Dutch journey
What I find interesting about dutch is that they can pronounce the R in every way imaginable. Sometimes it sounds like the French R, sometimes its the rhotic R, sometimes its a trilled R. And omg, get your throat ready
There used to be a lot of difference in pronunciation of many Dutch sounds and letters between different areas and social classes, remnants of this still remain. So a lot of the variety you hear can be caused by that. Mixing them randomly is going to sound very amusing.
yup, we like to mix it up a bit. It's great fun. Confusing foreigners is just an added bonus ;)
It can differ a lot per dialect. Rotterdam is often ridiculed for their 'r' sounding more like how it's pronounced in English.
It can also differ a bit per person. Some people can really "roll" the "r" like how Edith Piaff does in the chanson "Non, je ne regrette rien".
And it can also differ a bit per word or the sentence it's in. Most Dutch will understand you either way.
I think you pretty much nailed the pronunciation!!
As a Flemish Dutch speaker I'm very glad you specify Holland/Netherlandish. Would you consider trying to pronounce Flemish Dutch? We have a soft G, so your throat shouldn't hurt from it that much.
The Brabanders too not just Flemish. :D
@@-_YouMayFind_- Y'all stole that from limburgers.
@@-_YouMayFind_- North Brabant and Zeeland are on the wrong side of the border anyway, if you ask me.
@@BramVanhooydonck If you ask me there should not be a border at all, it is just a language and culture continuum
Or maybe try Antwerps dialect (best version of Dutch)
As a Scot, I think this is a language I could speak!
Scots is actually related to Dutch.
I’ve learned quite a bit of the Scots dialect & accent and there really are a lot of similarities, i think you could definitely:)
@@roberthudson3386 Well yeah, they're both West Germanic, as are German, Frisian, and, you know, English. But I do think (intuitively) that Scottish accents tend to share more sounds with Dutch than do southern English accents, probably completely coincidentally
@@roberthudson3386 Dutch people understand certain Scottish dialects better than the English!!
The initial Normal invasion never touched Scotland so the influence is still less, and the original Saxon spoken in Scotland was very related (if not the same...) as the language of the Western Low Countries (Early Fries).
@@DutchLabrat I don’t know much about Scots as a language, but I guess it also has been less exposed to French as English is? And therefore the link between Scots and Dutch is more “visible” ?
That was honestly surprisintly good.
Goed gedaan!
Knowing that Dutch is in the middle between English and German, you would think it would be easy.... But the pronunciation just makes all of it so much more difficult
Kind of like Portuguese... It's got some unique aspects of pronunciation, definitely.
Then you have the West Frisian language which is a minority language in the Netherlands which is a middle way between English and Dutch and English closest relative among the continental West Germanic languages.
@@jasminekaram880 yep. If we are talking about relatives of English language, we can remember Scots. Obviously islander, not continental language, but still
As an English speaker who has studied German, I can read like 60% of Dutch and understand it but not understand a word of it when I hear the same words spoken.
I agree. Reading it is not too bad if you know English and German but when listening it's a nightmare. Same goes for Norwegian from my experience.
You're really quite good at picking up the correct pronounciation. Haven't seen anyone do better from the start.
(But you were horrible at 'Graag gedaan'. Sounded like dutch with a throat issue) hahaha
Thanks for the clip. Dankjewel voor de clip
That was fun to watch (Dutchie here) looking forward to your first video entirely in Dutch 😁
Salve cumpà! Dutch guy here (with a Sicilian father), the woman in the video has a pretty standard northern (Randstad) Dutch accent. I am from the south (Limburg) and we sound completely different. Obviously, we speak the same language, but we don't have the "Dragon G", neither do we have the trilled and retroflexed R-sound. Our R is more like a French R, and our G is more like softer "gliding" of air through the larynx, without vibrating it.
La tua pronuncia è veramente impressionante!!
Goed omschreven. Ik woon ook in Limburg. En ik wilde het Limburgs omschrijven. Maar dat heb je al perfect gedaan.
Also her "v" very much sounds like an "f", as Metatron very well distinguished. That's also a Randstad way of speaking
Haarlem here, she didnot speak ABN! We do have the v and the f as the z and the s.
"Dutch.....Fine! I'll learn to speak like an oven." LOL! It's actually fascinating studying Germanic languages and how they morph over time and place. There are entire sentences in Dutch that are identical in English depending on specific word choice.
Friesen, more so. It's when the grammar doesn't allow that that I'm glad English dropped most of its affixes. Now if we could get rid of unnecessary Romance-based affixes: "-ate", "-ation", "-ent/-ant", "-ment", etc
There must be (or must've been) an actual dialect continuum between Dutch and Low German I imagine
Winter is coming !
@@sit-insforsithis1568 Howdy Stranger :)
"Waar is de water" (actual Duolingo Dutch sentence :) )
Hi, from an Italian man who also speaks dutch 🙋
Ti seguo da una vita e mi piacciono un sacco i tuoi video 🎉
Goed bezig,man
Lot uns zien dat jie meen toal verstoon
@Monkeyamingus777 😂 ik hou van een uitdaging.
Welke dialect is dat?
Ik heb geleerd van mensen uit Groningen😇
@ilpatriz urker dialect Flevoland
Ik denk dat jij mij moelijker zou verstaan als ik in mijn dialect zou spreken in het echt zelfs mensen van een dicht bij dorp verstaan onz moelijk
Die denken dat wij Duits of fries praten
Dit is hoe wij zeggen waar kom je vandaan ?
Van wie bin ye der ene dan ?
Of kaas
Is kase in mijn dialect
@@ilpatriz leef jij ook in Nederland
Je Nederlands is heel er goed
@@Teringluier4546 nee, ik woon in Italië, met mijn Nederlandse vrouw 😉
When you jokingly say to a dutch friend his language sounds like Klingon and he agrees...
As I understand it, that was intentional when Klingon was designed. There is a whole list of languages he pulled phonemes and unique grammar from
Qapla!
Dont worry about saying "Goedemorgen" before your coffee. No Dutchman would call the morning good before his first kopje koffie
The channel Ecolinguist has a lot of videos with speakers of certain language families conversing in their native tongue to each other, and seeing what they can understand. That could make for some interesting reactions
In fact, the first woman was in a video on the Ecolinguist channel
Lots of difference in G's and R's in the Netherlands. So not weird that you picked up some differences between the speakers. You did great by the way!
I grew up speaking low German from my mom, and English from my dad....i can understand roughly 60% of Dutch without ever having studied the language.
From the little bit of Plattdeutsch I've seen it looks like Dutch would be easier knowing English and Hochdeutsch 😂
@@TheRedleg69 Yeah, the relationship between German, Dutch, and Low German is pretty complicated.
German is very complicated because it has two dialect groups within it-Central German and Upper German-and Central German (which is generally understood to be the main basis of Standard German) is considered to be Weser-Rhine Germanic like the Low Franconian languages (which include Dutch and Limburgish) although it’s considered to be a mix of Frankish (the ancestor of the Low Franconian languages) and Elbe Germanic dialects, whereas Upper German (which includes Austro-Bavarian and Alemannic dialects) is considered to be just Elbe Germanic.
Low German, on the other hand, is considered to be just North Sea Germanic, like English, Scots, and the Frisian languages. However, the term “Low German” is also sometimes used to refer to all of the Continental West Germanic languages that didn’t undergo the High German consonant shift (which would be all of them except for German, Yiddish, and Luxembourgish).
Makes a lot of sense, I’m from “De Achterhoek” a region in the Netherlands that borders with Germany, I can go on a bike and be in Germany in like half an hour. But when i speak my dialect germans tend to understand it very well.
Its because they are all germanic languages. Im a native dutch speaker who is also fluent in english and when i hear someone speak german slowly or read german i can understand quite a lot myself because of the similarities.
@@jismeraiverhoevenSwedish is also a Germanic language, but I doubt you understand that much of of it.
From Amsterdam here, and wauw Ochtend you pronounced that better then some people who lived here from another country and live here 15years + !!!! Respect meneer ;)
I love how you manage quite well speaking my language!
Ik neem mijn petje voor je af!
As a swede it is so interresting to read the comment in dutch here. Not cheating is it "I take my cap off"?
@@mikaelrundqvist2338Correct! 🙂
@@mikaelrundqvist2338 Yes !!
Honestly i'd say you did realy well!
Most people that run into a Dutch G sound choke or end up with anything from "ch" to "kgth" to "rgt".
As a Dutch guy named Gijs, i must say well done!
As someone learning Dutch, that is fun to watch 👍
En? Lukt het je al om Nederlands te spreken en te begrijpen?
As I Dutch person I can say that your Dutch is incredibly accurate and good! Good job dude incredible work! Heb een fijne dag nog
(Translation: Have a nice day)
You have talent for Dutch pronounciation! What you saw on the videos was northern Dutch. There is also southern Dutch (spoken in Flanders and the provinces below the big rivers). The difference is that the southerners distinguish in speech between "g" (soft) and "ch" (hard) and "v" (soft) and "f" (hard), "z" (soft) and "s" (sharp). The northerners make everything hard and sharp. Half of the Dutch speakers speak the southern variant, half the northern variant. So it is up to you to choose! The official Dutch language does not have a preference on which is "better". Oh, and good luck with the composed vowel "ui" (and also meaning "onion"). The vowel sound is unique in the world.
I lived in Den Bosch and Maastricht for several months before moving to Den Helder. People could always tell I was in the south because of my zachte g. I am not a native Dutch speaker. I also learned to roll de r achter in the keel before trilling it, like the northerners did.
As a South African who learnt Afrikaans in school I can't for the life of me understand what people most Dutch people are saying, it sounds like they are talking while chewing on a potato. Flemish on the other hand I can understand it as well as do Afrikaans.
In West-Flanders the "g" even becomes a glottal "h" and the "h" is simply dropped. There's also something called "hypercorrection"; that's when they accidentally pronounce the "h" as a "g" when trying to speak the standardized language.
In some parts of West-Flanders ("continental West-Flemish") the "sch" also becomes a "sk"; so the "sch" in "school" is pronounced like it is in English.
There's also a difference between west and east. Coastal provinces have more Saxon influences, mostly due to trade with England, whilst the east of the Low Countries has dialects more similar to German (which obviously makes perfect sense).
For example, "ik" in Limburg is often pronounced as "ich". In West-Flemish words like "denken" and "geven" are typically pronounced as "denkn" and "geevn"; the last "e" is dropped, which also occurs in the pronunciation of English words like "beaten".
@@nostalgiakitty2057 I guess you’ve met too many northern Dutch people and not enough southern Dutch people 😉
Yes, absolutely give Belgian or southern Netherlands (Brabant, Limburg) Dutch a try. It's a lot less harsh.
Dutch speaker here, you really nailed the pronunciation on those single words most of the time. Great job, love your content
I'm pretty sure G and CH are velar fricatives in Dutch, not aspirates.
Yes indeed (well they're not always velar depending on the dialect)
Yeah, it can be either:
- Velar [x] (both in Dutch and Flemish)
- Velar [ɣ] (Only in Flemish or some southern dialects/language variations (not completely true, but it's a generalisation))
- Uvular [χ] (Only in Dutch (generalisation)).
Whether it's [x] or [χ] can both vary from person to person, vary depending on dialect or even depending on the position in the word.
Although it's actually a little more nuanced, it can for example also occur post-velar, or even as a devoived uvular trill.
And I some positions it might even become a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ]. So yeah there's a lot of variations.
It's probably the Italian terminology messing with him - "spirante"
I'm Honestly impressed by how you nailed our pronounciation. Its not often you hear a non dutch speaker nail the pronounciations on the first go especially the ch and g.
You did really well! Note that the R is pronounced in various ways, regionally but sometimes even by the same person.
You did so well! It really shows you have experience learning languages
as Language Simp said, Dutch people will talk to you until they hear some doubt in your speech, then they would immediately switch to English
I must personally confess that I often do that without even thinking. It's mostly a good move to request me to keep on speaking Dutch in order to help you practice our language. As far as I know a lot of Dutch people switch to English rather as a kind gesture and not to mock you, so requesting to keep on speaking Dutch in order to practice is mostly not taken an insult or anything.
Even though Dutch is my first language I sometimes even struggle not to speak English when I notice people have trouble with the Dutch language. But of course, having English as a second language and being able to speak a bit of German, I do know the only way to learn a new language is by trying to speak that language with the native speakers.
Dutch native here. Your pronunciation is admirable, but the lesson made me realize how variable the pronunciation of Dutch can be. The R is special, any variant that give some kind of vibration is used, produced from the throat to the tip of the tongue 😂. Also there is the "e" as in "bed" like the "e" as in "set" but in "bedankt" like the "u" in "duh". To make it easy, the "o" in "avond" is also often pronounced as "duh", especially in greetings. Your handling of the "g" and "ch" is very good, the "g" is considered the softer variant. Great fun to watch 👍😁
Ben jij ooit op televisie geweest met een Chileense geliefde?
@@PetraStaal Nee hoor. Dat zal een andere geweest zijn
I've enjoy you, thank you.
And compliments! Your pronunciation for a first time was wayyyyy better than my pronunciation will be by trying Italian a first time😂.
Ciao! From the Netherlands.
16:24 I was like darnnn that's really close, very impressive. I almost lost my socks when you jokingly pronounced perfectly in the higher tone hahaha. Truly amazing video and talent you showed off for in pronouncing our language!
Could you perhaps do a similar video with Afrikaans. I know it would be very similar but there are definitely enough differences to make it interesting. For example we say hervs for autumn. The V us also pronounced as an F.
Afrikaans sounds like a baby speaking Dutch to me.
I’m very impressed how acutely you pick up on sounds; particularly aspiration and vocalised/non-vocalised consonants. I’m a Brit who has learned Dutch by living in the Netherlands and by relying on the odd correction and advice of friends.
When I taught English as a foreign language to Italians in London I saw how much they struggled with consonant clusters. I particularly remember the word ‘Knightsbridge’ was a nightmare for them.
In my experience, Dutch is a little less aspirated than English. Compare the word ‘top’ in both languages: in Dutch there is no aspiration at all: in English it is twice aspirated!
Honestly, I think your pronunciation is quite good. Mind you, I'm from Belgium, so we pronounce words a bit different. It must also be said that the Dutch pronunciation has become even more pronounced in the last 50 years. You can hear it quite well when you look at news broadcasts from back in the day as opposed to now.
A bit different ? No totally wrong.
@@mauricematla8379 oh don't worry, when in your parts I adjust my pronounciation so you guy don't get a heart attack
@@wolfcryerkeWe won't just don't make claims that are not actually true. Love my Belgians particularly the beer, Orval being my personal favorite, but come on...
Dankjewel voor deze geweldig leuke video! Ik heb er echt om gelachen!
Man you seem very competent at picking up pronunciations. As a German/Danish/English native speaker I'm very curious about you having a look at Danish pronunciation as it's notoriously difficult but not for the reasons Dutch is, I think you'll get a kick out of it! Mostly the difficulty comes from the complex pronunciation rules which don't have a straightforward translation, because there are a ton of vowel shifts depending on surrounding letters and devoiced (not sure exactly what to call it, maybe softened?) consonants. For instance an E which is normally a clean E sound in words like se (seeing) becomes pronounced like the English e in send when followed by nd (also means send as in english) or a kinda ö sound when after nd such as the second e in sende (to send), shwa sound in det (means "that", and has a silent t) or the clean i-sound in de (third person plural pronoun). Similar shifts exist for most vowels and we have a total of 46 distinct vowel sounds if I recall correctly. Besides that there is the unique 'stød' (the word means to bump or thrust) voicing which is a glottal stop followed by vocal fry and pitch lowering in the middle of a vowel sound. There are even more idiosyncracies but I'll stop my pitch of Danish here lmao I really hope to see it featured ❤ I feel very lucky to be able to speak it as a native language because it probably allows me to pick up on vowel sounds from many other languages that prove difficult for other learners
I was raised bilingual Dutch/Danish, but I never could master the danish numerical system. It's even more confusing to me than miles, feet, gallons, pounds or fahrenheit. I hate shopping there. I understand everything the cashier says and sound like a local until those numbers come up.
@@dyslexicLLMNow I'm very curious about the danish numerical system, tell us more!
As a 6 year long Dutch fan and fellow medieval enthousiast, i salute you.
Fails miserably? No, wrong. "Did a good job" is a better description, I've heard far worse than that!
You can pronounce the 'g/ch' like Spanish 'j' or the German 'ich' sound, which is less hard on the throat. You'll sound more like someone from the south of the Netherlands or Belgium, but that is totally fine.
I grew up in The Hague, where the 'r' is either nearly omitted like in English, or over-pronounced as a 'g', a bit like the French 'r'.
That's solid advice! Spanish is the second largest language in the world so that's a very good reference. I'll remember that, thanks.
@@dyslexicLLM You're welcome, glad I could help you 😉
Een hele mooie uitspraak voor iemand die voor het eerst Nederlands probeert.
Moved to Nederland nearly 4 years ago and I'm still struggling to learn Dutch 😅 .
(Brain damage doesn't help, but anyway)
You'll find that the Dutch language follows specific rules, except when it doesn't. 😂 When I tried communicating with basic sentences, everyone responded in complicated variances at the literal speed of sound. 😅
This is great, I'd love to see more Dutch Metatron! 😁👍
wait untill you hear de different accents then dialects and such.
@swollenaor Funny story: Apparently an Aussie struggling with Dutch sounds just like a Gelderland farmer 🤣🇳🇱
@@Disordahz lolz, im from Zwolle and dialects around here... Its a thing..
@@swollenaor Cool, Zwolle is nice. I started in Twello, but moved to Den Haag.
@@Disordahz why? Twello much smaller and more relaxed vibe, well at least in my experience.
I’m Dutch and for your first time this is literally so good-
Much better than other people’s first try (I’ve seen other vids like this and trust me ur much better lol)
I'm from Lower Saxony and could understand two thirds without ever learning Dutch
It’s not something I’ve seen talked about, but I’m sure that Low Saxon must’ve had a huge influence on Dutch like it did on the Scandinavian languages during the time of the Hanseatic League.
@@autumnphillips151I mean the local language in multiple provinces is actually Low Saxon
@@bz7672 Yes, I know. I’m particularly fond of the Low Saxon song “Widukind” by Daniël Lohues, who’s from Drenthe.
In some older sources low saxon and low franconian are seen as dialects of each other (continental low germanic)
You're getting all the Dutch engagement now, Metatron! Quite impressed with your pronunciation, especially for a first time. We Dutch has a lot of different dialects that influence the way you pronounce. This is what you noticed with the R. I used to get drilled on rolling my R's properly by my parents. Not all my fellow Dutch are that drilled on it, and that was what you could hear in the pronunciations by the instructors, especially that first one. She probably quite casual on her R's in her daily speech. Which is just due to where she grew up most likely.
We have some challenging combinations of letters involving that R, so generally if it's there we won't sweat the details.
Once again, nice job!
Fun fact, if the hard G sound is too hard, simply move to Noord Brabant or Limburg and you get to use a softer G.
Fun fact 2: in Limburg "hoi" is also acceptable to say when you say goodbye.
Fun fact 3: instead of "tot ziens" in some areas they say "tot kijk", and both mean "see you later". Zien is see, kijk is watch.
yes Limbabwe represent
Dutch here and there are so much different accents in such a small country and you’re doing it great. You’re talented.
Hallo, Dutchie here. I live in Limburg (The southernmost province with the weird sticky-outy bit) and below the rivers we aspirate a lot less and are known for the 'zachte g' (soft g). I just want to say we share your concerns about the northeners' throats. Every time I've listened to a bunch of them and start subconsciously mimicking them I feel like I need liters of tea and honey just to survive.
As a flemish guy, this really sounds like throat gorgling all the time.
And everyone thinks the zachte g sounds horrible and silly
@@Kenji_Hirai no they don't 😅
I once had an Italian coworker who called Dutch a throat disease. Those aspirated gutturals can be a lot rougher than she pronounces it. Although in the south of the country, they're a lot softer.
How much you roll your 'r' varies wildly by region. And also by tongue skill, I think. I roll mine, but struggled with that as a kid, and so do my kids. There's an area in Netherland, Het Gooi, where people famously do not roll their 'r's at all, resulting in the "Gooise r". Hers is sometimes a bit like that.
My favourite word to teach foreigners is "grachtengordel". It's the ring of canals around the center of Amsterdam.
It's fun listening to Dutch when you have a grip of German and Icelandic in your vocab. I can understand about a third, sometimes half of what they are saying. Dutch is cool, dragonspeak, lol.
Works the other way around too. I don't really speak German but I can understand most of it and if I just fake it Germans can understand me pretty well too
That's genuinely the best pronunciation from a first time speaker I've ever heard. Hello from Belgium
Keep in mind that these specific sounds are not universal. I think the V in goedenavond (around 6:21) is pronounced pretty much like a V, but people in Rotterdam pronounce F and V like an F, while people in Limburg would have a very soft V sound
That's Amsterdam actually. We pronounce only F sounds and S sounds. Rotterdam is the one with the strange O.
@@carmenl163 Maybe Amsterdam is like that as well, but you all sound similar anyway :P
@nicjansen230 not to someone who knows Dutch
@@carmenl163 You mean "not to someone who's from Holland" I guess... It'll probably sound the same to you if you have to compare people from Maastricht with Kerkrade or Maasmechelen in your head :P
@nicjansen230 I mean not to someone who is familiar enough with the Dutch language to hear the difference in pronunciation. I'm sure I will be able to hear the difference between the cities you've suggested.
What a pleasant surprise!
Also since I am learning Italian at the moment.
...
Your pronunciation is actually almost shockingly good for a first-timer.
The dutch h is actually voiced, which makes it harder to hear, whereas the English h is voiceless.
Maybe yours is, but that's *not* the usual way to pronounce a Dutch H.
Heel goed gedaan. Bedankt voor al je video's.
Netherlandish is basically what THEY call their language: Nederlands, de nederlandse taal
Only sinse 1871! Before that it was the Neder-Duitse taal
The difference between the g as in dag and the ch in nacht is that the G is more towards the back of your mouth while the CH is more towards the front of your mouth
You did really well for a first attempt at Dutch… you should keep going! Dutch is a beautiful language, with lots of beautiful expressions and turns of phrase and lots of regional variations despite being such a small country.
As a italian for me tDutch language is ugly
Over 600 dialects!
I remember watching your channels years ago. Always had great content about the Romans, learned alot from you back in the day! And now here you are, randomly popping up on my feed learning my language! Love it, helemaal geweldig!
Yes, we have ch and g, both are pronounced 😂
I find it brave of you to show us your progress.
I think you are doing great, keep it up!
For us Germans Dutch sounds kind of silly. They also use a lot of what sounds like diminutives, which makes it even funnier.
However, I really like the Dutch accent in English. Don't know why, but it sounds kind of soothing to me.
And for us Dutchies German sounds silly. Probably less, though, since many Dutch people also speak quite a decent amount of German. I guess it's just what you're used to ;)
Doesn’t German use a lot of diminutives, too? Like -chen?
@autumnphillips151 They exist and are used, but not excessively. There are some dialects that do that but not in standard German.
I assume what for a German sounds like a diminutive in Dutch often isn't one, but words like "Knipperlichtche" sound funny somehow.
@@UnoxOW I learned a bit of dutch. When i hear swiss german i always imagined this is what german probably sounds like to dutch people lol
The combination of diminutives and different intonations gets you so much expression, and so many layers of irony. No language should do without diminutives.
I am a Pole living in Belgium, I am borned in Belgium and I live there 14 years.
I still can't pronounce Dutch fluently.
w=v; v=f; f=v ---> VolksWagen = (F)olks(V)agen; "-ch" = "-gh" ; Nacht = Naght --> Night; t=d ; "Tag" = "Dag"/"Day" ; Germanic languages tend to put the stress/emphasis on the first syllable of each word, which give it that "bouncy" rhythm. "Shout the first syllable, whisper the rest" is a common expresssion.
That's not true, that's only for northern Hollandic dialects. In most dialects actually the v is voiced and the w is bilabial, not dental.
@@noamto w is only bilabial in southern dialects. In standard Dutch it's a voiced labiodental approximant. Also it's not only Hollandic dialects that devoice v to f, it is widespread in northern standard Dutch.
@KarlKarsnark No, that is the German pronunciation.
@noamto The 'w' is bilabial in Belgium and Suriname. In standard Dutch it's pronounced like the 'v' (voiced labial-dental fricative) but with less tension on the teeth and lip (voiced labial-dental approximant).
Edited to add: @woldenwolk: you posted while I was typing...
Ok, dude, the first words you speak "ochtend" and "Morgen" you right out of the gate got the "g" sound correct XD
AWesome job haha
Klinkt goed, joh; geen zorgen
Goedeavond, wat een leuke film heb je gemaakt! Ik kan niet wachten op deel twee. Groeten uit Nederland (Dutch).
Finally a video on a germanic tongue! Looking forward to a follow up
als een Nederlandse kijker van je had ik dit nooit verwacht As a Dutch viewer of yours, I never expected this
in Poland we call Dutch "Holenderski" which I guess could be anglicized as Hollandish?
We also say Holländisch in German. But Dutch people outside of the region of Holland hate this a lot. For them it's like saying Łódź Voivodeship is a synonym for Poland.
@@tomschreiner3717 I thought the other day it's interesting that in English we say Dutch for people from Holland, but Deutsche is German. Deutsche and Dutch, is there a link or an explanation for this? 🤔
@@tmar8959
During the Middle English period, the word “Dutch” meant any continental Germanic-language speaker. So people who speak (what we now call) Dutch, the various German languages, etc.
Eventually, the English began to increasingly trade with people from the Netherlands, so in almost any context, if an Englishman referred to a “Dutch” he was talking about someone from the Netherlands.
Eventually, the word because cemented as meaning “someone from the Netherlands.”
Actually, it came to mean “someone from Holland” since most of the trading that came out of the Netherlands was done by people from North and South Holland (this is why a lot of people to this day call the Netherlands Holland. Even in other languages.)
To answer your other question, yes. There is a link between the words “Dutch” and “Deutsch.”
The word “Dutch” came to English from the Low German “Dütsch.” Both the low German “Dütsch” and the Standard German “Deutsch” come from Proto-Germanic “*þiudiskaz” which means “of one’s people”
English actually has a word from this origin, too, but it’s not really used for anything anymore. It’s “Theedish.”
In Brazil we say "Holandês"
yeah
a lot of languages even use some variant of "olland" for the country name haha
As a Belgian you're doing great. (Also the ch and the g have the same pronounciation.)
Wow as a native Dutch speaker (Suriname) this is like my Christmas present came early today. This gonna be good! 😃
People: Dutch is one of the hardest languages to learn.
Metatron: Hangon hold my beer.
You are a natural and make it sound easy man, very nice I was impressed
Dutch is basically "Modern Low German" or better said the direct descendent language of the "Medi eval Low German language" (Low stands for "Lowland" in contrast to "High German" where the High stands for "Highland" meaning "the Alps" where "High German" originally developed, the classification "High+Low" is solely based on topography).
Therefore the Eastern Dutch Dialects are also spoken in Western Northern Germany across the Dutch-German border. Although in Germany Low German got replaced by Modern High German which became "Standard German" although Low German is still present in the Northern German local dialects. So learning "Standard German" as a foreigner and speaking with a local German who speaks dialect (no matter if it is a Low German dialect spoken in the North of Germany or a High German Dialect spoken in the South of Germany, Austria + Switzerland) you won´t understand anything as a foreigner when the people don´t speak Standard German with you but in their local dialect instead. Also Southern Germans and Northern Germans don´t understand each other when talking with each other in their local dialects but have to switch into Standard German in order to communicate with each other.
The term "Dutch" itself is "Old Saxon English" and meant originally "German" or better said "Deutsch" and is ethymological the direct descent term of the germanic term - "þeudisk" /the futark letter þ = the english "th" of "think, through etc" - which on the other hand the Romans latinized into "theodiskus" which became in Italian "tedesco" while in the Germanic languages "þeudisk" became "Dutch", "Deutsch" and in the nordic hemisphere/Scandinavia it became "Tysk".
Till to the 17th century so for over 1000 years the English called all Germans of the Holy Roman Empire and before the HRE existed "Dutch" and the English term "German" didn´t exit..
That changed with the indepedence of the 7 provinces "Holland, Geldern, Friesland, Overijssel, Stad en Land, Utrecht, Zeeland" who splitted from the Holy Roman Empire and formed the "Republic of the 7 provinces of the Netherlands(=Lowlands)" in the 17th century.
So the English from now on had to distinguish between the Dutch/Germans of that new Republic and the Dutch/Germans from the HRE and decided to keep the term "Dutch" solely for the people of the new Republic because those where their closer neighbors across the channel which whom they traded the most for centuries and also those became then their rival/enemy in sea trade/Indian spice trade and in order to distinguish between friend + foe they came up with the latin based term "German" for the people of Holy Roman Empire (around 1652 = 1st Anglo-Dutch War 1652-54).
In the USA the term Dutch for Germans was even used till the late 18th century. That´s why the "Pennsylvanian Dutch" are called "Dutch" although those aren´t "Dutch" but from German descent from the German Palatine Region/called "Pfalz" in German which is in Southern West Germany bordering France, because that term was in Pennsylvania already fully established for 2 centuries before the USA established the term "German" into their English vocabulary, and those Pennsylvanian Dutch are speaking still to this day an - very archaic form - of the German Alemanic dialect called "Pfälzisch" which belongs to the "High German language dialect family"..."very archaic" due to being a linguistic enclave on an other continent since the 16th century..
Isn't it also true that Dutch is the closest modern descendant of Frankish?
@@marcusaurelius4941 Yes, but partly + depending on what kind of Franks/Franconians (the Franks/Franconians before a part of them went west into Gaul were many small tribes widely spread from the German North to the German South with a variaty of Frankish dialects due to linguistic influences of their surrounding areas, the northern Frankish tribes were linguistic influenced by the Saxons and Frisians, the Southern Frankish tribes by the Alemans + Bavarians + Hessians) + depending on what time period.
The medi eval "Low German Language" I spoke of in my comment developed out of "Old Saxon + Old Low Franconian + Old Frisian" - after - the second Germanic consonant shift = 6th century which was a century after a part of the Franks conquered Gaul.
The "Salian Franks" who were located in the North were that part of the Frankish tribes who invaded and conquered Roman Gaul in the 5th century = Their dialect was "Old Low Franconian" and therefore close related with the Dutch language.. And at that time as the Salian Francs conquered Gaul there wasn´t the 2nd Germanic consonant shift in place which happened around 100 years later in the German South and which was responsible for creating "High German" but that consonant shift didn´t happen in the German North therefore it is also alternatively named "The High German consonant shift" which then distinguished "Old Low German from Old High German" .
So as the second Germanic consonant shift happened those Salian Franks who originally spoke "Low Franconian" were already established in Gaul for decades and who are responsible for "The Frankish Empire" weren´t effected by the 2nd Germanic consonant shift at all but even already spoke a hybrid language = a mixture of local Gaulish Latin + Low Franconian which then became "Old French".
But those Franks/Franconian tribes who settled in the German South north of Bavaria and also along the River Rhine partly in Baden Württenberg and partly in Hesse (= Rhine Franks/Franconians + East Franks/Franconians north of Bavaria) went through that 2nd Germanic consonant shift so their Frankish dialects became "High German dialects" = today´s German "Franconians/Franken" so they are all speaking their own High German Frankish dialects since the 6th century = "Fränkisch" which - is not - related with the Dutch language at all or with "Low German" .
Therefore I wrote at the beginning "Yes, but partly and depending on what kind of Franks/Franconians and depending on what time period.
Depends on the dialect. Certain dialects have a closer relation to Frankisch, while others are Saxon or Frisian.
@@faramund9865 echt niet moff
What you just said is complete bullshit, low german is its own language thats different from dutch. Dutch is the descendant of lower Frankish
I wasn’t even aware of this channel, I’ve wartched tonnes of videos on your main channel. But as a Dutchie I am pleasantly suprised with this video 😂
Think of it as a Scottish accent and you’ll get it easier.
Dw i'n gobeithio, byddi di dysgu Cymraeg fuan.
I actually understood half of that. Dw i'n hoffi dysgu siarad Cymraeg!
Welsh typed out looks like someone just randomly hit keys on the keyboard.
@@coolbrotherf127 Lol
@@coolbrotherf127 Before I became more familiar with Dutch, when I saw it in writing in random comments online, I used to think for a moment that someone was trying to type in English but had a stroke.
Your linguistic experience shows! Didn't expect you to be able to recreate our obscure sounds so well.
Loved your reaction when you saw "Graag gedaan"! 😂
And I hardly ever say "Zeer bedankt", usually I just say "Ontzettend bedankt" or "Heel erg bedankt" (because you love our "g") 😂
Some of your questions :
V = F (in West of the Netherlands)
G = CH (same sound in the west of the Netherlands). Voiced versus voiceless in most other parts.
R (3 versions, Italian like, French like an English like. Depends on the position of the letter and the region. Indeed, often Italian like at the beginning and English like after a vowel)
H = like English in most regions.
S = Z in Western part of Netherlands. Like in English in other regions.
E = 3 sounds (like english: sAY, hAt, thE). It's like thE when it's not stressed, like in Bedankt ("zeer bedankt" is weird though😂 Never heard that before, maybe in the east, close to Germany. Most people would say: heel erg bedankt)
W = more or less like English V indeed
U/UU = like in french indeed, unless it's "closed" off by consonants, then, it's non-existenting in many European languages but sounds a bit like bUt (more rounded though)
Your pronunciation is amazing! I've never seen any of your videos before, but I can tell you know a lot about languages, simply by how you recognise the sounds you hear.
0:22 calls us Holland. i am unsubscribing.. >:( hahaha
there's Holland, and there's het koninkrijk der Nederlanden.
they are not the same
@@knutzzl well Holland is a cluster of provinces in the Netherlands. I believe it comes from a regional lord owned land in the past, just like Vlaanderen or Brabant.
I was about to say
This video was very funny, I love your sense of humour. At the same time it's very educative. I'm Dutch and I am quite impressed how easily you seem to learn the correct pronunciation. Above average for most! We have many regions and the pronunciation differs depending on where you are. I'm in Noord Brabant, we are known for having a much softer sounding dialect (and a Burgundian lifestyle lol). It's because we are closer to the border of Vlaanderen, the Flemish side of Belgium. One of our funniest dialects/accents is Hagenees and I also love Frysian and Twents quite a bit. If you ever plan do do another video on this topic I hope you look those three up, I think you'd enjoy it too.
Call it "Dutchese" to give it a dairy flavour.
Dutchian language.. 😁😅
Hiya Metatron, I think you did a really great job. I have actually been trying to teach a Sicilian who lives here some Dutch, and I think you already sounded better than him on your first try. Not to knock him of course, but one can tell from your perceptiveness that you have some experience with languages (which I knew).
Your G sounds great. There is a lot of regional variation in the pronunciation of the G, many of which are much less harsh. The different pronunciations usually get grouped into "hard" and "soft" categories, the difference being in whether it is a trill or not. Historically there was a distinction in pronunciation between G and CH, in that G used to be the voiced counterpart of CH, but this distinction is now rare.
The thing going on with the H is that it is actually voiced in Dutch, so I guess it sounds not as distinct from the succeeding vowel. (Mind you that in West Flanders the H is often not pronounced regardless.)
You were also correct to point out that the final -D sounded more like a T, as all final consonants get devoiced in Dutch.
Furthermore you were correct in noticing that the V sounded like an F. There is dialectal variation in whether these are pronounced differently or no. I've heard claims that even people who pronounce V voiceless make a slight distinction in length, but I myself don't have any such distinction except when I pronounce the V very deliberately and had to learn the difference when I learnt to spell in primary school. For people with a voiced V it is a bit more aspirated than the English V, while our W sounds a lot like the English V too, except it is less aspirated. In native words it is actually entirely predictable when you should use an F or a V, so linguists often don't consider them different phonemes. The initial V- resulted from a sound change at the start of Old Low Franconian / Old Dutch, which is why words that have F- in English have a V- in Dutch. This same sound shift affected the initial S-/Z-, but initial S- came back into the language from contractions of words with TE + Z- to S- (such as samen < tezamen), so this distinction *is* usually considered phonemic in standard Dutch, but a subset of people who don't distinguish F and V don't distinguish S and Z either, or inconsistently, and you hear overcorrections too. (I remember that when I first learnt to write, I came to the conclusion that when both a S and a Z sound right, I should spell it with a Z, whereas it took longer for me to figure out when to use an F or a V.)
There is some dialectal variation in the R too. The system used in these videos, as you correctly observed, is a tap initially, and a retroflex R finally. My grandfather used to only use a tap; my father tends to use a tap initially and before a consonant, inserting a schwa between the R and the consonant, and retroflex otherwise except when annunciating very deliberately; and my sister pronounces all final -Rs retroflex all the time. In the southeast they use a gutteral R that sounds very similar to our "hard" G (often alongside a retroflex final -R too), which once lead to a misunderstanding with a friend of mine where I said "moedig" (brave) but he understood "moeder" (mother).
(And by the way, it is funny that linguists do actually sometimes use the words "Hollandic" and "Netherlandic" or something similar; the one to refer to the Dutch dialects spoken in the provinces of North and South Holland, the other as a modifier to specifically refer to those dialects of Dutch or Low Saxon spoken within the borders of Netherlands, as opposed to Flanders or respectively Germany.)
Unlatinized old English basically
english had the aspirated G sound?
yes, until Middle English evolved into Modern English, though it's preserved in the spelling as "gh" as in "through" or "bought."
But Dutch has tons of Latin loanwords too…
@@beady5831It's incomparable to English which has predominantly romance words (~75%)
@@13Voorheespt2Gh spelling is a Norman invention. Aspiration was indicated by "h" - ruh (rough). Phoneme G had 4 different allophones. Study OE first, comment then. But TBH Dutch as a whole is closer to OE.
im dutch and you are soo good at it for it to be your first time can you read this? "Hoi ik denk dat je goed Nederlands kan praten" your reward is here🎉🎊✨️🏅🥇🏆🎖
You should try German next!