The Hague dialect

• Low-class plat Haags, generally spoken roughly south of the Laan van Meerdervoort;
• More posh dàftig, Haegs or bekakt Haags, generally spoken roughly north of the Laan van Meerdervoort.

  Distribution

1. Leyenburg
2. Rustenburg en Oostbroek
3. Morgenstond
4. Bouwlust
5. Vrederust
6. Zuiderpark
7. Moerwijk
8. parts of Loosduinen
9. Kraayenstein
10. Houtwijk
11. Waldeck
12. Laakkwartier

Spelling

Phonology

Vowels

• Among the back vowels, are rounded, whereas are unrounded.
• and may be somewhat closer to, respectively, cardinal and than in Standard Dutch.
• The long vowels correspond to closing diphthongs in Standard Dutch.
• may be realized as mid near-front.
• may be somewhat higher than in Standard Dutch, especially before.
• These diphthongs correspond to long vowels in Belgian Standard Dutch. In Netherlandic Standard Dutch, they are diphthongized just as in The Hague dialect.
• Some speakers may realize them as wider diphthongs, which sound almost like Standard Dutch.
• An alternative realization of is a central diphthong. It is common, albeit stigmatized.
• Before, contrasts with primarily by length for some speakers.

  Consonants

• are bilabial, whereas are labiodental.
• * As in Standard Dutch, the speakers of The Hague dialect are inconsistent in maintaining the contrast, and tend to merge these two phonemes into. also occurs as an allophone of before voiced consonants, or even between vowels.
• As in Standard Dutch, are laminal.
• * Preconsontantal sequence of a vowel and is realized simply as a nasalized vowel, e.g. as in kans.
• are velar, whereas are post-velar or pre-uvular. Both the place and the manner of articulation of varies; see below.
• * As in Standard Dutch, the speakers of The Hague dialect are inconsistent in maintaining the contrast, and tend to merge these two phonemes into.
• As in Standard Dutch, are alveolo-palatal, whereas is palatal.
• * As in Standard Dutch, can be regarded simply as sequences.
• Some consonant clusters are simplified, e.g. nach "night".

  Realization of

• According to, the uvular articulation of in The Hague dialect is often considered to be a French influence.
• According to, in The Hague dialect is often uvular, with the fricative realizations and being more or less the norm. They also state that "elision of the final is common".
• According to :
• * Alveolar realizations are practically non-existent. The only instances of alveolar include an alveolar approximant, a voiced alveolar trill and a voiceless alveolar tap, all of which occurred only once.
• * The sequences and tend to coalesce to .
• * A retroflex/bunched approximant is the most common realization of, occurring about 30% more often than the second common realizations, but it appears almost exclusively in the syllable coda.
• * Preconsonantal in the syllable coda can be followed by a schwa . This is more common in older than younger speakers and more common in men than women.
• * The stereotypical realization of the coda occurs only in about 2% cases. This may signify either that it is dying out, or that it is simply found in varieties broader than the one investigated in.
• * Other realizations include: a uvular fricative, elision of, a uvular fricative trill, a palatal approximant, a mid front vowel, as well as elision of accompanied by a retraction of the following consonant.

  Vocabulary

Sample

Harry-spelling

Standard Dutch spelling

Translation

Phonetic transcription