This article is about the phonology of the Orsmaal-Gussenhoven subdialect of Brabantian.
/p, b/ are bilabial, whereas /f, v/ are labiodental.
/ʒ/ is restricted to word-initial position, and occurs only in loanwords from French. It tends to either devoice to [ʃ] or be affricated to [d͡ʒ].
/k, kʲ/ are velar.
The exact place of articulation of /x, ɣ/ varies:
Velar [x, ɣ] before and after back vowels and, in case of /x/, also when it is preceded by a back vowel in an intervocalic position between stressed and unstressed syllable.
Palatal [ç, ʝ] before and after front vowels and, in case of /x/, also after /ə/.
Word-initial /x/ is restricted to the sequence /sx/, otherwise it appears only intervocalically and word-finally.
/ɣ/ tends to be voiceless lenis ([ɣ̊] or [ʝ̊], depending on the preceding vowel) word-initially and intervocalically.
/h/ is restricted to morpheme-initial position. It may be dropped by some speakers, either sometimes or always.
/p, t, tʲ, k, kʲ, v, z/ may be affricated to [p͡ɸ, t͡s, t͡sʲ, k͡x, k͡xʲ, b͡v, d͡z]. Peters (2010) does not specify the environment(s) in which the affrication of /v/ and /z/ takes place. In case of stops, it occurs in pre-pausal position.
/v, z/ are realized as voiceless [v̥, z̥] when they occur between vowels, and often also in word-initial position. In the latter case, either the first half or the whole sound is voiceless.
/m, β/ are bilabial.
/n, l, r/ are alveolar./n/ before /k/ is pronounced as follows:
[n], if /k/ belongs to another morpheme ([nʲ] before allomorphemic /kj/);
[ŋ], if /k/ belongs to the same morpheme.
Word-final [nʲ] appears only in loanwords from French.
/l/ tends to be velarized, especially postvocalically.
/r/ has a few possible realizations:
Apical trill [r] or an apical fricative [ɹ̝] before a stressed vowel in word-initial syllables.
Intervocalically and in the onset after a consonant, it may be a tap [ɾ].
Word-final /r/ is highly variable; the most frequent variants are an apical trill fricative [r̝], an apical fricative [ɹ̝] and an apical rhotic affricate [ɾ͡ɹ̝]. The last two variants tend to be voiceless ([ɹ̝̊, ɾ̥͡θ̠]) in pre-pausal position.
The sequence /ər/ can be realized as [ɐ], as in many varieties of German. Alternatively, /r/ can be dropped: [ə].
/ŋ/ is velar, whereas /j/ is palatal.
/β, j/ 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 /p, t, k/ may be voiced if a voiced plosive or a vowel follows.
The Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect contains 18 monophthong and 12 diphthong phonemes. A notable feature of it are quite unusual contrasts between /eː/, /ei/ and /ɛɪ/, as well as between /øː/, /øy/ and /œʏ/.
Notes about close vowels:
/ɪ/ is near-close front unrounded [ɪ̟].
/iː/ is close front unrounded [iː].
/ʏ/ is near-close near-front rounded [ʏ].
/y, yː/ is close near-front rounded [ÿ, ÿː]. The short /y/ occurs only in few loanwords from French.
/ʊ/ is near-close near-back rounded [ʊ].
/uː/ is close somewhat advanced back rounded [u̟ː].
Notes about mid vowels:
/eː/ is close-mid front unrounded [eː].
/øː/ is close-mid near-front rounded [ø̠ː].
/o, oː/ is close-mid somewhat advanced back rounded [o̟, o̟ː]. The short version of it occurs only in few loanwords from French.
/ə/ is mid central unrounded [ə]. 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 /l/ or /r/.
/ɛ/ is mid somewhat retracted front unrounded [ɛ̽].
/ɛː/ is open-mid front unrounded [ɛː].
/œ/ is mid near-front rounded [œ̽].
/œː/ is open-mid near-front rounded [œ̠ː].
/ɔ/ is mid near-back rounded [ɔ̽].
Notes about open vowels:
/a, aː/ are open central unrounded [ä, äː].
/ɒ, ɒː/ are near-open somewhat advanced back rounded [ɒ̽, ɒ̽ː]. Aside from length, the only difference between those is that /ɒ/ is slightly more front.
Other notes:
/ɪ, ʊ, ɔ/ often are fairly close, but never as close as /iː, uː, oː/.
When stressed, short vowels cannot occur in open syllables. Exceptions to this rule are high-frequency words like [βa] 'what', and loanwords from French, such as [dəˈpo] 'depot'.
/yː, uː, ɒː/ before /t, d/ within the same syllable may be realized as centering diphthongs [yə, uə, ɒə], often with a labial glide before the schwa [ywə, uwə, ɒwə]. Alternatively, in place of the schwa an unrounded variant of the first vowel may appear: [yi, uɯ, ɒɑ]. In the same environment, /øː/ can be realized as [øjə].
Notes about diphthongs with a close starting point:
/uɪ/ is phonetically [uɪ]. It begins close back rounded, ends near-close near-front unrounded.
/iə/ is phonetically [iɘ̟]. 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 /iː/.
Notes about diphthongs with a mid starting point:
/ei/ is phonetically [ei̞]. It begins close-mid front unrounded, ends slightly lowered close front unrounded.
/øy/ is phonetically [ø̠y̽]. It begins close-mid near-front rounded, ends slightly lowered close near-front rounded.
/eə/ is phonetically [eə̟]. It begins close-mid front unrounded, ends mid near-front unrounded. It occurs syllable-finally and before labial and alveolar consonants, where it contrasts with /eː/.
/əʊ/ is phonetically [əʊ̞]. It begins mid central unrounded, ends slightly lowered near-close near-back rounded.
/ɛɪ/ is phonetically [ɛ̠ɪ̞]. It begins open-mid, slightly retracted front unrounded, ends lowered near-close near-front unrounded.
/ɛə/ is phonetically [ɛ̠ə̟]. It begins slightly raised open-mid slightly retracted front unrounded, ends mid near-front unrounded. It occurs syllable-finally and before labial and alveolar consonants, where it contrasts with /ɛː/.
/œʏ/ is phonetically [œ̠ʏ̞]. It begins open-mid near-front rounded, ends lowered near-close near-front rounded.
/ɔə/ appears only before tautosyllabic /t, d/.
/ɞʊ/ is phonetically [ɞʊ̞]. It begins open-mid central rounded, ends slightly lowered near-close near-back rounded.
Notes about diphthongs with an open starting point:
/aɪ/ is phonetically [ɐɪ̞]. It begins near-open central unrounded, ends lowered near-close near-front unrounded.
/aʊ/ is phonetically [ɐʊ̞]. It begins near-open central unrounded, ends lowered near-close near-back rounded.
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. [stɒtˈhaːs] 'town house'.
Many loanwords from French preserve their original stress, which may cause the preceding vowel to be reduced, e.g. [kəˈdaʊ̯] 'cadeau'.
Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect does not have a lexical tone distinction. However, Peters (2010) states that "it appears to use 'non-distinctive accent', which shows phonetic features of accent 2 of Limburgian dialects."
The sample text is a reading of the first sentence of The North Wind and the Sun, read by a female native speaker. The orthographic version is written in Standard Dutch, adjusted by Peters (2010) to match the dialectal version more closely.
[də ˈnœrdərβ̞ɪnt ʔɛn də zɔn ˈʔadən ən dɪsˈkøːsə ˈɛvə də vɾoːx | β̞i van ən tβ̞iː də ˈstɛɾəkstə β̞as | tʏn dʏɪ ʒyst ˈɛmant v̥œrˈbɛːkɔm bə nən ˈdɪkə ˈβ̞aɾəmə ja̰s a̰ːn]
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.
