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    The rounded front-central diphthong /œy/
    quickinfo

    The rounded front-central diphthong /œy/ is found in words such as:

    1
    a. lui /lœy/ lazy
    b. tuin /tœyn/ garden
    c. huid /hœyd/ [hœyt] skin
    d. vuil /vœyl/ dirty

    It is invariably spelled as <ui>.

    Figure 1(cf. Gussenhoven 1992) depicts the position of the (Dutch) diphthong within the vowel chart.

    Figure 1: Vowel chart
    [click image to enlarge]

    Articulation
    /œy/ is a rounded, front, diphthong that moves from low-mid to high-mid (Collins and Mees 2003). It is rounded throughout for many speakers, but some speakers may have an unrounded first element. Younger speakers of Northern Standard Dutch may have a wider diphthong with an unrounded first element, towards [ɐʏ](Jacobi 2009).

    Duration
    /œy/ is phonetically long, like the other true diphthongs and /a/(Adank et al. 2004). Absolute duration varies with the type of speech and speaking rate, but reported average durations have ranged from 111 ms in spontaneous speech (Jacobi 2009) to 200 ms in elicited read speech (Adank et al. 2004).

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    [+]Acoustic properties of /œy/

    Formant values vary with the type of speech, gender of the speaker, and speech community (the Netherlands or Flanders). Below are some reported average F1/F2 values. Where the table shows only one measurement, this was taken from the midpoint of the vowel; where two measurements are reported, these are taken from the onset and offset of the vowels.

    Table 1
    F1 mixed female male
    Netherlands 693-410 693 574
    Flanders 612-419 696 583
    Table 2
    F2 mixed female male
    Netherlands 1527-1627 1679 1515
    Flanders 1599-1849 1762 1484

    Examples
    Table 3: Soundfiles, waveforms and spectrograms of the above sound files, with indications of the relevant acoustic parameters of Northern Standard Dutch /œy/
    wordgroup phonological context soundfile waveform/spectrogram
    we zouden lui en apathisch worden we would become lazy and apathetic word-final
    [click image to enlarge]
    dat ik zo snel mogelijk naar huis kwam that I got back home as soon as possible pre-obstruent
    [click image to enlarge]
    hartstikke vuil terribly dirty pre-liquid
    [click image to enlarge]
    Table 4: Soundfiles, waveforms and spectrograms of the above sound files, with indications of the relevant acoustic parameters of Southern Standard Dutch /œy/
    wordgroup phonological context soundfile waveform/spectrogram
    niet dat Franklin lui was (...) not that Franklin was lazy (...) word-final
    [click image to enlarge]
    toen ik alleen naar huis reed when I went home alone pre-obstruent
    [click image to enlarge]
    nat en vuil wet and dirty pre-liquid
    [click image to enlarge]

    [+]Phonological analysis of /œy/

    Features
    A possible feature specification of /œy/ as a diphthong is-high, +low, -tense, +round, -back or +high, -low, +tense, +round, -back. This assumes that the place features for the first and the second part are the same, which is an idealization of most speaker’s production.

    Phonotactics
    /œy/ can occur in open syllables as well as in syllables closed by one non-coronal consonant.

    Stress
    As a diphthong, /œy/ attracts stress; there are no monomorphemic words with /œy/ in unstressed position.

    References
    • Adank, Patti, Hout, Roeland van & Smits, Roel2004An acoustic description of the vowels of Northern and Southern Standard DutchJournal of the Acoustical Society of America1161729--1738
    • Adank, Patti, Hout, Roeland van & Smits, Roel2004An acoustic description of the vowels of Northern and Southern Standard DutchJournal of the Acoustical Society of America1161729--1738
    • Collins, B. & Mees, I2003The Phonetics of English and DutchLeidenE.J. Brill
    • Gussenhoven, Carlos1992DutchJournal of the International Phonetic Association2245-47
    • Jacobi, Irene2009On Variation and Change in Diphthongs and Long Vowels of Spoken DutchUniversity of AmsterdamThesis
    • Jacobi, Irene2009On Variation and Change in Diphthongs and Long Vowels of Spoken DutchUniversity of AmsterdamThesis
    About this article
    Author(s): Koen Sebregts, Marc van Oostendorp
    Category: Dutch Phonology
    Keywords: voweldiphthongphoneticsphonotacticsfeaturestress
    Version: 1.0, December 2015
    Version history:
    version editor(s) date remarks
    1.0 Koen Sebregts, Marc van Oostendorp December 2015
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