Talk:Dutch

I'm totally new to the wiki, but not new to Dutch. I was reading the phonology...and I've NEVER heard <r> pronounced /r/. It's usually /R/.

-ILuvEire

Hmm. Wikipedia says (under wikipedia:Dutch phonology):

The realization of the /r/ phoneme varies considerably from dialect to dialect. In "standard" Dutch, /r/ is realized as the alveolar trill [r]. In some dialects it is realized as the alveolar tap [ɾ], the voiced uvular fricative [ʁ], the uvular trill [ʀ], or even as the alveolar approximant [ɹ].

From what I gather the tongpunt-R is supposed to be the most common, but huig-R dominates in certain areas, and is gaining ground over the tongpunt-R elsewhere; cf. wikipedia:Guttural R:

In modern Dutch, quite a few different rhotic sounds are used. In Belgium, the usual rhotic is an alveolar trill, but the uvular rhotic does occur, mostly in the province of Limburg, in the region around Ghent and in Brussels. In the Netherlands, the uvular rhotic is the dominant rhotic in the southern provinces of Noord-Brabant and Limburg. In the rest of the country, the situation is more complicated. The uvular rhotic is common, but not dominant, in the western agglomeration Randstad, including cities like Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht (the dialect of Amsterdam usually has an alveolar rhotic though). The uvular rhotic is also used in some major cities outside of the Randstad area, such as Zwolle, Almelo and Leeuwarden. Outside of these uvular rhotic core areas, the alveolar trill is common. —Muke Tever | ✎ 13:12, 8 March 2009 (UTC)