Queen’s pronunciation changes

Queen Beatrix has partly adopted changes in Dutch pronunciation in her speeches. This is the conclusion reached by linguist Marc van Oostendorp.

Like most Dutch people, the monarch does not pronounce the letter R clearly if it is at the end of a word, as in ‘weer’ (again) and ‘door’ (through).’ A few decades ago, this R was still pronounced clearly.

Van Oostendorp published his findings Friday in Onze Taal (Our Language) magazine. He has compared the Queen’s Christmas speeches over the past 25 years.

A letter V at the beginning of a word is also to an increasing degree pronounced as an F in the Netherlands. Similarly for the Z, which sometimes becomes an S. This practice is not however followed by the Queen.

Source: NIS News, 15 February 2008