Abstract
Northern Standard Dutch, i.e. the standard variety spoken in the Netherlands, is currently subject to an ongoing vowel shift that started approximately 100 years ago. This so-called ‘Polder shift’ changes tense mid vowels to upgliding diphthongs and lowers the nuclei of diphthongs. Sociolinguistic migrants – speakers of Southern Standard Dutch who moved from Flanders to The Netherlands – may adopt these sound changes, but do so with substantial individual differences in both qualitative and quantitative respects. In addition, there are individual differences between non-migrant speakers of the two varieties. I analyze the Polder shift as an ongoing process of phonologization, relating these individual differences to two separate but interrelated properties: phonology, viz. allophonic conditioning, and phonetic implementation, viz. the degree of diphthongization and lowering. I conclude that these individual differences represent different stages of this ongoing phonologization.
| Original language | Dutch |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 4-32 |
| Journal | Nederlandse Taalkunde |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 09 Jul 2024 |