Foreign Loanwords in Dutch: Integration and Adaptation

Abstract

Foreign elements in Dutch are usually spelled in the same way as in the language of origin, provided that language uses the Roman alphabet. Some adaptation to Dutch pronunciation rules always takes place, the degree mainly depending on the level of instruction of the Dutch speaker and on the gap between Dutch and the source language. The three main source languages—German, French, and English—have their own social and/or political connotations and each creates specific problems when Dutch syntactic rules and Dutch inflections have to be applied. Of the other source languages, classical Latin and Greek stand apart, as no effort is made to pronounce the numerous loanwords they provide in a way that comes close to the original pronunciation. As for other languages, their contribution to Dutch is less significant. For some languages there exists transliteration systems, e.g., Russian, for others oral approximation and adaptation are the rule, e.g., Hebrew and Yiddish.