In Dutch we have about twenty consonants. These consonants are categorized by way of articulation in five different ‘sound’ groups. I’m not sure if there are official English translation for each of the sound groups, so I’ll just give you the Dutch term and I’ll try to describe the sounds as best as I can.
First the five sound groups: plofklanken, wrijfklanken, neusklanken, vloeiklanken and glijklanken.
Besides those, we have six ‘mixed’ consonants, mostly in words from foreign origin.
Further, the plof- and wrijfklanken are also divided in sonorous and non-sonorous (if that’s even a word!). With the non-sonorous sounds, the vocal cords don’t vibrate but with the sonorous sounds they do. You can clearly hear the difference between ‘p’ and ‘b’, ‘t’ and ‘d’, ‘s’ and ‘z’.
The ‘Plof’ klanken = the thump sounds
In Dutch there are five thump sounds: the ‘p’ as in ‘paard’ (horse), the ‘t’ as in ‘taart’ (cake), the ‘k’ as in ‘kaart’ (map or postal card), the ‘b’ as in ‘baard’ (beard) and de ‘d’ as in ‘dal’
(valley). These thumping sounds are created because with the pronunciation, the air comes out of the mouth with a small little thump.
Non-sonorous thump sounds are: p, t and k.
Sonorous thump sounds are: b and d.
The ‘Wrijf’ klanken = the friction sounds
In Dutch there are eight friction sounds: ‘f’ as in ‘fiets’ (bike), ‘v’ as in ‘vaas’ (vase), ‘s’ as in ‘sok’ (sock), ‘z’ as in ‘zuur’ (sour), ‘ch’ as in ‘lach’ (laugh), ‘g’ as in ‘geel’ (yellow), ‘sj’ as in ‘sjaal’ (scarf) and ‘zj’ as in ‘journaal’ (news bulletin). These friction sounds are created because with the pronunciation, there’s a mild friction when you narrow your mouth.
Non-sonorous friction sounds are: f, s, ch and sj
Sonorous friction sounds are: v, z, g and zj
The ‘Neus’ klanken = the nose sounds
In Dutch there are three nose sounds: the ‘m’ as in ‘muur’ (wall), the ‘n’ as in ‘natuur’ (nature) and the ‘ng’ as in ‘wang’ (cheek).
These nose sounds are created because with the pronunciation, the air has to come out through the nose.
You’ll also notice how the lips are used for ‘m’, the tongue is used for the ‘n’ and the ‘ng’ seems to come from somewhere down the throat.
The ‘Vloei’ klanken = the flowing sounds
In Dutch there are two flowing sounds: the ‘l’ as in ‘lepel’ (spoon) and the ‘r’ as in ‘rem’ (brake). These flowing sounds are created because with the pronunciation, the air flows evenly beside the tongue.
The ‘Glij’ klanken = the gliding sounds
In Dutch there are two gliding sounds: the ‘j’ as in ‘jaar’ (year) and the ‘w’ as in ‘waar’ (true). These sounds are also called the ‘half-vowels’ because the resemble the ‘ie’ and the ‘oe’ but are used as consonants.
Affricaten
In Dutch there are four so called ‘affricaten’, or mixed consonants, mostly used in words of foreign origin: the ‘ts’ as is ‘tsaar’ (czar), ‘dz’ as in ‘pizza’, ‘tsj’ as in ‘tsjilpen’ (to twitter) and the ‘dzj’ as in ‘gin’.
