Hard and soft G in Dutch

In the Dutch language, hard and soft G (Dutch: harde en zachte G) refers to a phonetic phenomenon of the pronunciation of the letters ⟨g⟩ and ⟨ch⟩ and also a major isogloss within that language.

In southern dialects of Dutch (that is, those spoken roughly below the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Waal),^[1] the distinction between the phonemes /x/ and /ɣ/ is usual, with both realized as cardinal velars [x, ɣ] or post-palatal [ç˗, ʝ˗], hereafter represented without the diacritics. The allophony between those two types of fricatives is termed soft G in Dutch dialectology.^[2][3] It is almost the same as the distinction between the Ach-Laut and the Ich-Laut in German, with an additional contrast of voicing.

In northern dialects of Dutch, the distinction (if present at all) is not consistent and is best described as a fortis–lenis contrast, rather than a contrast of voicing. In those varieties, /x/ and /ɣ/ are no more front than cardinal velars, with /x/ usually being uvular: [χ]. /ɣ/, if distinct from /x/, is typically a voiceless velar fricative [x]. This is termed hard G in Dutch dialectology.^[2][3] It is also used in Afrikaans, so that the Afrikaans word goed 'good' has the same pronunciation as in Northern Dutch ([χut]), in addition to having the same meaning in both languages.^[4]

Speakers normally use those pronunciations in both standard language and the local dialect. The only exception to that are speakers from the southern Netherlands that have undergone accent reduction training, in which case they will use a trill fricative when speaking standard Dutch. It is very rare for speakers to use the hard G when speaking Brabantian or Limburgish.