Abstract
Dutch spelling can be said to be almost entirely consistent. That is, each sound is spelled in only one way and each symbol represents only one sound. A few exceptions to this have been pointed out, and a few other minor irregularities will be discussed in this chapter and in the text as they occur. The spelling rules of Dutch revolve for the most part around the important distinction between ‘closed’ and ‘open’ syllables. Since, therefore, in order to learn how Dutch words are represented in writing we must understand what is meant by these two types of syllables, let us first see what ‘closed’ and ‘open’ mean.
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Reference
For this reason, many texts call aa ee oo uu ie eu oe — the vowels which can occur in open syllable — ‘long’ vowels, and aeiou’ short’ vowels.
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© 1974 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Shetter, W.Z. (1974). Spelling. In: Introduction to Dutch. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9224-8_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9224-8_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-011-8495-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-9224-8
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