The emergence of Dutch

Abstract

In discussions on the history of Dutch phonology, vowels have played a more prominent role than consonants. In some recent and forthcoming publications (de Vaan 2012, forthcoming a, forthcoming b), I show that the consonants also hold important clues for language history in the Low Countries. The present article is a survey of the main pre-1200 consonant changes affecting the dialects of what eventually became the Dutch language. As far as possible, I add the relative or absolute chronology of the changes involved.