Acquisition of Dutch phonology: an overview

Abstract

Dutch is a West-Germanic language spoken by most inhabitants of the Netherlands(approximately 16 million speakers). It is the official language of the Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, Aruba, and the Dutch Antilles. It is thought to be spoken by around 24 million people worldwide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_language). Dutch has many dialects which differ from Standard Dutch in their vocabulary, syntax,morphology and phonology. The Netherlands has a heterogeneous population with people from many different nationalities and as a consequence a wide variety of languages is spoken. The majority of the immigrant population is from Turkish descent, followed by Surinam, and Moroccan descent (source: Statistics Netherlands,www.cbs.nl).