The Similarity of Plural Endings and Linking Elements in Regional Speech Variants of Dutch

The plural suffix -en (noot+en, ‘nuts’) is pronounced differently by speakers coming from different regions of the Netherlands. In this study, we compared the pronunciation of the plural suffix -en in phrases (noot+en kraken, ‘to crack nuts’) with linking en in compounds (noot+en+kraker, ‘nutcracker’), because some claim that both are similar (Schreuder, Neijt, van der Weide, & Baayen, 1998), whereas others claim that they are not (Verkuyl, 2007). The pronunciations of 109 participants coming from five regions of the Netherlands were therefore compared in a picture naming task. A systematic relation between the pronunciations of plural -en and linking en was detected: Speakers from the Northern and Eastern regions produced [(ᵊ)n] most often for both the linking elements and plural endings, while speakers from the Middle and Western regions produced [ᵊ] most often for both. For speakers from the Southern region, we found no preference to pronounce either [ᵊ] or [ᵊn] in compounds or phrases. It is concluded that Dutch speakers often do not distinguish plural -en from linking en in their speech production. Possibly, speakers of Dutch consider linking en and plural -en as the same morpheme.