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Article In: Linguistics in the Netherlands 2026
Edited by Remco Knooihuizen, Marloes Oomen and Alex Reuneker
[Nota Bene 3:2] 2026
► pp. 1–

De status van het onderscheid tussen HOK en BȮK in het Noord-Nederlands

 | Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
 | Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
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Article language: Dutch

Abstract
Standard Dutch no longer distinguishes between the short vowels /o/ (HOK) and /ɔ/ (BȮK). Where the distinction was widespread half a century ago, it is now only made by speakers in peripheral Eastern and Northern areas of the Netherlands. This article examines to what extent the distinction is still being made in the provinces of Groningen and Fryslân, through a sociophonetic analysis of production data. Participants produced words that contained both types of short-o vowel. The analysis showed that ca. 60% of participants from Fryslân, but under 20% of participants from Groningen, distinguished the two vowel categories. Several social factors, such as gender, education, and regional language use in childhood, seem to affect the status of merger.
Article outline
  • 1.Inleiding
    • 1.1Ontwikkeling van HOK en BȮK
    • 1.2HOK en BȮK in het hedendaags Noord-Nederlands
  • 2.Methodologie
    • 2.1Experimentele opzet
    • 2.2Deelnemers
    • 2.3Data-analyse
  • 3.Resultaten
    • 3.1Onderscheid tussen HOK en BȮK
    • 3.2Sociale factoren
      • 3.2.1Pillai-score
      • 3.2.2Bhattacharrya’s Affinity
      • 3.2.3Status van samenval
  • 4.Discussie
    • 4.1Status van de samenval
    • 4.2Sociale factoren
    • 4.3Gronings vs. Fries
    • 4.4Beperkingen
  • 5.Conclusie
  • Opmerkingen
  • Literatuur
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