Hard and soft G in Dutch
Hard and soft G in Dutch (Dutch: harde en zachte G) refers to a phonological phenomenon of the pronunciation of the letters and and also a major isogloss within that language. In northern dialects of Dutch (that is, those spoken above the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Waal), the letters represent velar ( and , respectively) or uvular fricatives , the so-called hard G. However, in most northern dialects, the distinction is no longer made, with both sounds pronounced as or . In those dialects that merge and , it is still possible for some speakers to pronounce as  intervocallically. In many southern dialects of Dutch, and represent front-velar fricatives ( and ), the so-called soft G. Voicing is truly contrastive only between vowels. In dialects that make the distinction, the voiceless variant occurs only between vowels, before voiceless consonants and in the word-final position (and also at the beginning of words, in some loanwords). The voiced variant is the only sound of the two that can occur word-initially in native words and before voiced consonants, but it cannot occur at the end of the word due to final-obstruent devoicing. Speakers normally use those pronunciations  in both standard language and the local dialect. The only exception to that are speakers from the southern Netherlands that have undergone accent reduction training, in which case they will use the voiceless uvular fricative when speaking standard Dutch. It is very rare for speakers to use the hard G when speaking Brabantian or Limburgish (including Ripuarian, in the extreme south of the province); in those dialects, is heard as a rhotic consonant, an allophone of in some positions. In Belgium, occurs only in that context. In other contexts, it is perceived as a strongly foreign ('Dutch', or 'Northern') pronunciation . In Ripuarian, the voiced has been so fronted as to merge with the palatal approximant (except after back vowels); cf. Standard Dutch "goed" 'good' with "jód" in the Kerkrade dialect. Those dialects are also an exception to the rule, as they switch over to the southern pronunciation when they speak Standard Dutch. In the case of Herzogenrath (where the Kerkrade dialect is also spoken) and other Ripuarian-speaking places in Germany, they switch to standard when speaking Standard German, as the pronunciation with is marked on both sides of the border. Geographical distribution. The hard is used primarily in the  northern part of the Dutch language area in Europe: The soft is used primarily in the southern part of the Dutch language area in Europe: