Dutch Orthography: A systematic investigation of the spelling of Dutch words (review)

Until the publication of this book, there has never been any systematic and explicit account of the spelling rules of Modern Dutch. Nunn’s study contains an extensive investigation of Dutch spelling and describes how one can derive current spelling of Dutch lexical items from pronunciation. Her study is based on a computer-generated corpus of 45,000 words, and the rules posited in this study are accurate for 85% of the cases. For vernacular words, there is a 95% accuracy rate; the spelling of loan words can be predicted correctly in 73%. N’s starting point was the set of first official, traditional Dutch spelling rules by Te Winkel. She tested these for accuracy and found that they could not account for certain generalizations, and thus she proposes a modified version. The result is a description of the Dutch spelling system in the form of rules and exceptions.

This study suggests that the spelling of most basic native words can be predicted from their pronunciation by means of a set of simple rules to which there are few exceptions. The investigation of complex words suggests that uniform spelling of morphemes can be accounted for by the assumption that spelling encodes the abstract sound representation of morphemes. For nonnative words, N first includes a discussion of what qualifies as a loan word. She then provides a set of more complex rules that often predict spelling from pronunciation.

The structure of this book is straightforward: First comes the introduction, in which N describes the aim of her study, its relevance, and the method that she used. The following two chapters treat the spelling of native words, focusing first on simple and then on complex words. In examining complex words, she finds that phoneme-to-grapheme conversion rules are restricted to the morpheme domain. The next chapter deals with loan words. Finally, she describes the autonomous spelling rules, i.e. the rules that operate in domains larger than the morpheme. In the conclusion, she provides a summary of her work and includes suggestions for further research.

N’s study demonstrates that spelling is not an optimal representation of the spoken language. Knowledge of spelling rules has practical applications, she claims: It is important since it promotes consistency in and among reference works, and it facilitates teaching spelling. Its theoretical applications are that it offers insight into what is exceptional and what is regular. The study also describes how spelling reflects sound representations.

This book provides an interesting and detailed account of Dutch spelling rules. The results described in the summary are easy to read and may indeed be helpful in teaching spelling in Dutch language classes.