Cover not available
Part of
Responses to Language Varieties: Variability, processes and outcomes
Edited by Alexei Prikhodkine and Dennis R. Preston
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 39] 2015
► pp. 191–218

Is Moroccan-flavoured Standard Dutch standard or not? On the use of perceptual criteria to determine the limits of standard languages

| Radboud University Nijmegen
| Radboud University Nijmegen
ORCID logo | Radboud University Nijmegen
In view of the fact that Netherlandic Standard Dutch has been found to be stratifying – i.e. incorporating regional accent variation to allow speakers to profile local group membership in addition to their national affiliation – an evident question is whether non-Dutch accents are also tolerated in private conceptualizations of the standard: is Moroccan-flavoured Dutch Netherlandic Standard Dutch? In a speaker evaluation experiment designed to answer that question, 212 male and female listener-judges rated 8 short clips of spontaneous speech produced by native and Moroccan Dutchmen on 12 measures selected in function of 5 dimensions of accent attitude architecture (Status, Dynamism, Personal Integrity, Solidarity and Accent Norm); listener-judges also rated speech clips in terms of how beautiful they found them. Principal Component Analysis demonstrated that ratings on the 12 measures correlated into a Status and an Attractiveness dimension. The fact that Moroccan Dutch was systematically downgraded on the status dimension, and the fact that the Moroccan accent was deemed significantly less beautiful than the native accents, strongly suggests that a Moroccan accent is not acceptable as an ingredient of Standard Dutch; neither are there any indications of imminent change in these evaluations.
Published online: 16 December 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.39.09gro
References (78)
References
Auer, Peter. 2011. Dialect vs. standard: A typology of scenarios in Europe. In The Languages and Linguistics of Europe, Bernd Kortmann & Johan van der Auwera (eds), 485-500. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Billiet, Jaak, Eisinga, Rob & Scheepers, Peer. 1996. Ethnocentrism in the low countries: A comparative perspective. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 22(3): 401-416. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bleich, Erik. 2009. Muslims and the state in the post-9/11 West: Introduction. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 35(3):353-360. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bolt, Gideon & van Kempen, Ronald. 2010. Ethnic segregation and residential mobility: Relocations of minority ethnic groups in the Netherlands. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 36(2): 333-354. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bresnahan, Mary Jiang, Ohashi, Rie, Nebashi, Reiko, Liu, Wen Ying & Sachiyo Morinaga Shearman. 2002. Attitudinal and affective response towards accented English. Language and Communication 22: 171-185. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brennan, Eileen M. & Brennan, John Stephen. 1981. Accent scaling and language attitudes: Reactions to Mexican American English speech. Language and Speech 24: 207-221.Google Scholar
Buijs, Frank. 2009. Muslims in the Netherlands: Social and political developments after 9/11. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 35(3): 421-438. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Callan, Victor J., Gallois, Cynthia & Forbes, Paul A. 1983. Evaluative reactions to accented English: Ethnicity, sex role, and context. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 14(4): 407-426. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek. 2011a. Bevolking; kerncijfers. Retrieved from CBS StatLine. <[URL]> [25 June 2012].Google Scholar
. 2011b. Bevolking; ontwikkeling in gemeenten met 100.000 of meer inwoners. Retrieved from CBS StatLine: <[URL]> [26 June 2012].Google Scholar
Crul, Maurice & Doomernik, Jeroen. 2006. The Turkish and Moroccan second generation in the Netherlands: Divergent trends between and polarization within the two groups. International Migration Review 37(4):1039-1064. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Deumert, Ana & Vandenbussche, Wim (eds). 2003. Germanic Standardizations. Past to Present [Impact: Studies in Language and Society 18]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Witte, Hans & Klandermans, Bert. 2000. Political racism in Flanders and the Netherlands: Explaining difference in electoral success of extreme right-wing parties. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 26(4): 699-717. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eisenchlas, Susana & Tsurutani, Chiharu. 2011. You sound attractive! Perception of accented English in a multilingual environment. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 34(2): 218-238.Google Scholar
Garrett, Peter. 2005. Attitude measurements. In Sociolinguistics: An International Handbook of the Science of Language and Society, Vol. 2, Ulrich Ammon, Norbert Dittmar, Klaus J. Mattheier, Peter Trudgill (eds.), 1251-1260. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Gass, Susan M. & Varonis, Evangeline Marlos. 1984. The effect of familiarity on the comprehensibility of non-native speech. Language Learning 34(1): 65-87. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Geeraerts, Dirk. 1993. Postmoderne taalattitudes? Streven 60: 346-353.Google Scholar
Geerts, Guido. 1987. Variatie en norm in de standaarduitspraak. In Variatie en Norm in de Standaardtaal, Jaap de Rooij (ed.), 165-173. Amsterdam: Meertensinstituut.Google Scholar
Giles, Howard. 1970. Evaluative reactions to accents. Educational Review 22: 211-227. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goossens, Jan. 2000. De toekomst van het Nederlands in Vlaanderen. Ons Erfdeel 4: 3-13.Google Scholar
Gowricharn, Ruben. 2002. Integration and social cohesion: The case of the Netherlands. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 28(2): 259-273. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grondelaers, Stefan. 2013. Attitude measurements in the Low Countries. In Language in Time and Space: Dutch, Frans Hinskens & Johan Taeldeman (eds), 586-602. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Grondelaers, Stefan & van Hout, Roeland. 2010a. Is Standard Dutch with a regional accent standard or not? Evidence from native speakers’ attitudes. Language Variation and Change 22: 221-239. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2010b. Do speech evaluation scales in a speaker evaluation experiment trigger conscious or unconscious attitudes? University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 16(2): 93-102.Google Scholar
. 2011a. The standard language situation in the Low Countries: Top-down and bottom-up variations on a diaglossic theme. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 23:199-243. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2011b. The standard language situation in The Netherlands. In Kristiansen & Coupland (eds), 113-118.Google Scholar
. 2012. Where is Dutch (really) heading? The classroom consequences of destandardization. Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics 1(1): 41-58. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grondelaers, Stefan, van Hout, Roeland & Speelman, Dirk. 2011. A perceptual typology of standard language situations in the Low Countries. In Kristiansen & Coupland (eds), 199-222.Google Scholar
Grondelaers, Stefan & Speelman, Dirk. 2013. Can speaker evaluation return private attitudes towards stigmatised varieties? Evidence from emergent standardisation in Belgian Dutch. In Kristiansen & Grondelaers (eds.), 171-192.Google Scholar
Grondelaers, Stefan, van Hout, Roeland & Steegs, Mieke. 2010. Evaluating regional accent variation in Standard Dutch. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 29(1): 101-116. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grondelaers, Stefan, van Hout, Roeland & van der Harst, Sander. 2015. Subjective accent strength perceptions are not only a function of objective accent strength. Evidence from Netherlandic Standard Dutch. Speech Communication 74, 1-11. DOI logo
Haeringen, C.B. van. 1951. Standaard-Nederlands. De Nieuwe Taalgids 44: 316-320.Google Scholar
Hair, Joseph F., Black, William, Babin, Barry J., Anderson, Rolph E. &Tatham, Ronald L. 2006. Multivariate Data Analysis. Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Hinskens, Frans. 2007. New types of non-standard Dutch. In Standard, Variation and Language Change in Germanic Languages, Christian Fandrych & Reinier Salverda (eds), 281-300. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
Hinskens, Frans & Taeldeman, Johan (eds). 2013. Language in Time and Space: Dutch. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 739-761.Google Scholar
Jaspers, Jürgen. 2001. Het Vlaamse stigma. Over tussentaal en normativiteit. Taal en Tongval 53:129–153.Google Scholar
Jørgensen, Jens Normann & Quist, Pia. 2001. Native speakers’ judgement of second language Danish. Language Awareness 10(1): 41-56. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kristiansen, Tore. 2009. The macro level social meaning of late modern Danish accents. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 40:167-192. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kristiansen, Tore & Coupland, Nik (eds). 2011. Standard Languages and Language Standards in a Changing Europe. Oslo: Novus.Google Scholar
Kristiansen, Tore, Garrett, Peter & Coupland, Nik. 2005. Introducing subjectivities in language variation and change. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 37: 9–35. Thematic issue: Subjective Processes in Language Variation and Change, Tore Kristiansen, Peter Garrett & Nik Coupland (eds). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kristiansen, Tore & Grondelaers, Stefan (eds). 2013. Language (De)standardisation in Late Modern Europe: Experimental Studies. Oslo: Novus.Google Scholar
Lambert, Wallace E., Hodgson, Richard C., Gardner, Robert C. & Fillenbaum, Samuel. 1960. Evaluative reactions to spoken languages. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 66: 44–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Latour, Britt, van Hout, Roeland & Grondelaers, Stefan. 2012. De schoonheid van taal. Hoe wezenlijk is de rol van taalattitudes? Taal & Tongval 64: 156-194.Google Scholar
Lev-Ari, Shiri & Keysar, Boaz. 2010. Why don’t we believe non-native speakers? The influence of accent on credibility. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 46(6): 1093-1096. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lindemann, Stephanie. 2003. Koreans, Chinese or Indians? Attitudes and ideologies about non-native English speakers in the United States. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(3): 348-364. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lippi-Green, Rosina. 1994. Standard language ideology, and discriminatory pretext in the courts. Language in Society 23(2):163-198. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1997. English with an Accent. Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Long, Daniel. 1999. Mapping non-linguists’ evaluations of Japanese language variation. In Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology, Vol. 1, Dennis R. Preston (ed.), 199-226. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milroy, James. 2001. Language ideologies and the consequences of standardization. Journal of Sociolinguistics 5: 530–555. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milroy, James & Milroy, Lesley. 1985. Authority in Language. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Muysken, Pieter. 2013. Ethnolects of Dutch. In Hinskens & Taeldeman (eds.), 739-761.Google Scholar
Niedzielski, Nancy & Preston, Dennis R. 2000. Introduction. In Folk linguistics, Nancy Niedzielski & Dennis R. Preston, 1-40. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nortier, Jacomine. 2001. Murks en Straattaal. Vriendschap en Taalgebruik onder Jongeren. (Murkish and Streetslang. Friendship and Language Usage among Youth). Amsterdam: Prometheus.Google Scholar
. 2007. The Moroccan community in The Netherlands. In Encyclopedia of Language and Education, Vol. 9, Nancy Hornberger (ed.), 3079-3088. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Nortier, Jacomine & Dorleijn, Margreet. 2008. A Moroccan accent in Dutch: A sociocultural style restricted to the Moroccan? International Journal of Bilingualism 12(1-2): 125-142. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ó Murchadha, Noel P. 2013. Authority and innovation in language variation: Teenagers' perceptions of variation in spoken Irish. In Kristiansen & Grondelaers (eds), 71-96.Google Scholar
Oostdijk, Nelleke. 2002. The design of the Spoken Dutch corpus. In New frontiers of corpus research, Pam Peters, Peter Collins & Adam Smith (eds), 105-112.Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Perlman, Gary. 1985. Electronic surveys. Behavior research methods, Instruments & computers 17(2): 203-205. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rubin, Donald L. 1992. Non-language factors affecting undergraduates’ judgements of nonnative English-speaking teaching assistants. Research in Higher Education 33(4): 511-531. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ryan, Ellen Bouchard, Carranza, Miguel A. & Moffie, Robert W. 1977. Reactions toward various degrees of accentedness in the speech of Spanish-English bilinguals. Language and Speech 20: 267-273.Google Scholar
Smakman, Dick. 2006. Standard Dutch in the Netherlands. A Sociolinguistic and Phonetic Description. Utrecht: LOT.Google Scholar
Stroop, Jan. 1998. Poldernederlands. Waardoor het ABN Verdwijnt. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker.Google Scholar
. 2010. Hun Hebben de Taal Verkwanseld. Over Poldernederlands, ‘Fout’ Nederlands en ABN. Amsterdam: Athenaeum.Google Scholar
The LimeSurvey project team. (n.d.). LimeSurvey Features. Retrieved from LimeSurvey. <[URL]> [28 June 2012].
Torstensson, Niklas. 2010. Judging the Immigrant: Accents and Attitudes. Umeå: Print & Media Umeå University.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter & Giles, Howard. 1978. Sociolinguistics and linguistic value judgments: Correctness, adequacy and aesthetics. In Functional Studies in Language and Literature, Frank Coppieters & Didier L. Goyvaerts (eds), 167-190. Gent: Story-Scientia.Google Scholar
Vandenbussche, Wim. 2008. Het einde van de standaardtaal? Een controversieel boek van Joop van der Horst. Ons Erfdeel 51: 188-191.Google Scholar
van Bezooijen, Renée. 2001. Poldernederlands: Hoe kijken vrouwen ertegen? Nederlandse Taalkunde 6: 257–271.Google Scholar
. 2002. Aesthetic evaluation of Dutch. Comparisons across dialects, accents, and languages. In Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology, Vol. 2, Daniel Long & Dennis R. Preston (eds), 13-30. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van der Horst, Joop. 2009. Het Einde van de Standaardtaal. Een Wisseling van Europese Taalcultuur. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff.Google Scholar
van Hoof, Sarah & Jaspers, Jürgen. 2012. Hyperstandaardisering. Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde 128: 97–125.Google Scholar
van Hout, Roeland, De Schutter, Georges, De Crom, Erika, Huinck, Wendy, Kloots, Hanne & van de Velde, Hans. 1999. De uitspraak van het Standaard-Nederlands. Variatie en varianten in Vlaanderen en Nederland. In Artikelen van de Derde Sociolinguïstische Conferentie, Erica Huls & Bert Weltens (eds), 183-196. Delft: Eburon.Google Scholar
van Meel, Linda, Hinskens, Frans & van Hout, Roeland. 2013. Ethnolectal variation in the realization of /εi/ by Dutch youngsters. Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik 80(3): 297-325.Google Scholar
. 2014. Variation in the realization of /εi/ by Dutch youngsters: from local urban dialects to emerging ethnolects? Dialectologia et Geolinguistica 22: 46-74.Google Scholar
Vervoort, Miranda & Dagevos, Jaco. 2011. The social integration of ethnic minorities: An explanation of the trend in ethnic minorities' social contacts with natives in the Netherlands, 1998-2006. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 37(4): 619-635. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Willemyns, Roland. 2003. Dutch. In Germanic Standardizations: Past to Present [Impact: Studies in Language and Society 18], Ana Deumert & Wim Vandenbussche (eds), 93-125. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2007. De-standardization in the Dutch language territory at large. In Standard, Variation and Language Change in Germanic Languages, Christian Fandrych & Reinier Salverda (eds), 267-279. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
W3Counter. 2011. Global Web Stats May 2011. Retrieved from W3Counter. <[URL]> [3 July 2012].Google Scholar
Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Van Puyvelde, Moira, Sarah Van Hoof, Chloé Lybaert & Koen Plevoets
2023. Examining accent bias towards Turkish speakers of Dutch. Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics 12 DOI logo
Grondelaers, Stefan, Paul van Gent & Roeland van Hout
2022. On the Inevitability of Social Meaning and Ideology in Accounts of Syntactic Change: Evidence from Pronoun Competition in Netherlandic Dutch. In Explanations in Sociosyntactic Variation, ► pp. 120 ff. DOI logo
Grondelaers, Stefan & Paul van Gent
2019. How “deep” is Dynamism? Revisiting the evaluation of Moroccan-flavored Netherlandic Dutch. Linguistics Vanguard 5:s1 DOI logo
Grondelaers, Stefan & Paul van Gent
2022. Aicha Is More Dutch but Less Dynamic than Ahmed: The Gendered Nature of Race in the Netherlands. Dutch Crossing 46:3 ► pp. 274 ff. DOI logo
Meer, Philipp, Michael Westphal, Eva Canan Hänsel & Dagmar Deuber
2019. Trinidadian secondary school students’ attitudes toward accents of Standard English. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 34:1 ► pp. 83 ff. DOI logo
Prikhodkine, Alexei
2019. Faire « local » avec un accent étranger : entre inclusion et minorisation. Minorités linguistiques et société :12 ► pp. 125 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.