# Phonetic transcription of a Dutch surname **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 5, 2009, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-transcription-of-a-dutch-surname/488391 "2009-03-05T15:05:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-transcription-of-a-dutch-surname/488391/1 "2009-03-05T15:05:38Z")
Schouwenberg. I know, more or less, how it’s pronounced, but need the IPA version. Anyone able to help? ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-transcription-of-a-dutch-surname/488391/2 "2009-03-05T16:19:55Z")
I think this is it: sɣauʋənbɛrɣ Why do you ask? ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-transcription-of-a-dutch-surname/488391/3 "2009-03-05T16:46:02Z")
> [@Svejk\_1](#): > > I think this is it: sɣauʋənbɛrɣ > > Why do you ask? Thanks, that looks OK to me. I ask because it’s the easiest way to communicate to my remote colleagues how to pronounce the name so they can transliterate it into non-Latin script. ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-transcription-of-a-dutch-surname/488391/4 "2009-03-05T18:19:11Z")
> [@Svejk\_1](#): > > I think this is it: sɣauʋənbɛrɣ > > Why do you ask? I really don’t have a clue what this pronunciation description is, but I do remember a little of my college Dutch. The “Sch…” sound in Dutch produces a sound we don’t use in English. It’s an ‘s’ sound followed by raspy, gutteral, phlegm-like sound. 🙂 The best description I can think of is this. You know the exagerated sounds someone makes when they “hawk a lugee” (sp?)? It’s the: kkkkwwwwiiiick, ptui! sound. The gutteral, back-of-the-throat sound you make at the beginning of the “kkkwwwiiick” is how you would pronounce the “ch”. The “Sch…” combination I always found difficult to make. The ‘s’ sound is made at the front of the mouth, followed immediately by the gutteral sound from the back of the mouth/throat. Oh yeah, I also remeber that a “w” in Dutch is pronounced like a soft “v” in English. (A ‘v’ in Dutch is pronounced more like an ‘f’ in English). So, does that pronunciation description above take these pronunciations into account? Longwindedly, 🙂 J. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-transcription-of-a-dutch-surname/488391/5 "2009-03-06T08:46:18Z")
well, yeah. There’s a separate sign for the Dutch w, so that’s covered, and the fact that the w is in between vowels does not necessitate a separate pronunciation. As far as ‘sch’ is concerned, I’m sure it’s pretty difficult but I believe that phonetically, it’s not different from a ‘s’ and a ‘ch’ sound pronounced in sequence, so there’s no need to write it other than this. There is one thing that puzzles me, which is that wikipedia says we have a voiced and unvoiced ‘ch’ sound. Now I know what that means, the difference between s/z, v/f, b/p, _th_is/_th_ing, etc. We have this distinction in Dutch as well (except for the th/th thing - we have neither of those sounds). But I can’t for the life of me figure out how this difference sounds for ‘ch’. The ‘g’ at the end of Schouwenberg has to be unvoiced because Dutch words can’t end in a voiced sound; apparently, the ‘ch’ in Schouwenberg is also unvoiced, because it’s a ‘ch’. So that means that technically, both ɣs need to be replaced by xs. See also [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_language#Sounds). But again, I can’t tell the difference (and neither can the dutch version of this wikipedia page) so I’m really not very sure that there is one.