My work is oil field related and recently I had occasion to contact Gasunie Engineering and Technology in an effort to obtain a copy of a film that they had produced a number of years ago. Gasunie very kindly sent me a copy of the film at no cost. In it, the narrator, speaking in a very proper sounding British English, says the name of the company several times and also mentions that they are located in Groningen.

I have listened to the pronunciation of these words a number of times now and am still having trouble hearing just how the G sound is made. It sounds somewhat like a throaty Greek Chi when used at the beginning of Gasunie and Groningen, but the second G in Groningen sounds almost like an English G as in good or girl.

1) Can anyone describe to me (an American English speaker) what the initial G should sound like?
2) Does the G change its sound depending its location in a word or am I simply not hearing it clearly?

Thanks,

the dogs

The Dutch g or ch is softer then English or German

of course there are dialects in NL , like everywhere

You say Kroningen , we say GGGGroningen (In Amsterdam it's Chroningen)

You say Good like the German say Gut , we say GGoed (choet )

You say School like Skool, we say School like Sgool , German say Schule (Sjoele)

You say Scheveningen like Skeveningen, we say Sggeveningen , German Sjeveningen

The southern dialect in NL is best known by the even much softer g , they don't say the guh , or chuh , but it's completely like gggggeeee (not dzjjjjjeeee, but gggggggeeeeee

Wim, I always struggled with the pronunciation whatever the region. I never did get used to those Groningers and their special dialect. Then I moved to Leeuwarden to discover the Frysk dwellers have their own bloody lingo. But it was my mates from the "hard drinking" east of Holland who claimed their gutteral pronunciation was the only correct way of speaking in the low lands.

And doog is pronounced doooochhh, like you are clearing phlegm from your throat at the end.

Doog
Pepto

Muchas gracias amigos.

Didn't realize it was that complicated.

the dogs

The initial G has indeed a very guttural sound, like you're clearing your throat.
In combination with an N, ("GroniNGen"), the harsh G changes to an NG-sound, like in "wroNG".
The dutch language has a lot more variations in combinations, designed of course to trick foreigners. |-D

thank fuck everyone speaks english.