the word journalist is that a covered vowel or open vowel

Answer

Hi Naji,

To answer your question, I once again consulted RHB De Coninck’s ‘Great Pronunciation Dictionary of the Dutch Language’. The copy I could find is already 35 years old but I don’t think the pronunciation of ‘journalist’ has changed at that time.

There are three vowels in the word ‘journalist’:

the first in ‘jour’ is pronounced as in the word ‘boek’ (a short, closed vowel)

the second in ‘na’ is pronounced as in ‘nat’ (a short, open vowel), and

the third in ‘list’ that is stressed is pronounced as in the word ‘list’ (a short, almost closed vowel).

By ‘almost closed vowel’ is meant that the sound is less closed than the closed sound that you use with a word like ‘not’.

If you’re from the Antwerp area, you may not make a difference in your language between the vowels in ‘list’ and ‘not’ if you pronounce it short and unstressed as in “A POLICEMAN may not do such a thing.” We do make a distinction between these in General Dutch, which you can hear if you listen carefully to words such as ‘list, kind, fat, smart, dip, …’ on a Flemish (non-local) radio or TV during a news broadcast.

To return to your question: all vowels in ‘journalist’ are therefore covered (= short) vowels.

Sincerely,

Sonia Vandepitte

University College Ghent Translation Studies – Ghent University