why do the dutch speak english with a lisp?

Question

this is not an insult

Answer 1

I agree that Dutch speakers don't really lisp - it could be the speech impairment of certain individuals.

The [s] sound is more or less identical in both languages, allowed changes due to bordering vowels. In Dutch (and Afrikaans - which derived from Dutch) there are no natural "sh", "th", "dh" or "zh" sounds.

I have noticed that Dutch speakers do over-round vowels and tend to use an American [r] where Standard British omits it. Also a slight tendency towards nasalation of longer open "a", "e", "o" and "u" sounds.

Answer 2

I think you're using the word lisp rather differently from the everyday English sense. A lisp is generally understood as the pronunciation of s as th. What I think you're referring to is the Dutch tendency to pronounce s as sh.

This does happen, though of course not everyone from the Netherlands does it. It's because no distinction is made between s and sh in Dutch. As a comparison, you might want to try learning Arabic and learning to distinguish between three grades of h.

Answer 3

They don't. It must be an idiosyncrasy of one or two Dutch people that you happen to know, because the "th" sounds are absent from the Dutch language.

In fact, I wish I could speak Dutch as well as the average Dutch person speaks English !

Answer 4

They have an accent but I haven't noticed a lisp (i.e. "th" instead of "s")

What exactly do you mean by lisp?

Answer 5

They don't - have friends in the Netherlands - have visited the Netherlands - didn't hear any lisps.

Answer 6

It's just their accent.

Answer 7

that's cute!

Answer 8

i guess they think its sexy