Editing Middle Dutch (section)

==Orthography==

Middle Dutch was written in the [[Latin alphabet]], which was not designed for writing Middle Dutch so different scribes used different methods of representing the sounds of their language in writing. The traditions of neighbouring scribes and their languages led to a multitude of ways to write Middle Dutch. Consequently, spelling was not standardised but was highly variable and could differ by both time and place as various "trends" in spelling waxed and waned. Furthermore, a word could be found spelled differently in different occurrences within the same text. There was the matter of personal taste, and many writers thought it was more aesthetic to follow French or Latin practice, leading to sometimes rather unusual spellings.

The spelling was generally phonetic, and words were written based on how they were spoken rather than based on underlying phonemes or morphology. [[Final-obstruent devoicing]] was reflected in the spelling, and [[clitic]] pronouns and articles were frequently joined to the preceding or following word. Scribes wrote in their own dialect, and their spelling reflected the pronunciation of that particular scribe or of some prestige dialect by which the scribe was influenced. The modern Dutch word ''maagd'' ("[[maiden]]") for example was sometimes written as ''maghet'' or {{lang|enm|maegt}}, but also ''meget'', ''magt'', ''maget'', ''magd'', and {{lang|enm|mecht}}. Some spellings, such as ''magd'', reflect an early tendency to write the underlying phonemic value. However, by and large, spelling was phonetic, which is logical as people usually read texts out loud.

Modern dictionaries tend to represent words in a normalised spelling to form a compromise between the variable spellings on one hand and to represent the sounds of the language consistently. Thus, normalised spellings attempt to be a general or "average" spelling but still being accurate and true to the language.

===Vowels===

The general practice was to write long vowels with a single letter in an open syllable and with two letters in a closed syllable. Which two letters were used varied among texts. Some texts, especially those in the east, do not do so and write long vowels with a single letter in all cases (as is the predominant rule in modern German).

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Phoneme
! Normalised
! Other spellings
! Notes
|-
| {{IPA|/a/}}
| a
|
|
|-
| {{IPA|/e/}}
| e
|
|
|-
| {{IPA|/ɪ/}}
| i
| j, y
| 
|-
| {{IPA|/o/}}
| o
|
|
|-
| {{IPA|/ʏ/}}
| u
|
|
|-
| {{IPA|/ə/}}
| e
| a (rare and early)
|
|-
| {{IPA|/aː/}}
| a (open)<br/>ae (closed)
| ai (occasionally, in closed syllables)
| In discussions about pronunciation, originally-long a is represented as â, lengthened a as ā.
|-
| {{IPA|/ɛː/}}
| e (open)<br/>ee (closed)
| ei (West Flemish)
| In discussions about pronunciation, written as ē.
|-
| {{IPA|/eː/}}
| e (open)<br/>ee (closed)
| ee (frequently in open syllables, especially in Flanders), {{notatypo|ie}} (occasionally in some dialects)
| In discussions about pronunciation, written as ê.
|-
| {{IPA|/øː/}}
| ue
| o, oe, eu (rare), u, uu (both very rare)
| {{angle|oe}} and {{angle|o}} are perhaps the most common, but normalisation uses {{angle|ue}} to avoid confusion with {{IPA|/uə/}}. Normalisation generally undoes the umlaut of older {{IPA|/oː/}}, which was only present in the eastern dialects.
|-
| {{IPA|/iː/}}
| i (open)<br/>ij (closed)
| ii (actually graphical variant of ij), {{notatypo|ie}} (rare)
|
|-
| {{IPA|/iə/}}
| {{notatypo|ie}}
| ye (rare), i (fairly rare)
|
|-
| {{IPA|/ɔː/}}
| o (open)<br/>oo (closed)
| oe, a (Rhinelandic), oi, oy
| In discussions about pronunciation, written as ō. 
|-
| {{IPA|/oː/}}
| o (open)<br/>oo (closed)
| oe, oi, oy
| In discussions about pronunciation, written as ô.
|-
| {{IPA|/uə/}}
| oe
| ou (Flanders), u, ue (both in Limburg), o (before {{IPA|/j/}})
|
|-
| {{IPA|/yː/, /uː/}}
| u (open)<br/>uu (closed)
| ue (usually before {{IPA|/r/}}), ui, uy
| {{IPA|/uː/}} only in Limburg.
|-
| {{IPA|/ei/}}
| ei
| ey
| Occurs in place of ê in Limburg.
|-
| {{IPA|/ou/}}
| ou
| au (rare)
| Occurs in place of ô in Limburg.
|}

===Consonants===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Phoneme
! Normalised
! Other spellings
! Notes
|-
| {{IPA|/j/}}
| j
| i, y, ij (very rare)
|
|-
| {{IPA|/w/}}
| w
| uu, u, v
|
|-
| {{IPA|/l/}}
| l
|
|
|-
| {{IPA|/r/}}
| r
|
|
|-
| {{IPA|/m/}}
| m
|
|
|-
| {{IPA|/n/, [ŋ]}}
| n
|
|
|-
| {{IPA|/p/}}
| p
|
|
|-
| {{IPA|/b/}}
| b
|
|
|-
| {{IPA|/f/}}
| f
|
|
|-
| {{IPA|/v/}}
| v
| u
|
|-
| {{IPA|/t/}}
| t
| th (occasionally)
|
|-
| {{IPA|/d/}}
| d
|
|
|-
| {{IPA|/s/}}
| s
|
|
|-
| {{IPA|/sk/}}, {{IPA|/sx/}}
| sch<br/>sc (in some normalisations)
| sk, ssc(h) (medially), s (occasionally)
|
|-
| {{IPA|/z/}}
| s
| z (occasionally)
|
|-
| {{IPA|/k/}}
| k (before e, i, y)<br/>c (elsewhere)<br/>qu (representing {{IPA|/kw/}})<br/>ck (for geminated {{IPA|/kː/}})
| ch (Flanders, Brabant), k (eastern, in all positions)
|
|-
| {{IPA|/x/}}
| ch
| g, gh (when {{IPA|/ɣ/}} devoices)
| 
|-
| {{IPA|/ɣ/}}, {{IPA|[ɡ]}}
| g<br/>gh (before e, i, y, only in some normalisations)<br/>cg(h) (for geminated {{IPA|/ɡː/}})
|
|
|-
| {{IPA|/h/}}
| h
| 
|}