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Abstract

This study reports a detailed analysis of 159 tokens of the Dutch discourse marker eigenlijk, uttered in casual conversations.
Our data demonstrate a wide range of variation in the production of the word, ranging from trisyllabic tokens closely
resembling the word’s citation form (13% of the tokens) to phonetically minimal monosyllabic tokens consisting merely of a
vowel followed by a single obstruent consonant (36%). The full form is thus not the most frequent form. The reduced tokens
occur both in prosodically weak and strong positions, contrary to what is typically reported for reduced words. The
pronunciation variation displayed by eigenlijk is conditioned, among other factors, by the rhythm of the phrase, and shows
large differences between speakers. Importantly, a form may be reduced in one aspect, but not in another. For instance, a
bisyllabic form may be as long as a trisyllabic form and, whereas some forms still contain acoustic cues for the /l/ but not for
the fricative, this is the other way around for other forms. Generally, we found that every pronunciation variant of eigenlijk
includes two landmarks that may be considered to be the main characteristics of the word (the full vowel and a velar/uvular
consonant). These findings raise new questions about reduction, including the status of full but infrequent forms, the extent to
which reduction is an automatic process, and the role of landmarks in speech processing.
This study will appear as M. Ernestus & R. Smith (2016). Qualitative and quantitative aspects of phonetic variation in
Dutch eigenlijk. In: F. Cangemi, M. Clayards, O. Niebuhr, B. Schuppler, & M. Zellers (eds.), Rethinking reduction. Berlin/Boston:
De Gruyter Mouton.