John Chiefsofstaff

I had this bizarre experience today on a KLM flight from ARN to AMS.
I could not say if it were the same person, but in one announcement a cabin crew said Schiphol as in 'Shi-pol', and in a later one 'Ski-pol'. Are there actually several (proper) ways to pronounce that word?

Meneer Guggenheimer

It actually right between those sayings. It is a difficult letter combination to say sch.. wish is pronounced like ‘sg’ perhaps a non Dutch flight attendant who is still learning the ‘sch’.

Xandrios

Or perhaps it was the difference between an English announcement, and a Dutch one?

johan rebel

The Dutch G grates like a shovel in cold gravel. A cinch to pronounce, in other words.

KLBGO

Skippol / Sgippol according to the onboard announcements.

atflyer

As Mr. Guggenheimer says, Sch is a nice Dutch letter combination that (apart from the Swiss) hardly any other foreigner can speak out properly. It is like the g in grr...(not the soft k in good) or the j in the Spanish 'jamon'. It was one of the ways Dutch soldiers tried to identify German parachutists in our unhappy 5 days stand against Germany in WWII, May 1940 - asking any unidentified stranger to pronounce 'Scheveningse schapen scheren' (shave sheep from Scheveningen). Or so. No way a German could pronounce this properly. The Dutch Schiphol = pronounced as Sgiphol, and any foreigner will make it Skiphol. Well possible that the FA used proper Dutch pronounciation in one announcement, and the English version in the second.

AJCNL

It is almost identical to the Scots pronunciation of 'ch' in words such as Loch. The tongue-twister I learned was: 'achtentachtig prachtige grachten'

NickB

I must say that to my untrained foreigner ear, a Dutch 'ch' or 'g' sounds virtually identical to a German (or Scottish for that matter) hard 'ch' and 'sch' sounds just like the combination of 's'+'ch'. Is there something that I am missing/not hearing?

irishguy28

This.

They tend to pronounce it "Ship..." when speaking in English.

AJCNL

You are correct about the Scottish ch, but I wasn't aware of German having the same sound.

KL895

Make that Vannacht zag ik achtentachtig allemachtig prachtige grachten

Fabo.sk

Does it constitute my inburgering once I manage to do it properly on the first try?

KL895

Instant Dutch citizenship upon first arrival at SCHiphol!

Fabo.sk

Should I just find the closest Marechaussee officer?

af fp

I say shripol.