'What do the Dutch think of their standard language'

In this article a number of empirical studies are described which have been conducted to gain insight into presentday norms with respect to spoken standard Dutch. More specifically an answer was sought to the following two questions: to what extent do listeners agree when asked to judge speech samples with respect to the degree of standardness and to what extent do listeners agree when asked to judge the aesthetic quality of standard Dutch compared to other varieties of Dutch? In addition to the consistency of the judgments, the nature of the judgments is discussed as well as possible explanations. As far as the judgments of standardness are concerned, it is concluded that both untrained and trained listeners have clearcut ideas of what constitutes standard Dutch. As far as the aesthetic judgments are concerned, it appears that standard Dutch invariably is considered much more beautiful than nonstandard varieties. The imposed norm hypothesis, i.e. the idea that the alledged superiority of the standard language is enforced through education and the media, seems to be the most plausible explanation for this result.