In this paper a series of studies of standard Dutch pronunciation in Belgium and the Netherlands is presented. The research is based on two speech corpora: a diachronic corpus of radio speech (1935-1995) and a synchronic corpus of Belgian and Netherlandic standard Dutch from different regions at the turn of the millennium. It is shown that two divergent pronunciation standards have been developing, but it is argued that the divergence will not create two autonomous standard languages. As such, Dutch is not different from its two closest pluricentric neighbors, German and English.