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Thanks for the A2A, Tom Robinson.The diphthong “ui” is the hardest for an English speaker to learn. More frustratingly, there is no IPA for it.EDIT: According to Zeibura S. Kathau, the IPA is /œy/. I hope that helps.It resembles a blend of English “eye” with the “ou” sound as in “how.” The “ui” somehow sits on the border between the two; and it’s short. It’s how the Kuiper belt is pronounced in Dutch.Following Anne Dekker, the construction “uy” is Old Dutch that is still found in names such as the footballer Dirk Kuyt. His last name sounds the same as “kuit,” which is Dutch for the calf muscle.It took me a long time to learn it, so English speakers who find it too challenging may pronounce it like “eye.” Thus, Kyper for “Kuyper.” For the former leader of Nieuw Amsterdam, like Styvesant. But for the footballer, try “Dirk Kout.” For the famous coach, “Johan Crouf.”These are not exact, and would not be considered correct Dutch; but for the many people who speak English and no Dutch, this is as close as you can be expected to get it. For a sound example:Uitspraak van ui: Hoe wordt ui uitgesproken in het Nederlands, Duits, Fins, Afrikaans, Bretons

An interesting question to which there are many answers. I will try to provide two avenues of response using a military approach. Others will be able to expand upon this, because there are many perspectives on these two time periods.What are the Middle Ages famous for? Castles, for one. During the entire era, defensive military concepts were refined upon, improved and upgraded. While a lot of fortifications started out simply as a donjon (a fortified tower), over time these constructions were expanded and enlarged. It kind of depends where you want to draw the line between Early and High Middle Ages, but let’s state the Early Medieval Era saw a transition from donjons to rampart castles with ditches (not necessarily a moat). Later, these mostly wooden castles were replaced by a motte (the keep up high) and bailey (the courtyard down below) concept. Then, in the High Middle Ages, engineers improved upon this concept by building stone keeps and stone curtain walls. The curtain wall could be reinforced by the earlier concept of a ditch, although these were frequently replaced by moats. Sometimes a concept is simply improved by adding a little water.Another example comes from the people besieging the castles. Just like nowadays, military inventions can follow a certain back-and-forth trajectory where aggressors and defenders continually try to outdo the other. In Antiquity, sieges were usually decided by taking the city by storm or simply by starving the population. The invention of the trebuchet allowed an attacking army to breach the walls thus speeding up the siege. The trebuchet is an older invention than usually assumed. It was around in the Early Middle Ages, but took some time to spread. In the High Middle Ages, the weapon was improved upon by the concept of the counterweight trebuchet, which enabled it to throw ever bigger projectiles. As a result, it became very popular and most armies tried to make use of it when attacking walled fortifications.There are many more ways to answer your question by. One could think of the accomplishments of the Carolingian Renaissance or the transition from Romanesque to Gothic architecture. For the sake of pluriformity, I will leave these opportunities open to other readers.Motte and bailey, by CastlesWorld

Your question can be answered from an engineering and a tactical standpoint.Construction. If you mean, how do you fortify a site against defense, there’s a legion of answers. Castles were a concept that was experimented with across most of the world during a very long period with mostly one purpose: to keep attackers out. There are many ways to do this. Besides the obvious putting up of walls, there are the ideas of:a curtain wall, sometimes even multiple layers, in order to trap invaders between two or three sets of walls;a ditch, and to improve upon the concept: put spikes or flammable material in it in order to create a death zone underneath the walls;a moat, basically the upgrade of a ditch, to force attackers to cross the water;a drawbridge: the fact that you have to cross the water too, doesn’t mean you have to give your attackers a bridge - just draw it up;a thick wall so you can put people - or even better: siege engines - on it;improving the walls with battlements so it’s safer to shoot from them or, yet again upgrading the idea, put arrow slits in the walls so it’s even safer;improving the battlements with machicolations, popularly known as ‘murder holes’, from which you could throw rocks, oil (which you then set aflame) or even - literally - shit;the gatehouse, where you basically incorporate all of the ideas above in the most crucial part of your wall, and of course its upgrade: the barbican/barbakan.Tactics. Contrary to the engineering perspective that offers you practically unlimited options, the tactical point of view is dimly simple: usually you defend it by waiting it out. With limited foodstuffs and water at your disposal, this may seem like a bad idea. But you have to keep in mind that the attacking army needs to eat, too. If you had time to prepare for the siege, you would’ve made sure to strip the far surroundings of the castle of anything useful. Food, of course, but also fodder for the animals, wood to prevent the attacker from building siege weapons or even lighting fires to keep warm at night, and - perhaps most importantly - water (you poison the wells).If you had dealt yourself a good hand in this way, you could wait it out. Depending on political relationships, a relief force might even be on its way, allowing you to trap the attackers between a rock and hard place. Either way, as a defender, your options are limited but simple. After you commit, you just have to hope you draw the longest straw.Medieval sieges: who can suffer the longest?#protip. In the picture above you see the catapults causing dimples in the walls. Given enough time, they would be able to fundamentally weaken the structure, perhaps causing (a part of) the wall to collapse. You could prevent this by softening the blows of the siege engines. During the Siege of Jerusalem of 1099 CE, for example, they hang mattresses from the walls to muffle the impact of the stones. (Make sure they stay wet though, because in this case they were quickly dispatched with by flaming arrows.)