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Preaspiration in the Nordic Languages: Synchronic and Diachronic ...

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excess of 100 ms), <strong>and</strong> unaspirated variants without preaspiration. The<br />

rema<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g 3 subjects do not seem to differentiate between two stop types<br />

<strong>in</strong> Grade III words, although <strong>the</strong>y do produce emergent vowels where appropriate.<br />

Inari Saami st<strong>and</strong>s out among <strong>the</strong> Saami languages <strong>in</strong> that it does not<br />

have preaspirated stops, but <strong>in</strong>stead has postaspirated stops <strong>in</strong> those<br />

environments <strong>in</strong> which Nor<strong>the</strong>rn Saami has preaspiration or voiceless<br />

sonorants. Postaspiration <strong>in</strong> <strong>Nordic</strong> dialects will be addressed <strong>in</strong> Chapter<br />

4, section 4.5.<br />

3.10 Conclusion<br />

For <strong>the</strong> ma<strong>in</strong> part, this chapter has been a survey of <strong>the</strong> phonological<br />

distribution of preaspiration <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Northwestern Europe. It has also been<br />

<strong>the</strong> aim to extract as much <strong>in</strong>formation as possible regard<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> phonetic<br />

expression of preaspiration <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Nordic</strong> dialects considered. In <strong>the</strong> next<br />

chapter (Chapter 4), we shall consider phonetic data from some of <strong>the</strong><br />

areas that have been discussed here, particularly with regard to <strong>the</strong> quantitative<br />

<strong>and</strong> qualitative aspects of preaspiration production.<br />

The dialectal descriptions reviewed <strong>in</strong> Chapter 3, as well as <strong>the</strong> data<br />

analysis presented <strong>in</strong> Chapter 4, show that: (i) <strong>the</strong> ON fortis vs. lenis contrast<br />

is ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> all <strong>the</strong> dialects considered here (<strong>and</strong>, <strong>in</strong> fact, <strong>in</strong> virtually<br />

all <strong>the</strong> ma<strong>in</strong>l<strong>and</strong> Sc<strong>and</strong><strong>in</strong>avian dialects); (ii) <strong>the</strong> phonological distribution<br />

of preaspiration is highly dialect-specific; <strong>and</strong> (iii) <strong>the</strong> stop contrasts<br />

are expressed <strong>in</strong> a variety of different ways <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>se dialects. In<br />

Chapter 3, <strong>the</strong> focus has been primarily on compar<strong>in</strong>g dialects <strong>in</strong> terms of<br />

phonological contrast. However, some <strong>in</strong>sights <strong>in</strong>to <strong>the</strong> phonetic expression<br />

of <strong>the</strong>se contrasts have also been ga<strong>in</strong>ed. An overview of <strong>the</strong> major<br />

contrasts <strong>and</strong> an estimate of <strong>the</strong>ir phonetic expressions given <strong>in</strong> Table 3–<br />

13. As <strong>in</strong> previous tables <strong>in</strong> this chapter, <strong>the</strong> over-view <strong>in</strong>dicates voic<strong>in</strong>g<br />

conditions <strong>in</strong> stops (see discussion of Table 3–1) without be<strong>in</strong>g overly<br />

elaborate with phonetic detail. A more comprehensive summary <strong>and</strong><br />

discussion of <strong>the</strong> contents of Chapters 3 <strong>and</strong> 4 comb<strong>in</strong>ed is given <strong>in</strong> Ch.<br />

4, section 4.6. Chapter 5 offers a more detailed discussion of <strong>the</strong> possible<br />

phonetic expression of <strong>the</strong>se stop contrasts <strong>in</strong> ON.<br />

– 103 –

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