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

preaspiration for lexically stressed syllables for the four subjects. 1 The
filled circles represent data points in VC and VCC syllables (i.e., the
word types vatten and att). The unfilled triangles represent data points in
VC syllables (i.e., the word types båten and mot).
From Figure 4–8(a) it is evident that GT does not tend to preaspirate
to any great degree, and in fact, most of the observed instances have a
preaspiration duration of 0 ms. However, one can detect a weak tendency
for preaspiration duration in VC and VCC syllables (i.e., the word types
vatten and att) to increase with increased VPr duration. Thus it seems
that as vowel duration reaches approximately 80 ms, preaspiration is
much more likely to occur than at vowel durations below 80 ms.
Figure 4–8(b) plots the data for subject CK in the same fashion. CK
shows a much stronger tendency to preaspirate than GT, especially in
VC and VCC syllables. The preaspirations increase in duration as vowel
duration increases, and at vowel durations of 100 ms and beyond,
preaspirations are almost always produced. At durations above 120 ms,
preaspirations typically account for 50% or more of the VPr duration in
VC and VCC syllables. In VC(C) syllables, preaspirations are similar in
terms of absolute duration, but occupy a much smaller portion of the
total VPr duration. Also, the VPr duration for CK has a much wider
range than in GT’s data.
Figure 4–8(c) plots the vowel and preaspiration data for MP. Preaspirations
are rarely longer than 40 ms, and most of the data points have
0 ms of preaspiration. Also, the range of VPr durations in the data for
MP is more limited than in CK’s data. Thus MP and GT seem to behave
in similar ways, and quite differently from CK.
The data for FS in Figure 4–8(d), however, follow the pattern of CK.
FS has the longest preaspiration durations of all the CSw subjects. In VC
and VCC syllables, preaspirations are always produced when vowel
length exceeds 80 ms. At VPr durations of 100 ms, preaspiration generally
takes up approximately 50% of the total VPr duration. At VPr
1 Since preaspiration duration is partly being plotted against itself, the trend lines in
these graphs should not be taken to show statistically valid correlations (cf. section
4.1.3). However, they do provide a visual indication of how preaspiration duration
changes as a function of the duration of the vowel + preaspiration sequence.
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