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

noise becomes audibly postalveolar in character, which can be seen as a
compromise between the places of articulation of the vowel and the stop.
Likewise, in CK’s production of sticker ‘juts out’ (Figure 4–12) a period
of breathy voice is followed by palatal friction, as one might expect in
the context of a sequence of a close front vowel and a prevelar stop.
In Figures 4–13 and 4–14, we see examples of bilabial friction in
FS’s production of the words tupp ‘rooster’ and hjortarna ‘the deer
(pl.)’. In the first case, the friction can be attributed to the combined effect
of rounding and the imminent bilabial closure. In the second case,
involving a postalveolar stop closure, the labiality is due only to the
rounding of the vowel.
p i
Figure 4–17. Subj. MP: […den] djupa viken o[ch…] ‘…the deep bay and…’
As we saw in the durational analysis, GT and MP tend not to preaspirate
fortis stops to the same degree as do CK and FS. Nevertheless,
the voice offset preceding a fortis stop can be a correlate of the fortis vs.
lenis distinction in their speech. This can be seen by comparing MP’s
production of a fortis stop in Figure 4–15 and a lenis stop in Figure 4–16.
In Figure 4–15, the glottis appears to start spreading approximately 25
ms before the oral closure, and one can detect a slight breathiness just
before the closure is made. This is in contrast with the transition between
vowel and stop in Figure 4–16, in which the vowel retains full modal
voice throughout its production. The presence of this slightly early voice
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