Preaspiration in the Nordic Languages: Synchronic and Diachronic ...
Preaspiration in the Nordic Languages: Synchronic and Diachronic ...
Preaspiration in the Nordic Languages: Synchronic and Diachronic ...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
<strong>the</strong>se speakers will henceforth be referred to as <strong>the</strong> Western Ål<strong>and</strong> dialect.<br />
4.5.3.1 Method <strong>and</strong> subjects<br />
The Western Ål<strong>and</strong> material consists of two different sets of data.<br />
The first set, which comprises subjects MG (male), AJ (female) <strong>and</strong> NK<br />
(female), was obta<strong>in</strong>ed from <strong>the</strong> SOFI archives (cf. section 4.1.1.2). 1<br />
These record<strong>in</strong>gs consist of <strong>in</strong>terviews with Western Ål<strong>and</strong> subjects carried<br />
out <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1960’s. This material, <strong>the</strong>refore, is unscripted (spontaneous)<br />
speech. The sound quality of <strong>the</strong> unscripted data is generally fairly<br />
good, although some echo is present <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> record<strong>in</strong>gs. Levels of background<br />
noise are generally low, <strong>and</strong> occur only <strong>in</strong>termittently.<br />
The unscripted data were transliterated <strong>and</strong> word-labelled partly by<br />
<strong>the</strong> author <strong>and</strong> partly by a native Swedish speaker (a student at <strong>the</strong> Stockholm<br />
University Department of L<strong>in</strong>guistics ). Segmentation was carried<br />
out by <strong>the</strong> author <strong>in</strong> accordance with <strong>the</strong> criteria specified <strong>in</strong> section<br />
4.1.2. For subject MG, approximately 12 m<strong>in</strong>utes of un<strong>in</strong>terrupted<br />
speech 2 , conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g 2528 words, were analysed; for subject AJ 18 m<strong>in</strong>utes,<br />
conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g 3952 words; <strong>and</strong> for NK 21 m<strong>in</strong>utes, conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g 4023<br />
words. A rough estimate <strong>in</strong>dicates that MG utters 4.76 syllables per<br />
second, AJ 4.99 <strong>and</strong> NK 4.55 (cf. section 4.2.1 on how this estimate was<br />
obta<strong>in</strong>ed).<br />
The second set of Western Ål<strong>and</strong> data consists of a record<strong>in</strong>g of a<br />
female speaker <strong>in</strong> her late forties, ES, read<strong>in</strong>g a list of 43 fairly short<br />
sentences conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g target words with stops <strong>in</strong> certa<strong>in</strong> contexts. The<br />
subject read <strong>the</strong> list twice. The record<strong>in</strong>gs were made <strong>in</strong> a sound-treated<br />
room, us<strong>in</strong>g a Brüel & Kjær 4145 microphone <strong>and</strong> recorded directly on a<br />
PC us<strong>in</strong>g a SoundBlaster Live sound card <strong>and</strong> CoolEdit 2000 software.<br />
Segmentation (as specified <strong>in</strong> section 4.1.2) of stop productions was<br />
carried out by <strong>the</strong> author. The speak<strong>in</strong>g rate was estimated to be 4.97<br />
syllables per second, but s<strong>in</strong>ce <strong>the</strong> structure of <strong>the</strong> read speech material<br />
aspiration tendencies. Fur<strong>the</strong>rmore, speakers <strong>in</strong> Mariehamn (not far east of Gottby) do<br />
not appear to postaspirate, but <strong>the</strong> available <strong>in</strong>formation is less precise on this.<br />
1 The SOFI references to <strong>the</strong>se record<strong>in</strong>gs are as follows: MG = Bd 2180; AJ =<br />
Bd 2199B–Bd 2200A; NK = Bd 2196–Bd 2197A.<br />
2 Cf. section 4.2.1.<br />
– 190 –