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

in CSw—and it has been shown that preaspiration can be employed as a
cue in stop perception by all speakers, not merely those who tend to produce
preaspiration (van Dommelen 1998).
In brief summary, then, Chapter 3 gives a fairly detailed account of
the known geographical spread of preaspiration in Northwestern Europe.
The stop systems of several dialects in which preaspiration occurs are
analysed and the stop contrasts in different contexts are described in
terms of voicing conditions. This account is based, to a large extent, on
descriptions provided in dialectological literature from the late 19th and
early 20th centuries. Chapter 4 considers the phonetic variation and durational
characteristics of stop production in four Nordic dialects. Two of
these dialects, Tórshavn Faroese and Gräsö Swedish, have normative
preaspirated stops in word-medial position that show a high degree of
phonetic variation. Western Åland Swedish was also considered, and
here stops were found to be postaspirated where Gräsö Swedish has
preaspirated variants. This type of development is known to occur in
only two other (fairly small) Nordic language communities. One further
dialect considered, Central Standard Swedish, has traditionally been
described as having voiceless unaspirated or postaspirated stops. The
data show, however, that some speakers regularly employ preaspiration
as a means of expressing the fortis stop category. This is referred to here
as non-normative preaspiration.
The results of the survey in Chapters 3 and 4 suggest an even greater
diversity in Nordic stop production than has hitherto been assumed. This
diversity provides a basis for a reinterpretation of the phonetic expression
of ON stop contrasts. Specifically, this reinterpretation involves the possibility
that ON fortis stops had non-normative preaspiration and may
have been produced in much the same way as in CSw today. It will thus
be argued that the simplest way to account for the observed diversity is
to assume that a stop production similar to that which we find for CSw
fortis stops today provides the most favourable phonetic preconditions
for the patterns of stop production in the Nordic languages. Also, the
similarity in nature between the normative preaspirations of Faroese and
the non-normative preaspirations of CSw leads to the suggestion that the
step from non-normative to normative preaspiration may occur as a
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