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

2.2 Linking preaspiration and sonorant
voicelessness
A phenomenon that seems to be intimately linked with preaspiration
is voicelessness in sonorants preceding a stop, commonly referred to as
sonorant devoicing. Several authors have treated this subject from different
angles (cf., e.g., Pétursson (1976) for a physiological perspective,
Thráinsson (1978) for a phonological perspective and Hansson (1997)
for a historical perspective). It is a striking fact that most of the Nordic
languages that contrast preaspirated stops with unaspirated ones also tend
to contrast sequences of (at least partially) voiceless sonorant + stop with
voiced sonorant + stop (voicing in the stop varies). This is so in, for example,
Southern Icelandic, Tórshavn Faroese and the Northern Gräsö
dialect of Swedish. It is no less striking that both Scots-Gaelic and most
Saami languages, which have preaspirated stops, also have such voiceless
sonorants.
This has a direct parallel in the way sonorants are produced when
they follow stops, i.e. stop + sonorant clusters. Many languages that have
an aspirated and an unaspirated stop series may also have a distinction
between voiced and (partially) voiceless sonorants following a stop.
Often, the phonological analysis of a language makes this less than explicit.
Such an analysis may indicate that a contrast is made between a
voiced unaspirated stop followed by a voiced sonorant and a voiceless
aspirated stop followed by a voiced sonorant, e.g., English /blænd/ bland
vs. /plænd/ planned. The pronunciation, though, will typically contrast a
sequence of a voiced occlusion + voiced sonorant with a voiceless occlusion
+ (partially) voiceless sonorant, [blænd] vs. [pænd]. 1 The parallel
with voiceless sonorants preceding stops is obvious, and in terms of
articulatory organisation the two are very similar. Voice onset is delayed
relative to stop release to produce a voiceless sonorant after a stop, and
voice offset is made to occur earlier relative to stop closure to produce a
voiceless sonorant before a stop.
1 The exact nature of this contrast depends on such factors as phonetic context, speaker
and dialect. This example can be said to apply in voiced contexts (e.g. when the
preceding word ends with a vowel) in middle-class London English.
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