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

The fact that both preaspiration and sonorant voicelessness are the
result of a simple gestural asynchrony, together with the fact that the languages
best known for having preaspiration also have corresponding
voiceless sonorants, makes it tempting to see sonorant devoicing and
preaspiration as two sides of the same coin. Attempts to link the two
phonologically have assumed that either underlying segments or features
are processed by rule to produce an appropriate output. 1 Note that the terminology
traditionally used to refer to voiceless sonorants before fortis
stops is “sonorant devoicing,” which implies a generative process. A
nasal that “should be” voiced undergoes devoicing when it occurs in a
particular context.
In the present work, it is not deemed necessary to assume that either
preaspiration or sonorant voicelessness is a result of processing in the
speakers’ minds that uses input forms to produce output forms. The focus
here is on the historical aspects, to account for the phonetic changes that
appear to bring forth preaspiration and sonorant voicelessness from
nothing. It will be shown that when phonetic detail is considered, one
finds that the seeds of such a change may be present long before the
change is manifested in terms of normative pronunciation. We shall also
see that in the languages and dialects considered, preaspiration and sonorant
voicelessness manifest themselves in different ways and different
phonological contexts to such a degree that statements in segment- and
feature-based formal phonological frameworks do not serve to simplify
or clarify any issues.
2.3 Normative and non-normative traits
In this work, a distinction is made between normative and non-normative
phonetic traits. These terms can be explained in the following way: If the
absence (or presence) of a particular phonetic trait leads to a pronunciation
that is considered deviant by the speakers of a given dialect, that
trait can be classified as normative (or normatively absent) in that dialect.
Conversely, a trait whose absence or presence does not lead to deviant
pronunciation can be classified as non-normative in that dialect. Here,
1 For example, Thráinsson’s (1978) account of preaspiration and sonorant devoicing.
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