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

As to preaspirated stops in Chechen and Ingush, information is
scarce indeed. Catford (1977:114) claims that preaspiration occurs in
both languages, but does not go into detail regarding its distribution or
phonetic character. The only other source of information is Hansson’s
personal communication with Johanna Nichols (of the University of
California, Berkeley) who “confirmed the existence of preaspiration in
Ingush” (Hansson 1997:27; my translation).
Turning now to Central Asia, Roos (1998) has described preaspiration
in Western Yugur, an Eastern Turkic language spoken in the Gnsù
province in the People’s Republic of China. Roos uses data from a variety
of written sources, and has also made (impressionistic) analyses of a
recording of a male Western Yugur speaker. According to Roos, most
voiceless consonants in Western Yugur, including stops, affricates and
fricatives, can be preaspirated. Also, voiceless liquids occur before voiceless
consonants; this has been analysed as part of the preaspiration phenomenon.
The phonetic shape of this preaspiration varies with context:
In Western Yugur, preaspiration generally occurs as an h-like element
[h], but before [q] as a fricative []; it may be realised as [] near the
front high vowels, and as [] near []. […] Preaspiration may spread
over the entire vowel, resulting in a completely whispered vowel, e.g.
[]; especially high vowels when occurring between [s, ] and a velar
of uvular plosive [k, q] […] tend to be whispered.
(Roos 1998:30) 1
The type of variation Roos describes here is very similar to that
found in the preaspiration data reviewed in Chapter 4, especially the realisation
of oral friction in lieu of aspiration proper. Roos cites numerous
examples from the production of his informant, e.g: t / t ‘horse,’
kœp ‘many,’ sq ‘to squeeze,’ qq ‘to fear’ and ps ‘to
press.’ 2
Historically, Roos explains that Common Turkic non-initial sequences
of short vowel and fortis stop (*p, *t, *k) are reflected with preaspiration
in Western Yugur. Fortis stops preceded by a long vowel are reflec-
1 The phonetic notation of the original has been kept in this citation.
2 These transcriptions are from Roos’s text (hence the use of the double brackets—cf.
Chapter 3.1) and have been adapted to the current IPA notation. The following forms
appear in the original: t / t, kp, sq, qq and ps.
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