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

occur only after short vowels, and then the ON fortis vs. lenis distinction 1
is reflected as unaspirated vs. preaspirated. After long vowels, stops are
never preaspirated in Icelandic, and there is no fortis ~ lenis distinction.
Thus, when Icelandic borrows from other languages, typically English,
the loan words conform to this pattern and fortis ~ lenis distinctions in
the lending language are ignored, e.g. [p] bæt ‘byte,’ [sup()]
súper- ‘super-’ vs. [] radar ‘radar’ and [up] túpa ‘tube’).
Before voiceless segments (essentially [], [k] and [s]), ON stops can
be reflected both as preaspirated and unaspirated, and the preceding
vowel can be either long or short.
Lastly, we consider sonorant + stop sequences. In Southern Icelandic,
ON r, l, m, n + p, t, k are reflected as sequences of voiceless sonorant
followed by a voiceless stop, whereas ON r, l, m, n + b, d, g are reflected
as sequences of a voiced sonorant followed by a voiceless stop.
Voicelessness in the sonorants is complete (and not partial), i.e. virtually
the entire sonorant is voiceless. As examples, we have word pairs such as
[v] veltur ‘falls, capsizes’ vs. [v] veldur ‘causes,’ [lp]
lampi ‘lamp’ vs. [lmp] lambi ‘lamb (dat.)’ and [km] einkum
‘especially’ vs. [km] engum ‘nobody (dat. pl.).’
Finally, Table 3–1 provides an overview of how ON stops in different
contexts are reflected in Southern and Northern Icelandic in terms of
voicing conditions. In this table, the following conventions are used:
+ indicates that voice onset occurs after release (postaspiration)
– indicates that voice offset occurs before stop closure
(preaspiration or sonorant voicelessness)
= indicates that voice onset and offset are timed in synchronisation
with closure and release (voiceless unaspirated)
indicates a voiced stop
An asterisk indicates that a stop contrast has now emerged where ON
had no stop contrast (the nature of this contrast is not indicated in the
table).
1 The reader is again reminded that the use of the terms “fortis” and “lenis” does not
express a phonetic differenciation, but instead provides a way of abstract distinction
between the two stop series.
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