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

long vowel followed by a preaspirated stop: e.g., ph ‘spoke’
(from p) and poh (meaning uncertain) 1 (from po).
This can also occur in clusters: e.g., kk ‘cackle,’ spk ‘to
weaken’ and p ‘to open.’ Oftedal’s use of [h] in the first examples
reflects his impression that the preaspiration is unusually long in
such cases (i.e., when the stop is intervocalic and the vowel is long),
much longer than after short vowels.
The distribution of preaspiration in clusters seems straightforward in
the Gjesdal dialect. Although Oftedal does not give examples for all the
possible clusters, one can infer from his discussion that preaspiration is
always present, even when there is no fortis–lenis contrast. His examples
of contrastive clusters include: sikr ‘do woodwork’ vs. fr
‘to flutter’; spr ‘to sprawl’ vs. k ‘to call’; and h
‘careless (pl.)’ vs. h ‘corner (pl.)’ When there is no contrast (essentially
when stops precede /s/) the clusters are still preaspirated: e.g.,
ps (meaning uncertain) and oks ‘ear (e.g., of wheat).’
Table 3–5. Reflexes of ON stops in the Gjesdal dialect of Norwegian in terms
of voicing conditions, based on the description of Oftedal (1947). (Further
explanation in text and discussion of Table 3–1.)
ON examples 2 Gjesdal dialect
tala ~ dala + =/
mata =/ *
átta ~ odda =/
vanta ~ vanda (mnrl) =/
vatna (nlr) *
vaxa (x, pt + s )
The Gjesdal dialect contrasts voiced and voiceless sonorants before
stops, much as do Icelandic and Faroese. The r-sound, which is velar in
this dialect, is voiceless throughout when it reflects ON r + p, t, k. However,
it is Oftedal’s impression that only the last part of the nasals and
1 Oftedal does not cite any meaning for most of his examples.
2 Glossary: tala ‘to speak,’ dala ‘valleys (gen.),’ mata ‘to feed,’ átta ‘eight,’ odda
‘points (obl.),’ vanta ‘to need,’ vanda ‘problem (obl.),’ vatna ‘waters, lakes (gen.),’
vaxa ‘to grow.’
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