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

quantity system instead of the ON four-way system. In ON, both vowels
and consonants could be long and short, and syllables (or, rather, vowel
+ consonant sequences) are, in traditional accounts, either light, heavy or
overlong (cf. Haugen 1982, 24ff, for an overview). Light syllables,
VC(V), had a short vowel followed by a short consonant, e.g. mata ‘to
feed.’ Heavy syllables had either a long vowel followed by a short consonant,
VC(V), e.g. láta ‘to let’ or a short vowel followed by a long consonant,
VC(V), 1 e.g. katta ‘cats (gen. pl.).’ Overlong syllables had both a
long vowel and a long consonant VC(V), e.g. átta 2 ‘eight.’ 3
Bismo
S K J Å K
L E S J A
Lom
LOM
0 10 30 km
Lesja
Vågåmo
– 66 –
V Å G Å
Northern
Gudbrandsdalen
Dombås
Dovre
SEL
Sel
Otta
D O V R E
N O R D - F R O N
Figure 3-4. A map of Northern Gudbrandsdalen. Current county district
boundaries and town names are shown.
Across much of the ON language community, this quantity system
was reduced to a two-way system, in which differences in syllable
quantity were abandoned while contrastive segmental lengths were kept
1
A heavy syllable could also have two consecutive consonants following a short vowel,
as in batna, ‘recover, get better.’
2
Again, the long consonant can also be represented by two consecutive consonants, as
in seytla ‘to ooze, to drip.’
3
This portrayal of ON quantities is, perhaps, somewhat simplistic. For further insights,
cf., e.g., Riad (1992:235ff).