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

According to the segmentation criteria set up by Moxness (ibid:14),
preaspiration is the “interval from the offset of periodicity to the end of
friction/beginning of the complete closure for C2 [i.e., the stop].”
However, from the individual examples discussed one must infer that
complete aperiodicity was not a criterion for marking the onset of preaspiration.
Thus it is not clear to which extent the period of breathy voice
before the onset of voiceless aspiration is included in Moxness’s
measurements of preaspiration duration.
Moxness’s findings show that speakers of the Trønder dialect do
tend to preaspirate, and as in the case of most other Nordic languages,
the preaspirations are longer in VC than in VC syllables. For all speakers
pooled, the mean duration of preaspiration in VC syllables was
23.9 ms, whereas in VC syllables it was 15.0 ms. A considerable gender
difference was observed in the degree of differentiation between syllable
types with regard to preaspiration. For the males, mean preaspiration
duration in VC syllables was 22.4 ms, and 18.3 in VC syllables. The
corresponding figures for the females were 25.4 ms and 11.5 ms. Thus
the females seem to use preaspiration as a correlate of stops in VC syllables
to a much greater degree than in VC syllables, whereas the males
make far less of a distinction between syllable types. Comparable gender
differences in durational differentiation have been observed by, e.g.,
Wassink (1999), Ericsdotter & Ericsson (2001), and Simpson (2001,
2002).
The preaspiration durations cited above also reveal that mean
preaspiration in VC syllables for females is 3 ms longer than for males.
Although small (and probably imperceptible), this difference is significant
at p