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

preaspiration in this dialect should be regarded as normative, this
question remains open. Iversen’s comments about finding preaspiration
primarily in the speech of children may seem rather odd. However, a
somewhat similar observation has been made by Foulkes et al. (1999) in
Tyneside English (cf. section 3.7).
3.5 Swedish dialects
3.5.1 Härjedalen and Northern Dalarna
Härjedalen is a large mountainous region in central Scandinavia. 1
Preaspiration has been reported to occur in almost the whole area. The
places most often mentioned in the context of preaspiration are Storsjö,
Funäsdalen, Tännäs, Hede, Vemdalen, Linsäll, Sveg and Lillhärdal, all
shown on the map in Figure 3-5. Also on the map are the neighbouring
villages in Northern Dalarna, Idre and Särna, where preaspiration has
been reported to occur. Within Härjedalen, the boundary for the preaspiration
isogloss seems to run east of Sveg, since it is found neither in
Älvros nor in Överhögdal (see map).
Lundell (1879), Westin (1897) and Reitan (1930) all describe the
preaspiration in the dialects of Härjedalen. Reitan provides the most
complete description, which centres on the dialect in the village of Vemdalen,
and the following account is based largely on his work. Reports on
preaspiration in Northern Dalarna are less complete, and consist of a few
remarks by Noreen (1903–7:485) and a brief discussion in Reitan (1930).
As in most of the preaspirating dialects, the dialects of Härjedalen
reflect the ON geminate fortis stops as preaspirated. For the Vemdalen
dialect, Reitan gives examples such as shpe ‘to release,’ h
‘night,’ bhe ‘the creek’ and bhk ‘creek.’ 2 Other areas in which
Reitan reports that such preaspiration occurs are south of Vemdalen
1 The area now belongs to Sweden, but from a linguistic perspective there is good
reason to view the dialects of Härjedalen and Northern Dalarna as Norwegian rather
than Swedish (cf. Reitan, 1930; Hansson, 1997).
2 Reitan uses h throughout (not superscript ). Also, Reitan’s impression is that the stop
retains its length when it is preaspirated. Therefore he uses a geminate (pp, tt, kk)
which is represented here as a long stop.
– 73 –