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

Gräsö
Forsmark
Valö
S W E D E N
Gräsö, the Åland Isles and
the Åboland archipelago
Storby
Gottby
Å L A N D I S L E S
– 82 –
Kumlinge
Kökar
Korpo
Utö Jurmo
F I N L A N D
Åbo (Turku)
Hitis
Finby
0 10 50 km
Figure 3-6. Gräsö, the Åland Isles and the Åboland archipelago. Kumlinge and
Kökar belong to the Åland Isles archipelago. Korpo, Hitis and Finby are form
part of the Åboland archipelago.
For ON light syllables, the outcome depends on whether the syllable
is open, VCV, or closed, VC. Those VCV syllables where the consonant
is a fortis stop are reflected as VCV syllables with a voiceless, unaspirated
stop, e.g. vik ‘week,’ rp ‘drop’ and æ ‘street.’ The
fact that these stops are long, but still voiceless and unaspirated, suggests
that in the Kökar dialect, ON pp, tt, kk became normatively preaspirated
before these stops became long. Otherwise, they would also have become
preaspirated.
The development of ON VC syllables (closed and light) with a fortis
stop is less clear, since examples of these are few and far between. It is
clear, though, that the stop in such syllables is preaspirated if the preceding
vowel is an [] which derives from ON i. These conditions are met in
words like hp ‘ship’ (< ON skip) and vh ‘sense’ (< ON vit). As
for other vowels, Karsten’s text contains the examples k ‘roof’ and
æ ‘net’ (for which the forms æ ‘the net,’ æ ‘nets’ and
æ ‘the nets’ are also cited), which do not have a preaspirated
stop. 1
In Karsten’s description of the Kökar dialect, the ON geminate lenis
stops, bb, dd, gg, are voiced both word-medially and finally. His ex-
1 According to Hansson (1997:69) preaspiration occurs in light, closed syllables after
any vowel that derives from ON i and y. This may well be so, but my search in
Karsten’s thesis has, as yet, only yielded examples with an [] that derives from ON i.