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

amples include b ‘old man’ and ‘tip, point.’ This means that
in word-medial and -final position the Kökar dialect has three types of
stops, voiced, voiceless unaspirated and preaspirated, as exemplified by
b, rp and hp. The Kökar dialect thus has close similarities
to the dialect of Vemdalen in the distribution of preaspiration and
types of stop contrasts found (see section 3.5.1).
Let us now consider the distribution of preaspiration in clusters. ON
tj and kj are generally reflected as an unaspirated affricate, [], e.g.
v ‘to urge’ (< ON hvetja) and ‘to lick’ (< ON sleikja). It
is difficult to find examples reflecting ON ttj and kkj cluster. However,
the development of -kki- sequences in, e.g., rh ‘(have) drunk,’
suggests that such clusters would be preaspirated and that the ON distinction
between kj and kkj should be upheld. The Kökar dialect also has
voiced [] clusters, which most commonly reflect ON ðj and gg + i, j as
in bri ‘pier, jetty’ (< ON bryggja).
Judging from Karsten’s examples, it is possible that the Kökar dialect
also upholds a distinction between ON tr and ttr clusters. Thus we
find, e.g., jr ‘the goats’ and r ‘to gleam, to glitter’ vs.
kvihr ‘to chirp, to twitter’ and khr ‘to climb.’ For ON kr and
kkr, there are fewer examples. With preaspiration we find vhkr
‘most beautiful,’ and without preaspiration kr ‘fields’ and
bkr ‘the books.’ A distinction between ON kl and kkl clusters is
also upheld. Without preaspiration we have hk ‘hind legs’ (< ON
hklana) 1 and ki 2 ‘chicken,’ and with preaspiration we have, for
example, rhk ‘sow, stitch’ and ihki ‘skilful.’ However,
according to Karsten, ON t(t)l clusters always seem to be reflected as []
(utterance-finally) or [] (intervocalically), e.g. ‘nettle’ and
pr ‘to sprawl.’ I have, as yet, found no examples reflecting ON
p(p)r and p(p)l clusters in Karsten’s text. “Voiced versions” of these
clusters are also found, for example fjærr ‘feathers,’ hr
‘higher’ and u ‘owl.’
1 Karsten (1892:66) relates this to ON hkull ‘cape.’ This seems unlikely, especially in
light of Karsten’s comment that the word is only found in the expression km p
hk ‘get on one’s feet.’ It is more likely that this word reflects the def. pl. acc.
form of ON hkill ‘ankle of hind leg.’
2 Karsten has the dento-alveolar , not the flap .
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