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Faroese Preaspiration: A Nucleus/Onset Interaction Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2022

Laurence Voeltzel
Laurence Voeltzel*
Affiliation:
Université de Nantes
*
UMR6310-LLING, CNRS & Université de Nantes Université de Nantes UFR des Lettres et Langages 7 Chemin de la Censive du Tertre, BP 81227 44312 Nantes Cedex 3 France [laurence.voeltzel@gmail.com]
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Abstract

This paper focuses on Faroese preaspiration, a phenomenon observed in Western Nordic and in some Eastern Nordic dialects, where fortis stops are preceded by a glottal frication noise in specific contexts. After observing all environments where the mechanism is triggered, I provide phonological representations of the phenomena based on Government Phonology 2.0. In this model, the segmental structures contain melody but also space, which allows for intersegmental relations such as lengthening, even without adding new morphological material. As preaspiration depends on the vowel preceding the fortis stop—more precisely, on its vocalic quality and length—I propose analyzing preaspiration as a spreading of the fortis consonant toward the vowel on the left. In doing so, I provide a unified analysis of all environments in which preaspiration occurs.*

Keywords

Western NordicGovernment Phonology 2.0segmental structuresyllabic structurephonological lengtheningpreaspiration
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Germanic Linguistics , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , September 2022 , pp. 288 - 339
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Copyright
© Society for Germanic Linguistics 2022

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank my reviewers for their insightful comments and my colleagues at the LLING for their helpful feedback. All remaining errors are mine.

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