Preaspiration in Faroese

Tihomir Rangelov

Preaspiration

• Wikipedia:• Preaspiration is a period of voicelessness or aspiration

preceding the closure of a voiceless obstruent, basically equivalent to an [h]-like sound preceding the obstruent. In other words, when an obstruent is preaspirated, the glottis is opened for some time before the obstruent closure. To mark preaspiration using the International Phonetic Alphabet, generally the diacritic for regular aspiration (a superscript "h", [ʰ]), is placed before the preaspirated consonant.

• a “fully blown segment” in Icelandic.

Preaspiration in Icelandic and Faroese

• in Icelandic: after a short vowel and before a plosive: setti, krakki, kreppa, vatn, ætla…

• in Faroese: before a plosive after a vowel (both long and short) in non-initial position: hatti, lappi, opna, vatn but also: bátinum, stapi

hattin Marta 0.58

hattin Pétur 0.41

hatturin Marta 0.73

hatturin Pétur 0.57

lappi Marta 0.67

lappi Pétur 1.0

opna Marta 0.70

opna Pétur 0.61

tvætla Marta 0.68

tvætla Pétur 0.90

vatnið Marta 0.98

vatnið Pétur 0.83

bátinum Marta 0.77

bátinum Pétur 0.58

stapi Marta 0.53

stapi Pétur 0.70

Preaspiration in Faroese

• average ratio for Marta: 0.71• average ratio for Pétur: 0.70• Considerably different distribution and ratios

than in Icelandic

Preaspiration in Icelandic