Preaspiration

In phonetics, preaspiration (sometimes spelled pre-aspiration)[1] is a period of voicelessness or aspiration preceding the closure of a voiceless obstruent,[2] 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.[3] To mark preaspiration using the International Phonetic Alphabet, the diacritic for regular aspiration, ⟨ʰ⟩, can be placed before the preaspirated consonant. However, Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:70) prefer to use a simple cluster notation, e.g. ⟨hk⟩ instead of ⟨ʰk⟩.

Typology

Preaspiration is comparatively uncommon across languages of the world,[4] and is claimed by some to not be phonemically contrastive in any language.[5] Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996) note that, at least in the case of Icelandic, preaspirated stops have a longer duration of aspiration than normally aspirated (post-aspirated) stops, comparable to clusters of [h]+consonant in languages with such clusters. As a result, they view preaspiration as purely a distributional feature, indistinguishable phonetically and phonologically from clusters with /h/, and prefer to notate preaspirated stops as clusters, e.g. Icelandic kappi /ˈkʰahpi/ "hero" rather than /ˈkʰaʰpi/.

A distinction is often made between so-called normative and non-normative preaspiration: in a language with normative preaspiration of certain voiceless obstruents, the preaspiration is obligatory even though it is not a distinctive feature; in a language with non-normative preaspiration, the preaspiration can be phonetically structured for those who use it, but it is non-obligatory, and may not appear with all speakers.[6][7] Preaspirated consonants are typically in free variation with spirant-stop clusters, though they may also have a relationship (synchronically and diachronically) with long vowels or [s]-stop clusters.[8]

Preaspiration can take a number of different forms; while the most usual is glottal friction (an [h]-like sound), the precise phonetic quality can be affected by the obstruent or the preceding vowel, becoming for example [ç] after close vowels;[9] other potential realizations include [x][8] and even [f].[10]

Preaspiration is very unstable both synchronically and diachronically and is often replaced by a fricative or by a lengthening of the preceding vowel.[11]

Distribution

Preaspiration is perhaps best known from North Germanic languages, most prominently in Icelandic and Faroese, but also some dialects of Norwegian and Swedish. It is also a prominent feature of Scottish Gaelic. The presence of preaspiration in Gaelic has been attributed to North Germanic influence.[12] Within Northwestern Europe preaspiration is furthermore found in most Sami languages, except Inari Sami where it has been replaced by postaspiration.[13] The historical relationship between preaspiration in Sami and North Germanic is disputed: there is general agreement of a connection, but not on whether it represents Sami influence in North Germanic,[14] [15] North Germanic influence in Sami[16] or parallel sprachbund influence in both languages.[17]

Elsewhere in the world, preaspiration occurs in Halh Mongolian, Western Yugur, and in several American indigenous languages, including dialects of Hopi,[18][19][20][21] Purepecha, and many languages of the Algonquian family (such as Cheyenne, Cree, Ojibwe, Fox, and Miami-Illinois).

Examples

English

In certain accents, such as Geordie (among younger women) Watt & Allen (2003:268) and in some speakers of Dublin English[22] word- and utterance-final /p, t, k/ can be preaspirated.

Faroese

Some examples of preaspirated plosives and affricates from Faroese (where they occur only after stressed vowels):

  • klappa [ˈkʰlaʰpːa], 'clap'
  • hattur [ˈhaʰtːʊɹ], 'hat'
  • takka [ˈtʰaʰkːa], 'thank'
  • søkkja [ˈsœʰt͡ʃːa], 'sink' (transitive)

Furthermore, the dialects of Vágar, northern Streymoy and Eysturoy also have ungeminated preaspirated plosives and affricates (except after close vowels/diphthongs):

  • apa [ˈɛaːʰpa], 'ape', but: vípa [ˈvʊiːpa], 'northern lapwing'
  • eta [ˈeːʰta], 'eat', but: hiti [ˈhiːtɪ], 'heat'
  • vøka [ˈvøːʰka], 'wake', but: húka [ˈhʉuːka], to 'squat'
  • høkja [ˈhøːʰt͡ʃa], 'crutch', but: vitja [ˈviːt͡ʃa], to 'visit'

Icelandic

Some examples of preaspirated plosives from Icelandic:[23]

  • kappi [ˈkʰahpɪ], 'hero'
  • hattur [ˈhahtʏr̥], 'hat'
  • þakka [ˈθahka] ⓘ, 'thank'

Huautla Mazatec

In Huautla Mazatec, preaspirates can occur word-initially, perhaps uniquely among languages which contain preaspirates:[24]

  • [ʰti] - 'fish'
  • [ʰtse] - 'a sore'
  • [ʰtʃi] - 'small'
  • [ʰka] - 'stubble'

Sami languages

Preaspiration in the Sami languages occurs on word-medial voiceless stops and affricates of all places of articulation available: /p/, /t̪/, /t͡s/, /t͡ɕ/, /k/. In the Western Sami languages (Southern, Ume, Pite, Lule and Northern) as well as Skolt Sami, preaspiration affects both long and half-long consonants; in most Eastern Sami languages (Akkala, Kildin and Ter) only fully long consonants are preaspirated. This likely represents two waves of innovation: an early preaspiration of long consonants dating back to Proto-Sami, followed by a secondary preaspiration of half-long consonants that originated in the Western Sami area and spread eastwards to Skolt Sami.[25]

In several Sami languages, preaspirated stops/affricates contrast with lax voiceless stops, either due to denasalization of earlier clusters (e.g. *nt > [d̥ː]) or in connection to consonant gradation.

Scottish Gaelic

In Scottish Gaelic, however, due to the historical loss of voiced stops preaspiration is phonemic in medial and final positions after stressed vowels.[26]

The approximate distribution of preaspiration in Gaelic dialects

Its strength varies from area to area and can manifest itself as [ʰ] or [h] or in areas with strong preaspiration as [ç] or [x]. The occurrence of preaspiration follows a hierarchy of c > t > p; i.e. if a dialect has preaspiration with p, it will also have it in the other places of articulation. Preaspiration manifests itself as follows:[27]

  • Area 1 as [xk xt xp] and [çkʲ çtʲ çp]
  • Area 2 as [xk xt hp] and [çkʲ çtʲ hp]
  • Area 3 as [xk ht hp] and [çkʲ htʲ hp]
  • Area 4 as [ʰk ʰt ʰp]
  • Area 5 as [xk] and [çkʲ] (no preaspiration of t and p)
  • Area 6 no preaspiration

There are numerous minimal pairs:

  • glag [kl̪ˠak] "clock" vs glac [kl̪ˠaxk] "grab" (v.)
  • ad [at̪] "hat" vs at [aʰt̪] "boil" (n.)
  • leag [ʎɛk] "throw down" vs leac [ʎɛxk] "flagstone"
  • aba [ˈapə] "abbot" vs apa [ˈaʰpə] "ape" (n.)

H-clusters

Although distinguishing preaspirated consonants from clusters of /h/ and a voiceless consonant can be difficult, the reverse does not hold: there are numerous languages such as Arabic or Finnish where such clusters are unanimously considered to constitute consonant clusters.[citation needed]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Nance & Stuart-Smith (2013).
  2. ^ Silverman (2003), p. 575.
  3. ^ Stevens & Hajek (2004), p. 334.
  4. ^ Silverman (2003), p. 592.
  5. ^ Tronnier (2002), p. 33.
  6. ^ Gordeeva & Scobbie (2010), p. 167ff.
  7. ^ McRobbie-Utasi (2003), p. 1.
  8. ^ a b Silverman (2003), p. 593.
  9. ^ Stevens & Hajek (2004), pp. 334–35.
  10. ^ McRobbie-Utasi (1991), p. 77.
  11. ^ Silverman (2003), pp. 592, 595.
  12. ^ Bandle & Widmark (2002), p. 2059.
  13. ^ Sammallahti (1998), p. 55.
  14. ^ Rießler (2004).
  15. ^ Kusmenko (2008), pp. 127–171. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFKusmenko2008 (help)
  16. ^ Posti (1954).
  17. ^ Hansson (2001).
  18. ^ Rießler (2004), p. ?.
  19. ^ McRobbie-Utasi (1991), p. ?.
  20. ^ McRobbie-Utasi (2003).
  21. ^ Svantesson (2003), p. ?.
  22. ^ "Glossary". Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  23. ^ Silverman (2003), p. 582.
  24. ^ Silverman (2003), pp. 590–91.
  25. ^ Sammallahti (1998), p. 193.
  26. ^ Borgstrøm (1940), p. ?.
  27. ^ Ó Dochartaigh, C. Survey of the Gaelic Dialects of Scotland I-V Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (1997) ISBN 1-85500-165-9

References

  • Bandle, Oskar; Widmark, Gun (2002). The Nordic Languages: An International Handbook of the History of the North Germanic Languages. Vol. 2. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110171495.
  • Borgstrøm, Carl (1940). The Dialects of the Outer Hebrides.
  • Gordeeva, Olga; Scobbie, James M (2010), "Preaspiration as a correlate of word-final voice in Scottish English fricatives", in Fuchs, Susanne; Toda, Martine; Zygis, Marzena (eds.), Turbulent Sounds: An Interdisciplinary Guide
  • Hansson, Gunnar Ólafur (2001), "Remains of a submerged continent. Preaspiration in the languages of Northwest Europe", in Brinton, Laurel J. (ed.), Historical linguistics 1999, Amsterdam, pp. 157–173{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Kuzmenko, Jurij K. (2008). Der samische Einfluss auf die skandinavischen Sprachen: Ein Beitrag zur skandinavischen Sprachgeschichte [The Sami Influence on the Scandinavian Languages: A Contribution to the History of the Scandinavian Language] (in German) (1 ed.). Berlin: Humboldt-Universität zu Bln Nordeuropa Inst. ISBN 978-3-932406-25-6. OCLC 244629279.
  • Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996), The Sounds of the World's Languages, Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 0-631-19815-6
  • McRobbie-Utasi, Zita (1991), "Preaspiration in Skolt Sámi" (PDF), in McFetridge, P. (ed.), SFU Working Papers in Linguistics, vol. 1, pp. 77–87, retrieved 2007-03-07
  • McRobbie-Utasi, Zita (2003), Normative Preaspiration in Skolt Sami in Relation to the Distribution of Duration in the Disyllabic Stress-Group (PDF), retrieved 2007-03-07
  • Nance, Claire; Stuart-Smith, Jane (2013), "Pre-aspiration and post-aspiration in Scottish Gaelic stop consonants" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (2): 129–152, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000042, S2CID 28383364
  • Posti, Lauri (1954), "On the origin of the voiceless vowel in Lapp", Svenska Landsmål och Svenskt Folkliv, 77: 199–209
  • Rießler, Michael (2004), "On the origin of preaspiration in North Germanic" (PDF), in Jones-Bley, Karlene; Della Volpe, Angela; Dexter, Miriam Robbins; Martin E., Huld (eds.), Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference. Los Angeles, November 7–8, 2003, Journal of Indo-European Monograph Series, vol. 49, Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man, pp. 168–185, archived from the original (PDF) on September 6, 2006, retrieved 2007-03-07
  • Sammallahti, Pekka (1998). The Saami Languages: An Introduction. Davvi Girji.
  • Silverman, Daniel (2003), "On the Rarity of Pre-Aspirated Stops", Journal of Linguistics, 39 (3): 575–598, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.529.8048, doi:10.1017/S002222670300210X, S2CID 53698769
  • Stevens, Mary; Hajek, John (2004), "How Pervasive is Preaspiration? Investigating Sonorant Devoicing in Sienese Italian" (PDF), Tenth Australian International Conference on Speech Science & Technology, Macquarie University, Sydney, pp. 334–39, archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-09-18, retrieved 2007-03-07
  • Svantesson, Jan-Olof (2003), "Preaspiration in Old Mongolian?" (PDF), Proceedings from Fonetik 2003. PHONUM. Reports in Phonetics, vol. 9, Umeå University, pp. 5–8, archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-02-05, retrieved 2007-03-07{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Tronnier, Mechtild (2002), "Preaspiration in Southern Swedish Dialects" (PDF), Proceedings of Fonetik 2002. Speech, Music and Hearing Quarterly Progress and Status Report, vol. 44, pp. 33–36, retrieved 2007-03-07
  • Watt, Dominic; Allen, William (2003), "Tyneside English", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 267–271, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001397