Re: [tied] Laryngeal theory as an unnatural

In Norwegian, the unvoised stops are aspirated or unaspirated
according to the surroundings. Before a stressed front vovel, they
tend to be aspirated, before a stressed back vovel they seem to
differ from person to person but mostly unaspirated, between two
vovels they are weak unaspirated, after a spirant they are hard
unaspirated.

If the style of speach is rapid and energetic, the stops use to lose
aspiration, and may become glottalized before a stressed wovel.

The voised stops tend to be unaspirated, but an aspiration is
sometimes heard.

If an Italian or frenchman learn to speak Norwegian, his stops will
be accepted as perfect Norwegian ones. The same is true if an
Englishman speaks Norwegian, simply because aspiration does not count
as a phonemic criterium. But you will clearly hear that they are
foreigners according to other criteria, espesially intonation and
wovel value.

In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:

> On Sat, 22 Feb 2003 17:46:47 -0000, "aquila_grande
> <aquila_grande@...>" <aquila_grande@...> wrote:
>
> >I think there is a tendensy in modern Germanic languages to shift
> >from a voised - unvoiced -opposition to an aspirated -unaspirated -
> >opposition.
> >
> >I think English is in this transformation process.
> >
> >In Scandinavian, Danish, has by now an aspirated - unaspirated
> >opposition.
> >
> >In Norwegian that is more conservative, the opposition is still
> >voiced-unvoiced, and aspiration or not aspiration counts very

little.

>
> I'm pretty sure this isn't anything recent, and has been a feature

of

> Germanic for thousands of years, since the beginning: the Grimm

shift

> (p > f, t > þ, k > h) and the High German shift (p > pf, t > ts, k >
> kx) can be explained in no other way. If aspiration is not a strong
> feature of Norwegian, that's surely an innovation. The most
> conservative Nordic language, Icelandic, has no voiced stops at all
> (the inventory being: weak unaspirated /b./, hard unaspirated /p/,
> weak aspirated /b.h/, hard pre-aspirated /hp/, and hard aspirated
> /ph/).
>
> =======================
> Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
> mcv@...