Munurin millum Suðuroyarmál og føroyskt annars

Abstract

Faroese has normally preaspirated p, t, k after short vowel. The change between long vowels (i. e. diphthongs usually) and short vowels (i. e. monophthongs usually) is here determined by the weight of the subsequent consonants, whether, on one hand, these were short in Old Norse or, on the other hand, long or more than one. It is pointed out in the paper that in the dialect spoken on the island of Suðuroy, some consonant groups of which p, t, k form the first element, have no preaspiration in spite of a preceding short vowel. In Faroese such groups, as a rule, have to be preeeded by an irregularly long vowel. In other words, the Suðuroy dialect has always a short vowel before the consonant groups of the ancient language or a long consonant, but the development of preaspiration of consonant groups is conditional on the consonant with which the stops p, t, k are collocated.