Rit (Vísindafélag Íslendinga) - 01.06.1970, Page 470

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generalized in such a way that the vowel is either long or
short throughout, or so that double forms occur, cp. [sbofy]
or (definitely more frequently) [sboi’] ‘joke’, [sbo^yalsa] or
[sbDÍalsa] ‘ghost’ [sþege means both ‘joke’ and ‘haunt’); cp.
also [aian] ‘own’ vs. [e:yan]- or [aian]- as the first member
of compounds. In the second place, the alternant [u] for [y]
is used only in some types of Standard Danish. To many
speakers of this language it is a slightly (or definitely) sub-
standard alternative, whereas others do not seem to discrim-
inate sharply between [y] and [u] after a short back vowel,
i.e., in forms like sagn [scxyn’] or [saun’] ‘legend’ (as against
savn [saun’] ‘need, want’, which has only [u], i.e., underlying
/W)-
A good example of these unstable tendencies is the word
slag ‘stroke, hit’, definite form slaget. With the vowel quantity
alternation operating one would expect [slay]—[slæ:’yð], and
with the fricative ~ semivowel alternation also in operation
one would expect [slau]—[slæ:’yð]. The pronunciations
familiar to (and probably all used by) this writer are, in fact,
many more: [slæ:’y, slay, slau]—[slæ:’yð, slæ:’ið, slau’ð].The
last-mentioned pronunciation (and similarly [tau’ð] for
[tæ:’yð] ‘the grip’) is used only with special connotations and
perhaps only in fixed phrases. (Note that [tæ:’yð] ‘the roof’
cannot be pronounced [tau’ð] in Standard Danish.)
It may be added that vowel shortness (and thus obligatory
or optional replacement of fricative by semivowel) is a regular
feature of combinations of vowel plus voiced fricative plus
liquid or nasal. However, many such forms ([saun’], for ex-
ample) do not enter into obvious alternations with forms with
a phonetically manifested fricative, so it is only by generaliza-
tion that many of these forms may be said to reflect an under-
lying fricative (if this interpretation is at all valid in all cases).
(2) After a (phonetically) long vowel many persons have
more or less free variation between [v] and [u], between [y]
and [i] after front vowels, and between [y] and [u] after back
vowels. In the speech of the younger generation in Copen-