Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1964, Page 94

102
Toward the phonetic description of Faroese vowels
He writes [t, ø, o] in stressed syllables and [1, 6] (in some
contexts [o]) in unstressed syllables. Marius Hægstad (who
slightly modifies Jakobsen’s notation in accordance with the
Norvegia system)1) renders the stressed vowels in question
as [i, ý (apparently also ø), uj, and the unstressed ones as
[e, ú].2) Pierre Naert,3) who is not quite satisfied with
Jakobsen’s phonetic symbols, has expressed doubt as to
whether the first vowel is an open i or a close e; he
presumes that both types occur with a considerable vari*
ation both in opening (tongue^height) and tension, especi»
ally when the vowel is unstressed. As for the other two,
viz. Jakobsen’s [ø, o], Naert contends that the former is
sometimes (in some dialects) an open y rather than ø, and
that the latter is definitely u rather than o.
It seems to me somewhat disputable to make a distinction
— on impressionistic grounds — between lax i and tense e
occurring as more or less free variants of the same phoneme.
A lax vowel may be expected to exhibit a considerable
latitude of variation, and it is hardly possible to avoid
arbitrariness if the choice of symbol is not made syste*
matically. Naert prefers to have a variety of symbols at his
disposal, expecting further phonetic research to clarify the
picture, but it does not do justice to Jakobsen’s notation
(which is comparatively broad and as such adequate on
most points) to accuse it of symbol poverty. It is certainly
essential to arrive at an accurate description of the height
of the tongue in the articulation of the short vowels in
words like hitta, húski, hugga, and to determine both
whether there are marked differences among these (which
does not a priori seem very likely), and whether they differ
markedly in articulation and acoustic quality from long e,
*) Vestnorske maalføre fyre 1350 11,2: andra bolken (1917).
2) On the problem of unstressed vowels, which is not considered
here, see e. g. Bjórn Hagstrom in Fróðskaparrit 10, p. 76—109 (1961),
Otmar Werner in Arkiv fór nordisk filologi 79, p. 247—55 (1964).
3) Studier i nordisk sprákvetenskap p. 23—33 (Lund 1958).