Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1970, Blaðsíða 351

Supradentaler i fároiskan
359
SUMMARY
It is a well-known characteristic feature of most central Scandinavian
dialects that the phonemic sequences /rs/, /rt/, /rd/, and /rn/ are realized
as l?]> [ t ]> K]> ar>d [ n.], i.e. as single retroflex phones as the result of
total assimilation. In the present paper attention is drawn to the same
type of assimilation in Faroese.
The phonemes /t/, /d/, and /n/ in Faroese are usually described as
dentals. Wich the exception of [ g ] (Lockwood, Risohel), the retroflex
variants of the dental phonemes have not been observed by research
scholars. The present author has transcribed some 5000 words from tapc
recordings of unrehearsed connected speech, representing three informants.
All sequences of /r/ plus /s/, /t/, /d/, or /n/ in the transcriptions have been
registered and analysed.
The former part of the article deals with some discrepancies between
the orthographic and phonemic systems of Faroese. Cases where <( r )>
appears in the orthography but has no phonemic equivalent are discarded,
before the influence of /r/ on adjacent consonants is discussed.
In the latter part of the article the result of the investigation is
presented. The sequence /r/ plus /s/, /t/, /d/, or /n/ may be realized in
three ways: 1) [r] plus dental allophone, 2) [r] plus retroflex allophone,
3) retroflex allophone alone. Thus the single retroflex phones [g], [t]
etc. are interpreted as realizations of the phonemic sequences /rs/, /rt/ etc.
The phonemic sequences in question are pronounced as follows.
(4.1) /rs/ in a word is always realized as one phone, [g], which is
long after a stressed vowel — as in fýrs »eighty« — and short after an
unstressed vowel — as in forstandi »(I) understand« —.
(4.2, 4.3) /rt/ and /rd/ are realized as two phones after a stressed
vowel, the phonemic length of the cluster being realized in [r:]. The
stop is generally retroflex, seldom dental. Examples: burtur »away«, stórt
»big«, lærdu (pret. pl. of hera) »taught«, hoyrdi (pret. sg. of hoyra)
»heard«. After an unstressed vowel the sequence /rt/ is pronounced
[rt ] or [ t]> the sequence /rd/ nearly always [([]•
(4.4) The phonetic realization of /m/ in a word is [rn] or [ni], the
latter variant being more frequent. The phonemic sequence /rn/ is by no
means so frequent as the graphemic equivalent <(rn>, for two reasons:
1) The plural endings -ir, -ar, -ur cast out the /r/ when the definite
article (-nir, -nar) is added, 2) <( rn) is the graphemic rendering of /dn/
in most words where <(m) is included in one morpheme, e.g. barn
»child«.
(5) As a rule assimilation (partial or total) also takes place, when one
word ends with /r/ and the following begins with a dental phoneme.
Example: for nógv moo much«.