Intervocalic Voicing in Danish

In Danish all intervocalic plosives are voiced. The only exception is in the case of conservative speakers. This intervocalic voicing of all plosives doesn't occur in standard Norwegian and Swedish. The result is that the constrast between aspirated and unaspirated plosives is neutralized intervocalically.

In the minimal pair bil/pil (car/arrow), Danish has an unaspirated plosive in bil and an aspirated one in pil. However, in intervocalic position, only voiced plosives occur. The words suppe (soup), ikke (not) and otte (eight) have voiced plosives. They were once voiceless, as in Norwegian and Swedish, but became voiced. The consonant in otte (eight) is often realized as a flap rather than a plosive. In words such as pude (pillow), the d is a velarized alveolar fricative, a sound which occurs in no other European language.

Unlike many languages, Danish has a contrast between aspirated and unaspirated plosives rather than voiced and voiceless. In intervocalic position, however, the contrast is neutralized and only voiced plosives occur. The contrast between aspirated and unaspirated plosives and voicing of intervocalic plosives is also found in Icelandic.