Intervocalic Geminate Voicing in Danish

Danish has intervocalic geminate voicing. Though voicing does not occur in careful speech, it is common for many speakers. Intervocalic geminate voicing occurs in the following words:

ikke (not)
katte (cats)
loppe (flea)
otte (eight)
sukker (sugar)
suppe (soup)

Intervocalic geminate voicing is the result of two rules: degemination and voicing. The rules do not need to be ordered. Voicing can precede degemination. With alveolar plosives, flapping is optional. Here is the phonological analysis of ikke, suppe and otte:

UR /Ik:ɘ/
degemination Ikɘ
voicing Igɘ
PR [Igɘ]

UR /sup:ɘ/
degemination supɘ
voicing subɘ
PR [subɘ]

UR /ot:ɘ/
degemination otɘ
voicing odɘ
PR [odɘ]
(flapping oɾɘ)
(PR [oɾɘ] )

Intervocalic geminate voicing distinguishes Danish from the other Germanic languages. In Norwegian, the geminates of words such as ikke, sukker and suppe do not voice. Danish intervocalic voicing can be analyzed as lenition.