Danish Consonants

Danish consonants have properties that make them different from those of other Germanic languages. Word-initial consonants are always voiceless but can be voiceless aspirated or voiceless unaspirated. Word-final consonants are always voiced, and voiced consonants can also occur in consonant clusters with a voiceless alveolar fricative.

The word bil means car. It has a voiceless unaspirated consonant. The word pil means arrow and has a voiceless aspirated consonant.

In the word sort (black), the final consonant is voiced. It is the consonant /d/. However, it is partly devoiced. The words bæk (brook) and kop (cup) end with the voiced consonants /g/ and /b/.

Consonant clusters with the voiceless alveolar fricative combine with voiced plosives. For example, the words skole (school) and busk (bush) have the consonant cluster /sg/. In sprog (language) and stol (chair), the consonant clusters are /sb/ and /sd/.

In most languages, consonant clusters agree with one another in voicing. The English word books has two voiceless consonants in the coda and dogs has two voiced ones. However, Danish allows the combination of a voiceless consonant and a voiced consonant. This is not the case in Norwegian and Swedish, two similar languages.

Danish only allows voiceless consonants at the beginning of the word and only allows voiced consonants at the end. The combination of a voiceless /s/ and voiced plosive occurs in consonant clusters. In languages such as English, such a combination is not possible. Danish consonants are thus unique.

Apocope in Northern Norwegian Dialects

One well-known feature of northern Norwegian dialects is apocope. Apocope is the loss of vowels. In northern Norwegian dialects, it is common in verb endings and at the end of words. It is a type of vowel lenition or weakening.

The use of apocope can vary from one dialect to another. An example of a sentence without apocope is  Han vil synge en vise og jeg skal kjøpe en kake. This sentence means He wants to sing a song and I want to buy a cake. It is typical of the Norwegian spoken in Oslo and other parts of southeastern Norway.

In many northern Norwegian dialects, the sentence is as follows: Han vil søng ei vis og e skal kjøp ei kak. Notice the use of apocope. The final vowel of the infinitive synge (sing), the noun vise (song), the infinitive kjøp (buy) and kake (cake) are missing. The apocope of northern Norwegian dialects reduces the number of syllables.

Apocope is a common phonological process in many Norwegian dialects. The deleted vowel is always unstressed. It is also common in many northern Swedish dialects.

Ten Pronunciations of Butter

The word butter can be pronounced in many ways. The pronunciation depends on the dialect. Here are ten different pronunciations: 

1) bʌtə This pronunciation is common in southeastern England.

2) bʌɾə This pronunciation can occur in Australia, New Zealand and parts of the USA

3) bʌdə This pronunciation is common in Australia and New Zealand.

4) bʌʔə This pronunciation is typical of the variety called Cockney English.

5) bʊtə This pronunciation is common in northern England.

6) bʌtɚ This pronunciation is common in Ireland and Scotland.

7) bʌʔɚ This pronunciation is common in southwestern England.

8) bʌɾɚ This pronunciation is common in Canada and the United States.

9) bʊdɚ This pronunciation can occur in Ireland.

10) bʊtɚ This pronunciation can also occur in Ireland.

The pronunciations illustrate the variety of English dialects spoken around the world. The first vowel in butter can be a central vowel or a back vowel, the word-medial consonant can be a voiced or voiceless plosive or a tap, and the final vowel can be a schwa, or it can be r-coloured. The first pronunciation is the pronunciation of RP and the eighth pronunciation is the most common in Canada and the USA.

Use of Much

The word much is common in negative statements but not in affirmative ones. The negative statement I don't have much time is I have lots of time or I have a lot of time in the affirmative. However, the degree words so and too can be added. In such cases, much can be used in the affirmative.

With the addition of degree words, the use of much in the affirmative becomes possible. Sentences such as I have too much time and I have so much time are grammatical. The word much is possible when it is a degree word and comes before comparative adjectives. An example is the sentence You are much faster than me.

Unlike the word many, which is used in both affirmative and negative sentences, much is usually restricted to negative statements. In affirmative statements, it is common to use a lot of and lots of. The sentence He didn't get much support is expressed with He got lots of support or He got a lot of support in the affirmative.

Diphthongization of Low Front and Mid Vowels before Voiced Velar Plosive

In many Canadian and American dialects, the low front and mid front vowels diphthongize before the voiced velar plosive. The voiced velar plosive occurs in the same syllable. The diphthongization of the vowel does not occur in other dialects of English.

Words such as egg and leg can be pronounced with the diphthong of day rather than the mid front lax vowel of ten. Likewise, words such as bag and flag can be pronounced with the diphthong of right. Before the voiceless velar plosive, diphthongization does not occur.

Diphthongization can also occur before the velar nasal in words such as bank and sang. The velar plosive and velar nasal have the articulatory feature +high, a feature that is also present in the second component of the diphthongs. It can be considered a type of partial assimilation.

Diphthongization of the low front and low mid vowels before voiced velar plosives occurs in the English of many Canadian and American speakers. The process is a type of regressive assimilation. The velar consonant creates the environment for diphthongization. The process can also be considered a type of palatalization.

Velarized Laminal Alveolar Approximant of Danish

The Danish language has a sound that does not occur in any other language. It is the velarized laminal alveolar approximant. In Danish spelling it is a d and it always occurs between vowels and in the syllable coda. 

The velarized laminal alveolar approximant occurs in the following words:

chokolade (chocolate)

fløde (cream)

fod (foot)

gade (street)

mad (foot)

møde (meeting)

sød (sweet)

tid (time)

uden (without)

ørred (trout)

The velarized laminal alveolar approximant of Danish is often compared to the voiced interdental fricative of English. However, the two sounds are quite different. The Danish sound is not a fricative but an approximant. It is not produced with the tip of the tongue but with the blade, and the tongue is raised towards the velum. Another difference is that the tongue makes contact with the alveolar ridge rather than with the teeth.

One of the most distinctive sounds of Danish is the velarized laminal alveolar approximant. It occurs in many Danish words. The velarized laminal alveolar approximant is a unique sound which occurs in no other language.

Finnish Colour Adjectives in Singular and Plural

Finnish colour adjectives are inflected for number. They have different forms before singular and plural nouns. However, not all of them are inflected the same. A few follow a distinct pattern. Let us illustrate with examples.

In the following sentences the difference between singular and plural is regular:

The black car is new. Musta auto on uusi.

The black cars are new. Mustat autot ovat uusia.

The green car is new. Vihreä auto on uusi.

The green cars are new. Vihreät autot ovat uusia.

The suffix -t is the plural marker for both the adjective and the noun. In the second sentence, uusia has a different form because it is not in nominative case but in partitive. The partitive case is a very productive case in Finnish.

Compare the previous sentences with the following.

The blue car is new. Sininen auto on uusi.

The blue cars are new. Siniset autot ovat uusia.

The white car is new. Valkoinen auto on uusi.

The white cars are new. Valkoiset autot ovat uusia.

The red car is new. Punainen auto on uusi.

The red cars are new. Punaiset autot ovat uusia.

The yellow car is new. Keltainen auto on uusi.

The yellow cars are new. Keltaiset auto ovat uusia.

With this set of colour adjectives, we also see the suffix -t to mark the plural. However, another change occurs. The penultimate nasal changes to an alveolar plosive. This sound change can be illustrated with the rule /n/ → /s/. 

It may be that the change is an example of partial assimilation. The /n/ is a nasal but the /s/ and the /t/ are plosives. According to this analysis, the sound change is a partial assimilation in the manner of articulation.

Finnish adjectives are inflected for number. This can be illustrated with the colour adjectives. However, they inflect in two ways. One group of colour adjectives follows the regular pattern of plural inflection, but the other group does not.