Icelandic presents several interesting features related to consonant voicing.
Although there are differing views on the phonological status of preaspiration in
Icelandic, it can essentially be seen as a mirror-image of the more familiar
(post)-aspiration. Not surprisingly, preaspiration does not occur in initial position.
Please note that the short unaspirated sounds may be weakly post-aspirated.
Since consonant length is also relevant in Icelandic, in medial position the
following three-way pattern involving voiceless consonants can be found:
Notes on the sonagrams:
The length of preaspiration plus consonantal closure is about the same as the length
of consonantal closure in the long consonants. Long vowel plus short consonant is
about the same length as short vowel plus long consonant. In initial position "normal"
postaspiration can occur: "keppa". /r/ in word-final position may be virtually
voiceless: "dökkur". For a similar set of examples from SoWL click here.
The following words give examples of voiceless approximants and nasals occurring
in contexts that are unfamiliar for German or English speakers.
Voiceless lateral preceeding final voiceless plosive. It is possible to
find surface contrasts for voicing in laterals and nasals in such positions.
The voiceless variants may be related to the occurrence of pre-aspirated plosives
in Icelandic, i.e the voicelessness may be a kind of mirror-image of the devoicing
that can occur in laterals following syllable-initial voiceless plosives in
English and German. mjoelk ("milk")
Voiceless lateral in final position. Voiced laterals do also occur in this position. mjel
Voiceless nasal following preaspirated plosive; thus a very long stretch
of voicelessness in this word. vatn ("water")
The voiced trill /r/ is followed by complete articulatory closure, and then
a voiceless nasal release. tjoern ("pond")
Another example of a very long voiceless phase (/kst/), followed by a final voiceless /l/. öxl ("shoulder")
Voiceless /r/ in initial position. hreyfast ("scrolling")
Institute of Phonetics and Speech Processing, LMU Munich.