Page:A Danish and Dano-Norwegian grammar.djvu/26

12 the former being voiceless, the latter voiced, as is the case in English. But the Danish tenses are followed by a voiceless breath, thereby becoming aspirates. Thus the energy of expiration becomes the chief distinguishing feature between Danish tenues and mediae.

In some cases the tenues are written where the sound is really nearer to that of the mediae; thus Nordens Skuder (the ships of the North) and Nordens Guder (the gods of the North) are both pronounced in almost the same manner (sguder), i. e. the aspiration of tenues does not take place after s and thus the chief characteristic of the hard sound disappears. The same rule applies to shut consonants written double in the middle of words, pp, tt, kk representing about the same sound as bb, dd, gg; Ex.: tykke thick, plur., and tygge to chew, Bække rivulets, and begge both, Lapper patches, and Labber paws, have the same sound, something between tenues and mediae.

30. p has the hard aspirated sound of p-h (not ph=f) in the beginning of syllables: Pære pear, Penge money, Parade.

31. 1) After s, 2) when written double (pp) and 3) at the end of words the sign p represents the sound midway between p and b, or a hard b; Ex.: spare to save (sb), pippe to peep up (pron. p-hibbǝ), op up, pron. obb (bb in these cases indicating the hard sound of b).