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Evolutionary typology andScandinavian pitch accent

Patrik ByeUniversity of Troms/CASTL

July 8, 2004

Abstract. The origin and typological differentiation of the realization of the Scandinavianpitch accent distinction can be attributed largely to the well-documented phonetic mechanismof tone target delay. The account makes it possible to understand the complex typology anddiachrony of compound accentuation. The paper argues that typology should be accountablemore generally, not only to phonetics, but to historical linguistics and dialect geography aswell, rather than linguistic cognition as in OT. The paper thus offers a strategy for conductingtypological research without assuming typology is inherent in the grammar.

Keywords: Scandinavian, pitch accent, peak delay, evolutionary phonology

1. Introduction: metatypological considerations

Classical Optimality Theory (OT) can be understood as a theory of the pos-sible states the language faculty can assume in the course of and as theresult of language acquisition: it is a theory of the possible I-language gram-mars which result on the permutation, in all possible rankings, of the innateconstraints in the universal constraint set CON (Prince and Smolensky, 1993,McCarthy and Prince, 1993). According to this view, all languages ultimately

make the same generalizations: they simply prioritize them differently. In OT,the goals of describing the form of phonological knowledge and capturingattested typological variation are uniquely intertwined and OT grammars havewhat Smolensky dubs inherent typology. That is, the description of any oneparticular language in OT has global implications for the typology of humanlanguages in general. This conception makes the space in which languagesvary essentially closed.

In recent years, a new direction in phonological research has been gath-ering pace which is founded on the rigorous separation of formal, or compu-tational, problems from questions of what is typologically natural in phon-ological systems. This paper seeks to connect with this research and adoptsthe (neo-)Saussurean view that phonological knowledge should be analyzed

on its own terms without heeding substantive considerations of naturalness.This general view of phonology is represented by such works as Bach andHarms (1972), Hyman (1975), Sommerstein (1977), Foley (1977), Hellberg

Thanks to Sylvia Blaho, Mark Hale, Mark Liberman, Marc van Oostendorp, CharlesReiss, Curt Rice, Keren Rice, Tobias Scheer, Jen Smith and Donca Steriade for feedback.

c 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

pitch-accent-kluw.tex; 10/08/2004; 12:51; p.1


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2 Patrik Bye

(1978), Hellberg (1980), Anderson (1981), Lass (1984), Coleman (1998),Dolbey and Hansson 1999a, 1999b, Hale and Reiss (2000), Hale (2000),Reiss (2000) and Buckley (2000). This view entails that cross-linguistic reg-ularities are not the direct product of the innate language faculty. In recentyears, a complementary paradigm has been developing, guided by the ideathat cross-linguistic regularities are emergent, reflecting universal extragram-matical constraints on domains such as articulation, perception and memoryformation. Examples include Ohala (1981), Ohala (1993), Ohala (1997), Lind-blom (2000), Blevins and Garrett (1998), Blevins and Garrett (2004), Blevins(ming), Boer 2000, 2001, 2002, Harrison et al. (2002), and Kochetov 2001,2002.

Whatever OTs merits, the frameworks commitment to inherent typo-logy has had some unfortunate results. OT deals poorly with unnaturalphenomena such as phonologically opaque or morphologized alternationswithout resort to unsatisfactory devices of one kind or another. These devices

have included positing ad hoc functionally arbitrary constraints in descrip-tions of particular languages (Hayes, 1999), placing arbitrary restrictions onGEN to ensure that unwanted candidates are not generated in the first place(McCarthy, 1993) or grafting on a rule-based component to the OT grammar(Blevins, 1997, Kibre, 1999). Reacting to such hybridization, Halle and Id-sardi (1997) argue that such moves are tantamount to giving up on the entireenterprise. Any of these descriptive practices weaken OTs claim to be atheory of phonological knowledge.

Nonetheless, despite OTs lack of success in dealing with such phenom-ena, the last ten years have yielded a wealth of insights into typologicalvariation, and many of the values embodied by the OT research programme

deserve to have a continued role. As phonologists increasingly reevaluatetheir choice of formal theory in the current climate, it is important to retain atypological perspective.

In the absence of naturalness conditions on phonological development,the space in which languages can vary is in principle open, substantivelyspeaking, and the typology of attested languages cant be taken as approx-imating the shape of this space. This paper addresses the question of howtypology might look given a formalism which underconstrains the range ofattestable languages. I argue that typology is not inherent in the grammar, andthereby accountable to linguistic cognition as assumed in OT, but accountableto a different range of disciplines, including historical linguistics and dialectgeography as well as, of course, phonetics. The integration of typology and

dialectology is already proving fruitful (Bisang, 2004).This point will be illustrated using data from Scandinavian pitch accent.

Here I propose that the origin of the Scandinavian pitch accent distinctionand the typological differentiation of its realizations is largely attributable toa single well-documented phonetic mechanism: pitch target delay.



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Scandinavian Pitch Accent 3

2. The Scandinavian accent typology

As is well-known, most dialects of Scandinavian have a lexical pitch accent

distinction between Accent 1 and Accent 2.1 This is exemplified in the styl-ized tone curves below for the citation forms 1

the lamb and 2

tolamb in Standard Eastern (Oslo) Norwegian in (1) below. The distinction isrendered phonologically in terms of the presence versus absence of a H toneon the first mora. For motivation of this analysis, see Kristoffersen (2000).

(1) Accent 1 vs. Accent 2 in Oslo Norwegian

Accent 1 Accent 2

H

the lamb to lamb

The pitch accent distinction carries little functional load in any of the Scand-inavian languages. Nevertheless, Kloster-Jensen (1958) is able to list 2400minimal pairs for Norwegian, a selection of which is given in (2).

(2) Tonal accent minimal pairs in Standard East Norwegian (Oslo)(Kloster-Jensen, 1958, Popperwell, 1963)

1 peas 2 tease(s) (pres)

1 banner 2 curses1

the feather 2

the beach1

rather 2 incline(s) (pres)1

the jumps 2 the mares1

the cult 2

unpleasant1

mountain summer farm 2

seats1

completely 2 split(s) (pres)

1 Scandinavia is historically a dialect continuum which raises certain problems of nomen-clature. Most of the major dialect divisions within Sweden have conventional English names,

which are used here. These are Scanian (Skne), Gutnish (Gotland), Gothian (Gtaland),Sweonic (Svealand), Dalecarlian (Dalarna) and Bothnian (North Sweden and Finland). Thedialects of Hrjedal and Jmtland historically group with the dialects of East Norwegian. Themajor dialect divisions of Denmark also have English names. These are Zealandic (Sjlland),Funish (Fyn) and Jutlandic (Jylland). The major dialect divisions of Norway, however, areknown as East, West and North Norwegian.



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4 Patrik Bye

For Standard Swedish, Elert (1972) includes a list of 350 minimal pairs ex-emplified in (3).

(3) Tonal accent minimal pairs in Standard (Stockholm) Swedish

(Elert, 1972)1

shoulder 2 axle; axis1

Beta 2 beet1

the lane 2

gone1

the moor 2

heathen1

Lydia 2 obedient (pl)1

the stucco 2

stung; prodded1

the door knobs 2

the wrath

There are two major conditions on the distribution of lexical pitch accent

with broad although not absolute jurisdiction throughout Scandinavia. First,the distinction is generally limited to words of two or more syllables (4): inmonosyllables the opposition is neutralized to Accent 1.

(4) POLYSYLLABICITY CONDITIONMonosyllables cannot bear lexical tone.

In many parts of Scandinavia, however, the Polysyllabicity Condition is nolonger active. In some dialects, apocope has applied in original disyllableswith Accent 2 giving rise to a monosyllabic allotone of Accent 2 generallyknown as circumflex (Kristoffersen, 1992).

Second, lexical tone is restricted to the head of the Accent Phrase: else-

where the distinction is neutralized in stressed and unstressed syllables alike.In most Scandinavian dialects, compounds form a single Accent Phrase, whichmeans that the lexical pitch accent of any but the most prominent constituentis suppressed.

(5) HEA D CONDITIONA TBU bearing lexical tone must be head of the Accent Phrase.

The realization of the Accent 1Accent 2 distinction in disyllabic simplexwords varies widely on a dialect-to-dialect basis. This was first establishedin a now classic study by Meyer 1937, 1954, who elicited disyllabics withdeclarative intonation for 100 Scandinavian dialects, 93 of which were dia-

lects of Swedish, 5 Norwegian and 2 Danish. The typology of Scandinavianpitch accent is now richly described in the literature. Generally, however,typological and dialect-geographical questions have been pursued along na-tional lines as Swedish, Norwegian and Danish researchers have commu-nicated surprisingly little. For Swedish, see Grding and Lindblad (1973),



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Grding (1975), Grding (1977), Bruce (1977), Bruce and Grding (1978),Grding et al. (1978); for Norwegian see Fintoft and Mjaavatn (1980). Amajor recent advance in Scandinavian accent typology which takes a sig-nificant step in transcending these traditional divides is the work of TomasRiad (1996, 1998a, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c, 2003), to whom this paper owes asignificant intellectual debt.

According to Grding and Lindblad (1973) and Grding (1977), the Scand-inavian tone accent typology can be captured in terms of two major qualitativeparameters. An approximate description of these parameters is given in (6). 2

(6) Grding and Lindblads parameters(Grding and Lindblad, 1973, Grding, 1977)a. Number of peaks in Accent 2

(i) Type 1One peak in Accent 2

(ii) Type 2Two peaks in Accent 2b. Peak timing in both accents

(i) ARelatively early.

(ii) BRelatively late.

These two dimensions cross-classify to give the four types 1A, 1B, 2A and2B as shown in (7).

(7) Grding-Lindblad typology

2 Many examples in the primary sources are rendered in one of the Scandinavian dialectalphabets, Svenska Landsmlsalfabetet, Norvegia or Dania. For reasons of accesibility, allexamples have been retranscribed into the IPA using the key in Eriksson (1961). Standard

references on the historical phonology are Prokosch (1939) and Voyles (1992) (Germanic),Seip (1955) (Norwegian), Kock (1921) and Hesselman (1953) (Swedish), and Skautrup (1944)(Danish). For Scandinavian accentology in particular, see Kock 1885, 1901 and Liberman(1982), Meyer 1937, 1954, Grding (1977) and Bruce (1977). For surveys of dialectology anddialect geography, see Christiansen (1948) and Sandy (1996) (Norwegian), Wess en (1969)(Swedish) and Brndum-Nielsen (1927), Ringgaard (1971) (Danish).



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Type Accent 1 Accent 2 Region

0 Finnmark, Finland,

North Sweden, SouthDenmark

1 One peak One peak

1A early instressedsyllable

late instressedsyllable

South Sweden, WestNorway

1B late in

stressedsyllable

early in

post-stresssyllable

Gotland, Bergslagen

(Sweden)

2 One peak Two peaks

2A late instressedsyllable

one in eachsyllable

Central Sweden,West Nyland,Southwest Norway

2B in post-stresssyllable

one in eachsyllable

Gta, East Norway

In Type 1 dialects, both accents are realized with a single tonal peak. Thecriterion for dialects of Type 2, is that Accent 2 is associated with two peaks.Accent 1 is always realized by a single peak irrespective of whether thedialect in question is of Type 1 or 2.3 Grding and Lindblad also make ref-erence to a Type 0 dialect, which lacks a pitch accent distinction. However,unlike Type 1 and 2, which are defined by phonetic criteria, Type 0 is simplydefined by the absence of an accentual contrast, which doesnt say any-thing about the shape of the associated pitch accent curves. Although most

3 Although the emphasis is different, the distinction between Type 1 and 2 correspondswith the difference between high-tone and low-tone dialects used by Norwegian phonologists.



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of the Type 0 dialects happen to have H*(L%) pitch accent, other shapesoccur. Type 0 dialects with this configuration are found in Iceland, the FaeroeIslands, Finland, North Sweden, the islands south of Sjlland (Lolland, Fal-ster, Mn) and at various places along the western Norwegian coast. In thecase of Iceland and the Faeroes, it is doubtful that they ever had a pitchaccent distinction (although see Haugen (1970) for a different view). In thecase of Finland, however, it is clear that at least some dialects had a lexicalpitch accent distinction at an earlier stage but subsequently lost it, a develop-ment hastened no doubt by contact with Finnish, which lacks the distinction(Ahlbck 1945, 1946, 1956). Another example of loss is the dialect of EastMlardal Swedish (cf. Meyers curve M14 for Simtuna), immediately to thenorthwest of Stockholm. This dialect has, rather unusually, generalized thepitch accent configuration of what is Accent 2. Aside from this example,the distribution of Type 0 dialects is broadly characterized by geographicalperipherality and non-contiguity, suggesting that the pitch accent distinction

is a Central Scandinavian innovation. The geographical distribution of thefour accentual types is shown in Figure 1.

3. Anatomy of tone

Attention is limited here to the citation forms, which I take to be fully-fledgedIntonation Phrases (IntP). The structure of the IntP may be taken to be roughlyas in (8). For additional discussion of intonation in Scandinavian see Bruce(1977), Nilsen (1989, 1992), Kristoffersen (1993a, 1993b, 2000, 2004), andLorentz (1995, 2002).

(8) Structure of the Intonation PhraseIntP

AccP

PrWd

(Tlex) T T%

The distinction between Accent 1 and Accent 2 is generally taken to be aprivative one, in which Accent 2 is marked with a lexical H or L tone andAccent 1 with zero. Type 2 dialects seem to have exclusively lexical H, while(at least some) Type 1 dialects have lexical L. Kristoffersen (2004) points outthat there are dialects (of Type 1) for which a privative characterization of thepitch-accent distinction may be inappropriate. These include North Norwe-gian and some dialects of West Norwegian. In such dialects, the distinctionturns instead on the association of the H prominence tone within the bimo-raic main-stressed syllable. The dialects in question have all implemented



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8 Patrik Bye

Figure 1. Geographical distribution of accent types.



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the Quantity Shift, whereby all stressed syllables are bimoraic (Prokosch,1939, Riad 1992, 1995). Using the terminology of Zec (1995), prominence Hassociates to the strong mora (s) of the stressed syllable in Accent 1, whilein Accent 2, it associates to the weak mora (

w). The possibilities for the

phonological encoding of the distinction are summarized in (9).

(9) Accent 1 vs. Accent 2

Accent 1 Accent 2 Opposition TypeH

H

associative 1A

L

privative 1B

H

privative 2A, 2B

the lamb to lamb

At least in those dialects in which the pitch accent opposition is privative,Accent 1 [. . . ] is pure intonation, while Accent 2 is a lexical tone plus inton-ation (Riad, 2003). Following Riad (2003), I will assume that the anatomyof a citation form, qua complete Intonation Phrase is as follows. Followingany lexical tone Tlex, which associates to the stressed syllable of the PrWd,there are at least two tones, a prominence tone T, which associates to the headof the AccP, and a boundary tone T% which associates to the right boundary

of the IntP. The prominence tone T always has opposite polarity to the lexicaltone, so that dialects in which the lexical tone is H have an L prominence toneand dialects in which the lexical tone is L have an H prominence tone.4 (10)exemplifies the integration of lexical tone and intonation for Oslo Norwegian.

(10) Lexical accent and intonation in Oslo NorwegianL H%

H L H%

the lamb to lamb

4 The identity of the prominence tone essentially serves as the basis for Norwegian termin-ological distinction between high-tone dialects (with H prominence tone) and low-tonedialects (with L prominence tone). Although the criteria used in the Norwegian tradition ofdialect typology are different, high-tone dialects turn out to be roughly equivalent to Grdingand Lindblads Type 1 while low-tone dialects are equivalent to Type 2.



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As Riad notes, the specific (pragmatic) functions of these tones varies fromdialect to dialect despite the limited range of structural types. Shifts in thealignment, and phonological association of tones bring about reassignmentsto function. Riad (2000c) also assumes this: When the pitch curve is shif-ted, the lexical, focus and boundary functions are distributed somewhatdifferently, but the lexical pitch accent distinction is maintained and lives onwith the same lexical distribution as earlier5 . This type of variation is ab-stracted away from here, pending more elaborate treatments of tonal functionin various dialects.

4. Tonogenesis

4.1. OLD SCANDINAVIAN VS. PROTO-NORDIC ORIGINS

The origin of the Scandinavian tone distinction is a perennial issue in thediachronic phonology of Scandinavian languages (Kock, 1901, Oftedal, 1952,hman, 1967, Elstad, 1980, Riad, 1998a,2000a, 2000b, 2000c, 2003, Kris-toffersen, 2004). Contributions to the ongoing origins debate have generallytaken one of two stances (Oftedal, 1952). The traditional and best knownhypothesis (Oftedals Hypothesis A) is that the pitch accent distinction isof Old Scandinavian origin (10001200 AD, but possibly even later). ThisOLD SCANDINAVIAN HYPOTHESIS is associated with the work of Oftedal(1952), hman (1967), Elstad (1980), Lorentz (2001, 2002), and Kristof-fersen (2004). According to this hypothesis, words which were monosyllabicin Old Scandinavian have reflexes with Accent 1, whereas words which werepolysyllabic in Old Scandinavian have reflexes with Accent 2. For example,ON kr, field, was monosyllabic in ON but is now disyllabic, giving forexample Modern Swedish 1

. For reasons which will become clear, theseresearchers assume that the most accentually conservative dialects are thoseof Type 1.

The second hypothesis (Oftedals Hypothesis B) is due ultimately toKock (1901). Kock pointed out data which could not be explained accordingto the Old Scandinavian Hypothesis and attempted to trace the distinctionback to the Syncope Period of Proto-Nordic (800850 AD). According tothis PROTO-NORDIC HYPOTHESIS, words which lost a medial syllable inthe Syncope Period acquired (or retained) Accent 1, while those which didnot lose a medial syllable acquired (or retained) Accent 2. The strongest

argument in favour of this hypothesis is the reflexes of irregular comparat-ives in

(from syncopated *

), such as Sw. 1

less (cf. Gothic

5 Nr kurvan frskjuts distribueras funktionerna lexikal, fokus och grns ngot an-norlunda, men den lexikala tonaccentdistinktionen behlls och lever vidare, med sammalexikala distribution som tidigare.



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minniza), 1

bigger, 1

older, 1

younger, 1

higher,1

lower, 1

better and 1

worse. In fact, the presence ofAccent 1 in words of this type need have nothing to do with syncope. TheOld Scandinavian forms show that these comparatives were further subjectto apocope, giving OSc

, etc. At a subsequent stage, epenthesis tookplace across Scandinavia. In the standard dialects, epenthesis took place atthe right edge of the word, e.g. . However, in North Norwegian, epen-thesis broke up the consonant cluster which had arisen in the wake of earliersyncope, e.g. *

>

>

, younger. Further, Oftedal (1952) showedthat apocope as attested in Old Scandinavian

did not take place in alldialects. In those dialects in which a disyllabic environment was retained insyncopated comparatives, Accent 2 was the result. Such dialects are foundin Halland (Sweden) and large parts of South Norway (West Norway, Setes-dal, Telemark). And so the main piece of evidence for Kocks Hypothesis Bcrumbles. In a review of the remaining classes of word which lost a medial

syllable, Oftedal shows that their accentuation in the modern languages over-whelmingly supports Hypothesis A. Kocks hypothesis is unable to accountfor the facts without heavy reliance on analogy.

Notwithstanding all this, the Proto-Nordic Hypothesis has been revisedand defended in a vastly more sophisticated form in a remarkable series ofrecent papers by Tomas Riad (1998a, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c, 2003), who drawson DAlquen and Brown (1992). Riad starts out with the assumption that themost conservative dialects are those, such as Stockholm Swedish, in whichAccent 2 is realized with two tonal peaks, i.e. dialects of type 2A. The dia-chronic implications of this hypothesis are explored at length in Riad (2003).Riads hypothesis attempts to link the two-peaked realization of Accent 2

with prosodic conditions in Proto-Nordic. A review and critique of Riadsproposals is offered in 6.1.

(11) Origins of lexical pitch accent distinction (Oftedal, 1952)

a. FOR: Old Scandinavian Hypothesis(i) When: 10001200 AD(ii) Mechanism: peak delay in polysyllabic words(iii) Conservative dialect: 1A (e.g. Bergen)

b. AGAINST: Proto-Nordic Hypothesis(i) When: 800850 AD(ii) Mechanism: double pitch accent, stress clash resolution(iii) Conservative dialect: 2A (e.g. Stockholm)

This article essentially a response to Riad and argues the case of the OldScandinavian Hypothesis. The immediate inspiration for the present responseto Riads work is Lorentz (2001, 2002), who proposes a different mechanismfor the origin of the lexical pitch accent distinction peak delay. This idea



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has several points in its favour. For one thing, it allows us to adopt the nullhypothesis regarding the identity of the default pitch accent in Old Scand-inavian: H*(L%). In addition to being cross-linguistically unmarked H*(L%)characterizes declaratives in the Germanic languages in general (Elstad, 1980).Furthermore, like the Germanic languages in general, Old Scandinavian wasin prolonged contact with the Finno-Ugric languages, which also largely haveH*(L%). Indeed, Salmons (1992) sees contact with Finno-Ugric as the mostpromising explanation for the emergence of the Germanic accentual sys-tem from the free accent of Proto-Indo-European. This contact increases thelikelihood that the same was true of Old Scandinavian as well.

4.2. TARGET DELAY

The present proposal builds on the phenomenon, frequently observed in tone

languages, of peak delay, or peak lag. Peak delay refers to the situationwhereby a H* pitch accent is post-aligned with the syllable which sponsors it,the syllable bearing the phonological accent. Trough delay refers to a similarmisalignment of an L* pitch accent (Yip, 2002). As a cover for both of thesephenomena, I will adopt the term target delay.

(12) Target Delay

a. Peak delayPeak of H* pitch accent is post-aligned with the syllable whichsponsors it (Farrar and Nolan, 1999).

b. Trough delayPeak of L* pitch accent is post-aligned with the syllable which

sponsors it (Yip, 2002).

The first stage in the development of the pitch accent distinction was theintroduction of allophonic variation in peak alignment conditioned by thenumber of syllables in the word. In words ofmore than one syllable the hightone peak became skewed towards the right. In monosyllables, however, nosuch shift occurred. The resulting pattern of allophony is shown in (13).

(13) Allotones of H* by number of syllablesa. No delay b. Peak delay

Subsequently, the non-delayed and delayed allotones became lexicalized whena new class of disyllables was created from monosyllabic inputs through twocrucial processes. First, liquid-final reverse sonority clusters in monosyllables



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were broken up by epenthesis: segl segel, sail. Second, the definite articlewas cliticized: and innanden, (the) mallard.

(14) Epenthesis

CVC1C2 CVC1 C2, where C2 >sonority C1. (C2 is a liquid.)(15) Ordering of peak delay and epenthesis

InputH

C V V C VH

C V C L

Peak DelayH

C V V C V n/a

Epenthesis n/aH

C V C V L

Other changes (Quantity Shift) n/a

H

C V V C V LOutput

HC V V C V

HC V V C V L

A role for peak delay has been discovered in dialect variation in British IslesEnglish (Farrar and Nolan, 1999) and Irish (Dalton and Chasaide, 2003). Thereis nothing new about the hypothesis that something like peak delay plays acrucial role in the development of the Scandinavian pitch accent distinction.Peak delay, or something like it, is clearly at work in the theories of hman(1967) and Elstad (1980). Bailey (1990) paraphrases hman:

Phrases ending with a monosyllabic word had a truncated rise-fall phrase finalpattern, resulting in an earlier fall. Phrases ending with a polysyllabic word had

high pitch which started on the stressed syllable and continued one syllable andthen fell, resulting in a later fall.

(Bailey, 1990)

In Lorentz (2001, 2002) and Kristoffersen (2004), the role of peak delayis made quite explicit. However, none of these theories get beyond accordingtarget delay a role in the origin of lexical pitch accent. The novelty of thepresent proposal with respect to its treatment of Scandinavian pitch accentis that it takes target delay as the engine of almost all further typologicaldifferentiation.

The direct result of these opacifying processes in terms of the Grding-Lindblad typology is dialects of Type 1A, contra Riad. In dialects of thiskind, Accent 1 has a peak early in the stressed syllable, while Accent 2 hasa single peak late in the stressed syllable. At this early stage, we can assumethat the accentual distinction was encoded associatively as in (9) rather thanprivatively.



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Let us briefly review the dialect geographic evidence for the claim thatType 1A represents the original state of affairs. Within Scandinavia, Type1Ahas a peripheral and discontinuous geographical distribution.In Norway, 1Ais limited to the dialects of the West. According to Grding, 1977 (p. 47,fig. 3.5:A), the greatest concentration of dialects of Type 1A within Swedenis found in the far south (Skne and Blekinge). However, Type 1A dialectsalso occur sporadically within areas which are otherwise 1B/2A and 2B.For example, a large swathe which covers Smland, Vstergtland, ster-gtland and Vrmland is 2B. Within this area, isolated Type 1A dialectsapparently occur in Jnkping and Gislaved in Smland (in the far south ofthis area) and Kil in Vrmland (in the north). Type 1A dialects also occurin Dalecarlia (Dalarna) which is otherwise 1B, e.g. Orsa. This combinationof peripheral distribution and the existence of islands suggests 1A is a relicfeature (Chambers and Trudgill, 1998).

5. Target delay as the engine of pitch accent variation

5.1. SIMPLEX WORDS

So far we have explored the role of tone delay in tonogenesis and shown howit is possible to generate dialects of Type 1A. It remains to be shown thatthe same mechanism is involved in the further differentiation of the Scand-inavian pitch accent types. In what follows we will trace the evolution ofpitch accent in disyllables of the form . As pointed out earlier, the vastmajority of Scandinavian dialects have implemented the so-called Quantity

Shift, whereby main-stressed syllables were made to conform to a bimoraictemplate. As a result of this change, disyllabic words with an initial lightroot () merged with the type through lengthening of the stressedvowel nucleus or the following consonant. For more in-depth treatment ofthis change, see (Prokosch, 1939, Torp, 1982, Riad, 1992,1995).6

5.1.1. Peak delay in the further evolution of one-peak-dialects: 1A to 1BTaken together as a class, 1A and 1B have a clear relic distribution. Thestatus of 1B considered in isolation is less clear. In Sweden, dialects of Type1B occur in two separate but well-defined areas: Gotland (Gutnish) and the

6 In dialects which preserve the Old Scandinavian distinction between light and heavy

root syllables, the application of peak delay seems to have had different results in lightand heavy root words. In heavy root words, the peak remained aligned within the stressedheavy syllable, but in light root words, the peak shifted into the post-tonic syllable, creating amismatch between the location of the metrical and the tonal prominence. This configuration,known as level stress (Nor. jamvekt) has been much discussed in the dialectological literature(Kristoffersen, 1990a, 1990b).



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Mining District straddling Lower Dalecarlia, Vstmanland and Uppland (so-called Dala-Bergslagen) (Gustavson, 1948). We have already mentioned Orsaas a probable 1A relic in a 1B area. There is no similar relic on Gotland. InType 1B, Accent 1 has a late peak in the stressed syllable, while Accent 2has a peak in the post-stress syllable. The relation between 1A and 1B is thusessentially one of phasing. In addition, there seem to be dialects which areintermediate between the 1A and 1B types in that the H tone peak of Accent2 coincides more or less with the syllable boundary as opposed to beingaligned early in the post-tonic syllable. This appears to be the situation inNorth Norwegian, as well as certain West Norwegian dialects (Kristoffersen,2000, 2004). Dialects of this type, 1A1B are conflated with Type 1B inGrding and Lindblads typology. Many of these dialects occur in the sameareas we find clear cases of both 1A and 1B, i.e. Dalecarlia, lending furthersupport to a close diachronic connection between the two types.

Some dialects have taken the development further. At a late stage, when

the H tone of Accent 2 moves over into the post-tonic syllable, the stressedsyllable is left without a tone. I will assume that learners reanalyze at thispoint by inserting an L tone onto the stressed syllable. This results in a reana-lysis of the nature of the phonological opposition as privative (L vs. ) ratherthan associative. These developments are summarized in (16).

(16) Evolution of 1A to 1B by peak delay

Stage 1 1AH L .

H L .

Stage 2 1A1BH L

. H L

.

Stage 3 1BH L

. H L

.

Stage 4 1B (reanalyzed)H L

. L H L .

Summing up, Type 1B developed out of Type 1A through a combination ofpeak delay and limited reanalysis. This analysis is also consistent with thedialect geographic facts.

5.1.2. Trough delay and the evolution of two-peaked dialects: 1B to 2AIn prospecting for evidence for the hypothesized change from 1B to 2A, wehave to look at areas in which dialects of both types occur contiguously. Wefind such areas in Swedish Uppland, Hlsingland and Jmtland. The dataprovided by Meyer (1954) for Uppland Swedish is particularly interesting in



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16 Patrik Bye

this regard. There are five dialects in this category, Uppsala, Vaksala, Vdd,Simtuna and Norrby, for which Meyers curves are reproduced in (17).

(17) Pitch accent curves for Uppland Swedish

Accent 1 Accent 2

Uppsala(M11)

Vaksala(M12)

Vdd(M13)

Simtuna(M14)

Norrby(M15)

Of these, Norrby appears squarely 1B since the opposition seems to bebetween HL% and LHL%. However, three of the other four evince tendenciesto Type 2A. Simtuna, which neutralizes the distinction between Accents 1and 2, does not have the effect (it has generalized Accent 2), but in Uppsala,Vaksala and Vdd there is clearly a relatively high onglide to the lexical L ofAccent 2. If anything, the tendency towards the double peak appears clearest

in Uppsala. From the perspective of the mechanisms involved in the spreadof linguistic innovations geographically (Chambers and Trudgill, 1998), thisis in line with what we would expect. Uppsala is the main centre in Upplandand is close to Stockholm, which is 2A. We would thus expect speakers ofUppsala Swedish to adopt prosodic features of the capital first, with speakersin more rural centres following suit later. At this incipient stage of two-peakedaccent development, we may notate the opposition as HL% HLHL%, whereH marks the high tone onglide. Whether this onglide is explicitly present inthe phonological representation or not is not an issue I will address here. Whatis important in this connection is that the high onglide becomes reanalyzed asa lexical H tone in dialects of Type 2A.

Similar transitional types occur sporadically within Sweden. Meyer providestwo curves for Hlsingland: Jttendal (HL.HL) and Hassela (HL.HL), thelatter with the high onglide. In ngermanland, too, we find Junsele (HL.HL)and Ed (HL.HL), the latter again with the high onglide. Another examplewould appear to be the dialect spoken in N. Finnskoga in Vrmland. This



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18 Patrik Bye

delay to end up with its peak in the post-stress syllable. The 2B dialects areconcentrated in Gtaland.

A closer look at Meyers curves for Dalsland, Bohusln, Gtaland andSmland turns up some interesting variation which falls outside the Grding-Lindblad typology. This variation turns on whether there is a final L% bound-ary tone in the citation forms or not. We find LHL% (Accent 1) and HLHL%(Accent 2) in stergtland as a whole, as well as the only dialects Meyer doc-uments for Dalsland (ml [M68]) and Bohusln (Skee [M69]). In Vster-gtland and Smland, the picture is more varied. In Vstergtland, only Vn-ersborg (M71) has final L%. The other Vstergtland dialects in the sample(Mariestad [M70], Kind [M72], Bors [M73]) all have LH% (Accent 1) andHLH% (Accent 2). In Smland the picture is particularly confusing. In Sm-land, the L% dialects of Type 2B are Vstervik (M79) and Kalmar (M83). Ofthe other 2B dialects, Nssj (M78) would appear to lack the L%. Sommen(M82) appears to have the L% in Accent 2, but lack it in Accent 1. land

(Kastlsa [M84]) is a mixed type, since it has LHL% in Accent 1 and HLHin Accent 2, possible evidence of truncation having applied in Accent 2 toeliminate tonal crowding on the second syllable. Ignoring Smland, GtaSwedish dialects of Type 2B fall into two subtypes: those in which the finalL% remains and those in which it has been truncated. The truncated varietyis most obviously associated with central area of Vstergtland, while thenon-truncated varieties occur peripherally in the Gta-speaking area: in thewestern peripheries Bohusln and Dalsland, and in stergtland to the east.The geographical distribution is thus consistent with the truncated varietiesarising out of a later development.

In respect of this change I dont have a great deal to add to what has

already been proposed by Riad. As he shows (Riad, 2003), Stockholm Swedishhas variable realization of Accent 2 in trisyllabic simplex forms such as the flowers, and he suggests that the right-oriented variant is preciselythe variant which has become generalized in dialects of the Gta type. Thereason for the rightward shift of the H tone is unclear, but it may have to dowith enhancement since, in shifting to the final syllable, the H tone becomespart of a salient contour. Many of the Gta dialects have subsequently lostthis contour, by getting rid of the final L%. This kind of process is well-documented as truncation (Grnnum, 1991, Grice, 1995, Ladd, 1996). (19)summarizes the mechanism whereby dialects of the type 2B evolved from2A. Again, I assume limited reanalysis. Movement of the H tone off thestressed syllable, in Accent 1 this time, triggers the insertion of a L* tone

on the stressed syllable.

(19) Evolution of 2A to 2B by peak delay



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Accent 1 Accent 2

Stage 1 2AH L

. H L H L .

Stage 2 2BH L

. H L H L .

Stage 3 2B (reanalyzed)L H L .

H L H L .

Stage 4 2B (truncated)L H L .

H L H L .

In sum, peak delay is further implicated in the shift from 2A to 2B. Again, thisappears highly consistent with the dialect geographic facts, since 2A and 2Bare contiguous. The relative recency of 2B is also revealed by a geographicintegrity which is unfragmented by later innovations. This would tend to fa-vour the interpretation that Type 2 in general is relatively recent compared toType 1.

Bergen and Skne: 2B to 1A?The dialects of West Norway (Bergen, lesund) and Skne (Malm) classifyaccording to the Grding-Lindblad scheme as a dialect of Type 1A. The moststraightforward interpretation of the geographical distribution of the relevantdialects is that they represent the conservative type. However there is an in-teresting difference between Bergen/Malm/Trelleborg and other dialects of

Type 1A which should give us pause before accepting this conclusion. Thisdifference is revealed by closer inspection of Meyers curves and so far hasnot been explained.

While North Norwegian, and other dialects in Skne realize the accent dis-tinction as HL% LH.L%, Bergen Norwegian and Malm/Trelleborg ScanianSwedish have HLH% LHLH% apparently with final boundary H% in cita-tion forms. This final rise is a striking feature of the dialects in question(Andersen, 1949). The extra final H% makes these dialects the exact mir-ror image of Stockholm, which is 2A. The question is where this final risecomes from. There are two hypotheses. One possibility is to derive the pat-tern from Type 2B by means of the mechanism of target delay, e.g. Accent1: LH% > HLH% > HLH%, Accent 2: HLH% > LHLH% > LHLH%.This would entail that these dialects were ultra-advanced diachronically. Asecond possibility is that the H% boundary tone in citation forms arose froma readjustment of the mapping between intonation melody and pragmaticfunction. Many dialects of English have a contrast between (falling) H*Land (rising) L*H or H*H pitch accents (Ladd, 1996). In RP it has been the



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case that H*L has had a declarative force, while a high-rise terminal (HRT)signals tentativeness. Over the last twenty years or so, the use of L*H andH*H has, amongst younger speakers, spread in utterances with declarativeforce. In some varieties of English HRT has become neutral in statements.See Grabe (2002) for the implications of variation for prosodic typology. AsGrabe shows for a range of dialects in the British Isles, each utterance type(statement, wh-question, yes-no question, declarative question) generally hasmore than one competing melody.

Some sense of the likelihood of each of these scenarios may be obtainedfrom examining Meyers curves and checking their provenance. Bergen isbordered to the east by 2B (East Norwegian) and to the south by 2A (Stavanger,Southeast Norwegian). It is conceivable that Bergen pitch accent is a devel-opment of Type 2B. The same holds of Skne, since it borders on dialects ofType 2. In Halland and Kalmar, both of which border Skne and Blekingeimmediately to the north, we find dialects of type 2A and 2B. However,

when we look at the curves for Skne generally, we find both types of 1A.While Malm and Trelleborg evince the final rise, Lund does not. It is notlikely that 1A contours with HRT represent an innovation from 2B. Anotherreason has to do with the clustering of dialect features. 1A is one of a raft ofdialect features which separates West Norwegian from East Norwegian andScanian Swedish from the rest (Brndum-Nielsen, 1927). Nonetheless, fur-ther research is needed to resolve this question since all typological researchon Scandinavian pitch accent has had declarative utterances as their point ofdeparture.

5.1.4. Accent variation in simplicia: conclusions

Grding and Lindblads two discrete parameters may be understood in termsof a single continuous phonetic parameter. Typological variation betweenGrding and Lindblads discrete types 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B can be largelyunderstood in terms of target delay. The relationship between Grding andLindblads types is thus a diachronic series 1A1B2A2B. This inter-pretation was shown to be consistent with the known facts of dialect geo-graphy. In the following sections I will put the account to work in explainingadditional accentual features of Scandinavian.

5.2. COMPOUND WORDS

Riad (2003) shows that previous accounts of the Scandinavian accent ty-pology have been too narrow in their focus on simplex words. He goes onto show that the typology of accentuation of compound words is rich inimplications for our understanding of the diachrony of pitch accent in general.

In his typology of compound accent types, Riad introduces a distinctionbetween connective and non-connective compound accent. However, I pro-



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pose to distinguish four patterns of compound accentuation: initial, final,connective and double. Riad does not distinguish between connective accentproper and double accent.

The initial state in Old Scandinavian was, we may assume, initial accent.On the basis of dialectal and historical evidence, I will argue that (1) as aresult of peak delay, initial accent could develop into either final or connectiveaccent and (2) that double accent arises out of a previous stage with finalaccent. (20) provides stylized curves for each accentuation type.

(20) a. Initial (Troms)

mid

sommer

dansen the midsummer dance

b. Final (North Bothnian)

mid sommar dansen the midsummer dance

c. Connective (Bod, Narvik)

mid sommer dansen

d. Double (Stockholm)

mid

sommar

dansen

There are significant tonal differences between the compound accentuationtypes. Dialects with initial accentuation generally have Accent 2 in com-pounds, although some, such as Malm Swedish and Oslo Norwegian have alexical distinction between Accent 1 and Accent 2 in compounds. Final accentalmost always entails Accent 1 on the head PrWd, while connective accentalways entails Accent 2. Double accent seems to entail Accent 2 on the firststressed PrWd and Accent 1 on the last stressed PrWd. Thus Bruce (2003)proposes to analyze Standard Swedish compound accent as H*L. . . L*H. . . .

(21) Standard Swedish compound accent(Bruce, 2003)

H*L L*H L%

midsommardansen



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5.2.1. From initial to final compound accentAs I will attempt to show, these differences are not accidental, but relatecrucially to the way these different accentual types interrelate diachronic-ally. The typology of compound accent first becomes intelligible when werelate it to peak delay. Let me outline the mechanism I have in mind byasking the reader to imagine two different types of disyllabic word (or main-stress domain), simplex and compound. The simplex disyllable will be asingle foot: [()]Wd, while the compound disyllable will consist of twofeet: [()()]Wd. Crucially, the second syllable of the compound disyllableis stressed, entailing greater prominence relative to the second syllable ofthe simplex disyllable. Peak delay, it must be assumed, applied in simplexand compound disyllables alike, resulting in a rightward shift of the H pitchaccent. It is striking that some dialects with final compound accent are ofType 1A such as Scanian (Olsni, 1879), i.e. Accent 2 is realized by delayof the peak within the stressed syllable. This entails on present assumptions

that final compound accent is a very old feature that must have originatedin dialects of Type 1A. The implied vintage of the phenomenon is certainlyconsistent with the dialect geographic facts, since final compound accentturns out to have a ubiquitous, yet sporadic, relic-type geographical distri-bution within Scandinavia as a whole. The most comprehensive recent sur-vey of final compound accent in Swedish is Selenius (1972). According toher, the phenomenon is found all over Sweden. The situation in Norway isentirely analogous, where it is best known in Verdal (Trndelag), Ottadal,Gudbrandsdal and Troms. We observe similar things in Danish.7

(22) Final compound accent in Swedish dialects (Selenius, 1972)

7 Further evidence of the archaic nature of final compound accent comes from Stand-ard East Norwegian, which has final compound accent on a restricted set of lexical items(Kristoffersen, 2000), although the default pattern is overwhelmingly primary stress on the

initial constituent. Examples are 1 , Maundy Thursday; 1 , Good Fri-day; 1 , crucify;

1 , revelation; 1 , little girl; 1 ,

cobbler. It is striking that most of the words with this property have a conservative ecclesi-astical association. Also, placenames in which the first constituent is the name of a Norwegianking also receive final stress: 1 (Fredriksborg); 1 (Kristiansand);

1

(Olavsvern).



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Norrbotten verkalix (Noreen, 1907, Pihl, 1924),Nederkalix and Tre (Rutberg, 1930),Pite (Zetterholm, 1946)

Lappland Arjeplog (Wallstrm, 1943)Vsterbotten Burtrsk (Lindgren, 1890,Larsson, 1929), Degerfors(strm, 1888)

ngermanland Larsson (1929)

Eastern Jmtland Vestlund (1923)Medelpad Vestlund (1923)

Uppland Hesselman, Witting, Schagerstrm,Schagerstrm and Eriksson, Upmark(1905, 1968, 1882, 1945, 1869)

Sdermanland Ericsson (1914)

Vrmland Fryksdalen (Noreen, 1877,Noreen, 1907)

Vstergtland Gtlind (1940)

Bohusln Skee (Lindberg, 1906), Srbygden(Noreen, 1907)

Southern Halland Wigforss (1917)Blekinge Swenning (1917)

Gotland Klintberg, Gustavson (1885, 1948)

Skne Kock, Olseni, Noreen (1885, 1879,1907)

West Nyland (Fin-land)

Selenius (1972)

Initially, the finding that dialects of Type 1A may have final compound accentappears somewhat surprising since, naively, we might expect final compoundaccent to have arisen in those dialects in which the H tone had already tippedover into the second syllable, i.e. those of 1B. However, we neednt assumethat the peak shifted all the way into the second syllable if we address theproblem at the appropriate level of resolution. There are good reasons toexpect moderate peak delay to behave in this way. The crucial factor is coar-ticulation: even if the actual high tone peak is located late in the first syllable,

decay will be gradual and relatively high pitch will persist into the secondsyllable. However, the discrete effect of maintaining the coarticulatory effectof the H tone into the second syllable may be expected to differ dependingon the prominence of the second syllable. Specifically, variation in prominentpositions are likely to be more readily perceived and phonologized by new



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24 Patrik Bye

generations of speakers than variation of a similar magnitude in less prom-inent positions. It is this difference in the aptitude to phonologize that liesat the heart of the evolution of final compound accent. Because pitch accentsassociate phonologically with stressed syllables, the mere fact ofaligning thetonal peak in the direction of a stressed syllable will significantly increase thechances of triggering a phonological reanalysis by which H delinks and reas-sociates to the following stressed syllable. The possibilities are summarizedschematically below in (23).

(23) Peak delay and H tone reassociation in compounds

a. Compounds: reanalysis

H

H

H

H

b. Simplex: no reanalysis

H

HNotice the peak delay hypothesis generates a concrete prediction, which oninitial impressions is somewhat surprising. It should be possible to find dia-lects with predictable distribution of both initial and final accent such thatfinal accent occurs whenever the first PrWd has a monosyllabic main-stressdomain and is followed directly by a (secondary) stressed syllable; otherwisethe pattern defaults to initial main stress.

(24) Accentuation and number of syllablesWhere the first member of the compound is a monosyllable, wepredict final accentuation. Where the first member is disyllabic or

longer, we predict initial accentuation.There is actually both dialectal and historical evidence which supports thisprediction. Let us address the dialectal evidence first. We return to the histor-ical evidence in 5.2.5. In the south Scanian dialect of Skytt (Kock, 1885),



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compounds may receive either initial or final accentuation. In compounds inwhich the first member is disyllabic or trisyllabic, the stress falls on the firstmember.

(25) Compound stress in Skytt Scanian (Kock, 1885)a. initial PrWd is monosyllable

1

cabbage

1

stonewall enclosure

1 household

1 male individual

1

lefthanded

1

full of big words

1 highly educated

1 swine-like

1

tool 1 magic

b. initial PrWd is polysyllable2

oatmeal2

beechwood2

sojourn2

mirror glass2

person who lacks clothes

Further evidence of the age of final compound accent may be found in thetreatment of Old Scandinavian monosyllables with a rising sonority coda,which surface with the final pattern despite having undergone epenthesis in

many cases. As we have seen, accentual variation must predate epenthesis.(26) Skytt Scanian: initial PrWd is original monosyllable

1 hailstone (ON hagl, hail)

1

spider (ON eitr, venom)

1 layer of leaf fat (ON str, leaf fat; fatty food)

1 fingertip (ON fingr, finger)

1

gimmer, ewe-lamb (ON gymbr, gimmer)

In South Halland Swedish (Wigforss, 1917), there is a similar pattern, al-though there are some interesting and telling differences. Like South Scanian,accent is initial in compounds whose first member is di- or trisyllabic.

(27) South Halland Swedish: initial PrWd is polysyllable (Wigforss, 1917)2

wild rye2

porridge spoon2

clothes brush



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2

herring barrel2

juniper bush2

summer potato2

testimony2

Christian name2

people who drive to town (on market day)2

carpenters shop2

eyelashes

In compounds whose first constituent is monosyllabic, stress may fall oneither on the first or last constituent, the distribution being determined lex-ically, e.g.

1

, bee hive vs. 2

, hum of bees;

1

, god-son vs. 2

, godmother. Some lexical items evince facultative andgeographic variation, e.g. 1 2 , blueberries.

(28) South Halland Swedish: initial PrWd is open monosyllable

a. Final accent

1 godson

1

bee-hive

1

predator

1 beetroots

1 logging saw

1

wooden bridges

1

little pigsb. Initial accent

2 godmother

2

hum of bees2 blood money2

red-haired2

forest magpie2

wooden ploughs2

the little lakes

However, there is a telling difference between South Scanian and South Hal-land Swedish. In South Scanian, any two-word compound whose first mem-ber was originally monosyllabic bears final accent. In South Halland Swedish,however, only compounds whose first constituent is an open monosyllablehave the lexical option of receiving final accent. If the first member of thecompound is a closed monosyllable, the accent must be initial.

(29) South Halland Swedish: initial PrWd is closed monosyllable2

backwards2

chives2

ghost



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2

mosquito bites2

nickname

The reason for this difference would seem to have to do with the relative

degree of coarticulation following a closed monosyllable compared to anopen monosyllable. Apparently, the presence of a coda entailed a greaterproportion of the decay took place before the post-tonic syllable, inhibitingthe perception of high pitch in the post-tonic syllable of the compound inSouth Halland Swedish, resulting in the asymmetry described by Wigforss.

The dialect of Tre and Nederkalix in Norrland in the far north of Sweden(Rutberg, 1930) demonstrates yet another interesting variation on the finalcompound accent pattern, which is reminiscent of South Halland Swedish.When the initial syllable of the compound is a light syllable CV(C) or pair oflight syllables CVCV, final accent results; where it is heavy CVCC or CVVC,the compound receives initial accent.

(30) Compound accentuation in Tre and Nederkalix Swedisha. Final accentuation

(i) First constituent CV

1

sea water

1

snowflake

1 vain

(ii) First constituent CVC

1

pitch black

1

little girl

1

table leg

1

porridge bowl 1 inkwell

(iii) First constituent CVCV

1 just as good

1

poor wretch

1

the nostrils

1 eternity

b. Initial accentuation2

fight, brawl2

brooding hen2

christening2

the black animals2

the gingerNotice that the shift from initial to final stress changes the words accent fromAccent 2 to Accent 1. This is exactly what we should expect if final accentis the result of peak delay. Consider the shift with respect to the compound

, house god.



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(31) Shift of initial to final compound accent (1A)H L

L H L

However, Accent 1 itself may be further subject to further peak delay, asargued throughout 5.1. Assuming the input to the reanalysis is a dialectof Type 1A, the compound starts out life with initial stress and Accent 2,i.e. rising tone on the first syllable. Attraction of the H tone into the secondsyllable, however, results in a falling contour on that syllable, giving Accent1.

(32) Final compound accent shift to 1B

L H L

L L H L

5.2.2. Generalizing final/connective accent to polysyllablesNot all dialects with final accent restrict its occurrence to two-PrWd com-pounds in which the first PrWd is a monosyllable. Stockholm is borderedimmediately to its north (Uppland) and south (Sdermanland) by dialects inwhich final compound accent is fully generalized. Schagerstrm and Eriksson

(1945) document the use of final accent in Grs Swedish on the Upplandcoast. As in South Scanian, final accent is the dominant pattern in disyl-labic compounds (33-a). However, final stress is also the rule in compoundsgenerally in this dialect (33-b).

(33) Compound stress in Grs Swedish(Schagerstrm and Eriksson, 1945)a. Initial PrWd is monosyllable

1

wood for arrows

1

paternal grandmother

1

spirits, liquor 1 eyelid

1 full moon

b. Initial PrWd is polysyllable

1 judgment day

1

livestock



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1

one who dresses the bride

1

field ploughed for the second time

1 faeces

1 stable dung heap

1

the morning of Good Friday

1

plum compot

Examples from Sdermanland Swedish are provided in (34).

(34) Compound stress in Sdermanland Swedish (Ericsson, 1914)

1

(no gloss)

1 raspberry conserve

1 spa (health-wellspring)

1

coffee-pan

1

engagement party

1

the wedding dayThe Sweonic dialects surrounding Stockholm are the most southerly in a vastarea extending to the far north of Sweden in which final accent was once fullygeneralized. We have already seen examples from Tre/Nederkalix Bothnian,in which final and initial stress vary. The dialect of verkalix, which liesimmediately to the north of Tre and Nederkalix (and is the northernmostparish on the Swedish coast), has fully generalized final compound accent.

(35) Compound stress in verkalix Swedish (Pihl, 1924)

a. Initial PrWd is monosyllable

1

bow-legged 1 fish shoal

1 strongly whiteglinting (of horses eyes)

1

woodpecker

1

womens trousers

1

cottongrass

1 Thor wall (storm cloud)

b. Initial PrWd is light disyllable

1 task

1 river (water flood)

1

paunch

1

yellowhammer

c. Initial PrWd is polysyllable

1

cobble stone

1

north wind

1

sum of money



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1

christened child

1

(supernatural) forest woman

Clearly, what I have proposed thus far is not sufficient as an explanation of

this pattern since disyllabic and trisyllabic first members, even with peakdelay, are unlikely to generate the kind of coarticulatory effect which ap-pears to have been responsible for the Scanian and Halland Swedish patterns.Dialects like Grs may have come about through the generalization of theScanian compound accentuation pattern to compounds with an initial poly-syllabic PrWd. Precisely what the mechanism involved is I leave to furtherresearch, although I suspect a major role is played by the statistical prepon-derance of two-member compounds whose first member is a polysyllable.This pattern would have served the basis for generalization of final accentthroughout the entire lexicon.

Another observation, which may have its basis in the learnability of ac-

centual patterns, is that there do not seem to be any compounds of three ormore constituents which have accent on the second member. If accent shiftwas the result of peak delay alone, we might expect to see accent patternslike [Wd][Wd][Wd] or [Wd][Wd][Wd][Wd], and so on. Perhaps suchpatterns are inadmissible on grounds of learnability: accent can be initial orfinal, but not medial as indeed is suggested by the edge-oriented nature ofmain stress in languages generally (Hayes, 1995).

5.2.3. From initial to connective compound accentConnective accent, as defined here, involves the spreading of a H tone fromthe head of the first PrWd to the head of the final PrWd in the compound. In-terestingly, this pattern is only attested for dialects of Type 1B, such as Nord-

land Norwegian, Lower Dalecarlia and Gotland. (36) shows how connectiveaccent works in the Gutnish dialect of Lau on Gotland.

(36) Connective accent in Lau Gutnish (Klintberg, 1885)

a.

LH*L%

spectacles case

b.

LH* L%

stubbornness

c.

L H* L%

fifty riksdaler banknote

Accent 2 in simplex disyllables in many 1B dialects is characterized as havinga peak on the syllable boundary or early in the second syllable. However,



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there are additional phonetic properties in Nordland Norwegian simpliciawhich suggest why there might be an affinity between this accentual typeand connective compound accent. Starting from the traditional assumptionthat North Norwegian dialects are low-tone dialects, Kristoffersen (2000)(p. 238n.) observes that In many North Norwegian dialects, the initial L ofaccent 2 seems to be absent, so that the difference between the two accentsis not one of tonal composition, but of timing [. . . ]. The auditory impres-sion of Nordland Norwegian Accent 2 disyllables is frequently that the hightone is smeared out over both syllables in a way which invites the followingphonological interpretation of the accent distinction in (37).

(37) Possible phonological analysis of Nordland Accent 2Accent 1 Accent 2

H L

H L

lamb to lamb

This straddling of syllable boundaries that we find in Accent 2 in dialects ofthis type is very similar to connective accent, and so the seeds were alreadypresent in the phonetic implementation of Accent 2 in simplex words. Plaus-ibly, the situation which led to the evolution of connective accent is similar tothe one already explored for final accent: the pattern nucleated around two-member compounds whose first member was monosyllabic. It is possible wemight find dialects of type 1B in which the distribution of connective accent

has not been generalized beyond this stage. However, this question I willleave to future research.

(38) Shift of initial to connective compound accentH L

H L

5.2.4. From final accentuation to double accentuation in compoundsIn 5.2.2, we looked at accentuation in Grs Swedish compounds and estab-lished that final accent was the default pattern in this dialect. Nevertheless,Grs Swedish does have a number of compounds with exceptional initialstress, as shown in (39).



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(39) Exceptional initial compound stress in Grs Swedish(Schagerstrm and Eriksson, 1945)

bark of the Frangula

woodpecker

schoolmaster archbishop

In Grs Swedish, the distribution would seem to be lexically determined.However, in other dialects, such as Sdermanland Swedish (Ericsson, 1914),final and double accent are in free variation, strongly suggesting a geneticconnection. In this section, I propose that double accentuation is a relativelylate development of final accent which connects more generally with theevolution of two-peaked accent 2.

Interestingly, some dialects seem on traditional to invert the relation betweensyllable count and final accent that we saw in Scanian and Halland. Kock

mentions the case of ngermanland Swedish (1885, p. 307, and 1901, p. 179),which has many finally accented compounds in which the first constituent isdisyllabic. Finally accented compounds in which the first constituent is mono-syllabic, on the other hand, are apparently hard to come by. The situation inngermanland Swedish is undoubtedly related to what Bruce (1982, 2003)has documented for Lule Swedish. In two-member compounds in which thefirst member is a monosyllable, the pattern of accentuation is the same as inStandard Swedish: H*L . . . L*.

(40) Compound accentuation in Lule Swedish (Bruce, 1982, Bruce, 2003,Riad, 2003)

a. Defaultlrar mte teachers meetingishockey lag ice-hockey teamsommar

stuga summer cottageb. Compound with initial monosyllabic constituent

hund( )kx cow parsley vit( )sippa wood anemonemi

nut

visare minute hand

Bruce describes the difference between Standard and North Bothnian as simplya matter of timing. In Standard Swedish, the L prominence tone is timed tooccur no later than the post-tonic syllable. In North Bothnian, however, the

H* tone apparently spreads rightwards, forcing the prominence L over to thesyllable preceding the last stressed syllable of the compound.

(41) Compound accent in Standard Swedish and North Bothnian com-pared(Bruce, 2003)



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compound wordstress clashstress gap

EAST

NORTH

In the case of compounds whose first member has a monosyllabic main-stressdomain, there is a stress clash. In this case, the H* tone is naturally inhibitedfrom spreading rightwards. Given this analysis, the final stress of the formswith a stress gap has a perceptual cause. The spread of the H* tone entailsthat the only tone contour in the compound word falls on the head syllableof the final PrWd, which has greatest prominence as a result. Phonologically,however, the head of the first PrWd in the compound is also stressed. The

North Bothnian pattern may thus be seen as furnishing an interesting vari-ation on double compound accent and its development must also be seen asconnected to the evolution of two-peaked Accent 2. What I am suggesting isthat the first constituent acquires a pitch accent. At first, this would appear tobe equally unmotivated. However, I suggest the motivation may tie in withthe development of the H onglide in Accent 2 in the transition from Type 1Bto Type 2A. Recall that the shift of the H tone onto the second syllable resultsby hypothesis in an instance of reanalysis in which a L* tone is inserted onthe stressed syllable. In a compound with Accent 2, the initial L stretch at thebeginning of a compound is identified as the same as that in a simplex word.Where simplicia undergo prothesis of a H tone, then, the compounds follow

suit. The rest of the story is the same as for the subsequent developmentin compounds. Further peak delay brings the H onglide squarely into thestressed syllable. In the case of compounds in Stockholm Swedish, this resultsultimately in the characteristic H*L. . . L*H. . . melody. Between each of theH tones there is a L tone stretch between the first and last stressed syllables.It is this property which lead Riad to identify double accent as a kind of con-nective accent. However, as I have argued, connective accent as instantiatedin Nordland Norwegian and double accent as found in Stockholm Swedishhave latterly rather different motivations despite a common historical basis inpeak delay.

(42) Shift of final to double compound accent



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34 Patrik Bye

L H L

L L H L

H L L H L

H L L H L

If correct, this hypothesis may provide us with an estimate as to what pointStockholm shifted to Type 2, since this would have gone hand in hand withthe shift from final to double accent. Such a shift in compound accent iswell-documented as having occurred between the 18th and 19th centuriesin Standard Swedish. This would tend to lead to the conclusion that the de-

velopment of two-peaked Accent 2 is of rather recent origin, e.g. 300 years,as opposed to being a legacy of Proto-Nordic (1400 years).It follows from these considerations of the relationships between the com-

pound accent types that connective accent, as defined by Riad, is not mono-lithic. We should instead distinguish between connective accent proper anddouble accent. Double accent itself may occur in a non-connective (Sweonic)and a connective (Bothnian) variant. The double accent of the Sweonic (2A)and Gothian (2B) dialects on the one hand (with low tone plains between hightone peaks), and the connective accent of Gutnish and North Norwegian (both1B with high tone plateaus between low tone valleys) on the other, are sep-arate developments, both centring on peak delay but in rather different ways.In the case of 1B, this relationship is fairly direct since it is the result of H

tone spread. The L tone stretch in double accent, on the other hand, is simplya matter of interpolation between two L tones not L tone spread as isimplied in Riads connective interpretation. This interpretation is in line withrecent work by de Lacy (1999), who proposes that there are no constraintswhich would require the spreading of a L tone to a stressed syllable. Theconclusion that connective and double accent are only remotely connectedwith eachother isnt really surprising when we consider that, phonetically,the connective accents of Type 1B and Type 2A/B dialects are near mirrorimages of eachother. Given this, it is not clear how 1B connective accentcould mutate into Type 2 connective accent or vice versa.

5.2.5. Historical evidence for compound accent shiftThe dissertations on historical accentuation by Kock (1885, 1901) provide agreat deal of support for the model of accent shift in compounds describedhere. Kock bases his conclusions on a number of important historical treat-ments of accentuation from the 17th century onwards.



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According to Andreas Arvidi Strengnensis, who described the accentu-ation of Stockholm Swedish in a manual of Swedish poetics (Thet SwenskePoeterij, 1651) compounds consisting of two monosyllabic words could bestressed on either the first or the last element.8 Kock investigated a furtherfour contemporary poetical works a found a number of words which receiveinitial stress in Modern Standard Swedish received final accentuation in the17th century.

(43) Final accentuation in 17th century Swedish

kring

g to go around

af grund abysso

maak without like

hem

wist residence

klff

saal seamed saddle

brud gum bridegroomsvart

soot jealousyrtt

sint honest

ogud achtig ungodlyofr

gngeligh immortal, eternal

From this we can conclude with Kock that during the 17th century, the varietyof Swedish spoken in the capital allowed facultative final compound accen-tuation where the first constituent of the compound was a monosyllable. Aswe have already seen, final accentuation in words of this sort was the norm inSouth Scanian.

The next claim, that the final accent pattern was generalized to compoundsin general, as was argued to be the case for Grs Swedish in Uppland andSdermanland, is more difficult to substantiate by appeal to the availablehistorical evidence. Kock (1885) discusses three early grammars which de-scribe generalized final compound accent. However, at least two of these,Nils Tillmans Grammatica suecana (1696) and Erik Alrots Kort utkast tillthen Swenska Rimkonsten (1727), were written by northerners and, as wehave seen, generalized final compound accent is a feature of North Swedish.The third, Prosodia Suecana (1745) is attributed to a West Bothnian, CarolusRenmarck. Kock raises serious doubts about this attribution (p. 306n), but onthe basis of the dialect characteristics ascribes the work to a northerner. Alrot

describes the accentuation in disyllabic compounds as initial in the unsuffixedform but as vacillating between initial and final in the suffixed form.

8 [A]lle the Ord, som re kompne tilsamman aff twenne Monosyllabis, hwilke hafwasamma arten som Monosyllaba, aff hwilka the sttias tilsamman, s at the kunne antingensttias lnge eller krte til bgges Stafwelserne.



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36 Patrik Bye

(44) Disyllabic compounds in Alrots Swedishtnstop tnstopet tenstpettin stoupbrgart brgartenbergrtenmineralslsken slskenet solsknetsunshinensduk nsdukennsdkenhandkerchief

Compounds in which the first PrWd was disyllabic received final accentuationaccording to these authors. The same was true for certain derived words.

(45) Disyllabic-initial compounds in Alrots Swedishderl ta bloodletmyrtenkrna misteltoe crownsommarvrme summer heat

plommonslt plum jamhemlighlla keep secretlderdm agekpenskp purchasesuselht wretchedness

What is not clear is to what extent, if at all, this pattern was reflective of Stock-holm Swedish of the 18th century. It is not impossible. Although born in n-germanland, Tillman studied in Uppsala and had a priesthood in Stockholm.Alrot was from Gvle which, although not far from Uppsala or Stockholm, issometimes considered as belonging to the North. The Renmarck manuscriptwas an Uppsala dissertation. What is clear, though, is that dialects borderingon Stockholm both to the north (Uppland) and south (Sdermanland) hadprecisely this generalized form of final accent. For Uppland see Schagerstrm

and Eriksson (1945); Sdermanland Ericsson (1914). Kock concludes thatthe balance of evidence favours the interpretation that Swedish generally hadfinal compound stress.9

[. . . ] (in contrast to the normal state of affairs in the 19th century standard lan-guage) main stress in the older language (at least dialectally) could often fallon a later constituent in compounds, even when the first constituent [...] wasdisyllabic, and in some cases even on the fourth syllable from the beginning [ofthe word].

Kock, 1885 (p. 310f.)

9 [. . . ] att (i motsats till det vanliga frhllandet i 1800-talets rspr.) fortis i det ldre sprket(tminstone dialektiskt) ofta kunde ligga p en senare kompositionsled, fven nr frstakompositionsleden [. . . ] var tvstavig, och i vissa fall till och med p fjrde stafvelsen frnbrjan.



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6. Other accounts

In this section we will review competing accounts of the origin, typology

and diachrony of Scandinavian pitch accent, focusing on the proposals putforward by Tomas Riad (1998a, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c, 2003), Ove Lorentz(1995, 2001, 2002) and Gjert Kristoffersen (2004). Not all of these research-ers address all three to the same degree. While Riad and, more recentlyKristoffersen, attempt an integration of all three, Lorentz emphasis is moretypological than diachronic.

6.1. THE PROTO-NORDIC HYPOTHESIS

In this section we return to the Proto-Nordic Hypothesis (see 4.1) whichforms the backbone of Riads work, which is addressed in 6.1.2. Before wereview this work, however, we turn in 6.1.1 to the work of DAlquen and

Brown (1992), which feeds directly into that of Riad.

6.1.1. DAlquen and Brown 1992DAlquen and Brown (1992) state their basic position as follows:

[W]here in Germanic and Proto-Norse postradical elements constituted a heavysyllable [...], either original suffix accent or a special heavy syllable accentdeveloped resulting in a double accent (root and suffix), which became AccentII; otherwise a single accent (root only) arose, which became Accent I. Any formreduced to a monosyllable takes Accent I.

DAlquen and Brown, 1992 (p. 62)

According to the DAlquenBrown hypothesis, the basis for the later de-velopment of Accent 2 was in essence the presence of a secondary stress foot.Such a secondary stress foot could be derived in one of two ways. First, anyheavy syllable constituted a moraic trochee. Word-final consonants did notcount towards making a syllable heavy. Second, trisyllabic words receivedsomewhat special treatment according to DAlquen and Brown. If the secondand third syllables were light, they were parsed into a moraic trochee. Thisresulted in a stress clash with the first syllable, which received main stressirrespective of weight, i.e. ()(), e.g. * , hammer,* , shepherd, metrically equivalent respectively to ()(), e.g.*

, cock, rooster and *

, guests. In support of this thesis,DAlquen and Brown studied correlations between reconstructed Proto-Nordicforms and Modern Norwegian. Here are examples of some of their correla-tions.

(46) PN and Modern Norwegian correspondencesa. Words lacking secondary stress foot



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38 Patrik Bye

PN ModN*

1

arm

*

1

army

* 1 guest* 1 fjord*

1

foot

* 1 daughters* 1 feet

b. Words containing secondary stress foot

PN ModN* 1 mane

*

2

cock, rooster

*

2

heart* 2 daughter*

2

arms

*

2

armies

* 2 manes

* 2 guests*

2

shepherd

* 2 saying* 2 fjords

*

2

cocks, roosters

* 2 hammer* 2 summer*

2

shepherds

*

2

sayings

* 2 hearts

As shown in (46-a), all words which lack a secondary stress foot surfaceas Accent 1 words in Modern Norwegian. On the other hand, (46-b) showsthat all the words which do have at least one secondary stress foot surfaceas Accent 2 words in Modern Norwegian. The one exception, * ,mane has undergone apocope, and therefore cannot bear Accent 2.

Modern Norwegian has undergone considerable morphological simplific-ation since the Old Scandinavian period. In many Proto-Nordic paradigms,there was an alternation in the words prosodic type, since some forms wouldhave had a secondary stress foot and others not. Nevertheless, in some paradigms,the prosodic basis of later Accent 2 was shared by all forms. In weak verbs,



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for example, the conditions for the later development of Accent 2 were metthroughout the paradigm. Consider the conjugation of the verb *

to judge in the present indicative in (47).

(47) d omijan, to judgeSG PL

1

2

3

Some of the correspondences presented by DAlquen and Brown are at firstblush problematic for the present approach. To take an example, considerthe fact that the present and preterite indicative forms of strong verbs isoverwhelmingly Accent 1 in both Norwegian and Swedish. In the modernstandard languages, person and number distinctions were eliminated, withgeneralization of the singular form. In the present tense, two of the threeperson-number suffixes were light, which is condition for the evolution ofAccent 1.

Another apparent problem is the development of root stem nouns10 suchas * foot, whose reconstructed paradigm is shown below.

(48) PNf ots, foot

SG PL

NO M * * ACC *

*

GE N *

*

DAT * *

Assuming generalization of the nominative, DAlquen and Brown predict theplural form in Modern Norwegian to be Accent 1, which indeed it is. On thepresent approach, however, if * is the form directly input to the Norseplural, then we would counterfactually predict Accent 2, since it is disyllabic.For the present proposal to work here, it would have to be the case that the

vowel was lost in the plural prior to the development of accent. After this,epenthesis of a vowel would have occurred to break up the reverse sonoritycluster. This is in actual fact precisely what happened as can be seen fromthe Old Scandinavian paradigm. The accentual properties of root stem nouns

thus relate far more directly to the number of syllables in Old Scandinavian.

(49) OSc f otr, foot

10 Voyles -class in Voyles (1992).



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40 Patrik Bye

SG PL

NO M

ACC

GE N

DAT

While the correlations speak for themselves, we must recognize that these aremerely correlations, not pairings of input and output in some diachronic phon-ological process. In making these correlations DAlquen and Brown have notactually established what the input to the development of accent was, simplybecause they do not discuss any possible intermediate stages.

In fact, there is dialectal evidence that the correlation between post-radicalheavy syllables in Germanic and Accent 2 is not the whole story. StandardNorwegian and Swedish have eliminated all of the morphosyntactic distinc-

tions in the nominal paradigm leaving only the distinction between singularand plural, which overwhelmingly generalize the Old Scandinavian nom-inative form. In dialects which preserve a wider range of morphosyntacticdistinctions, however, such as lvdal Dalecarlian, we apparently find Accent2 from sources other than a Proto-Nordic post-radical heavy syllable shortnasalized vowels. The consideration that post-radical heavy syllable is not anecessary condition for Accent 2 in simplex words requires that we abandonthe Proto-Nordic Hypothesis for the Old Scandinavian Hypothesis.

Syncope largely eliminated unstressed short vowels in Proto-Nordic, butaparently left short unstressed nasal vowels unaffected. Voyles, 1992 (p. 120f.)describes Syncope as applying in two stages. Syncope I targeted any word-final non-high vowel as well as any non-footed word-final high vowel. The

rule also applied before the inflectional ending . Syncope II extended theprocess before other consonants. Because, however, Syncope failed to applyto short nasal vowels, there are short vowel reflexes of at least some Proto-Germanic short vowels. The Proto-Nordic Hypothesis predicts, counterfactu-ally, that we should have Accent 1 in these cases.11 One case in point is the ac-cusative plural form of masculine nouns. Consider the following paradigms inProto-Germanic (Voyles, 1992), Old Scandinavian (Haugen, 2002) and lvdalDalecarlian (Levander, 1909). The important correspondences are the ones inboldface.

(50) Development of a Germanic u-class masculine noun, son

11 In response it may be possible to maintain that the nasal vowels of Proto-Germanic werelong. However, Proto-Germanic is reconstructed as having had a legacy distinction betweenshort and long vowels in unstressed syllables, and this contrast apparently also extended to thenasalized vowels. A near minimal pair is *blind, blind (m.acc.pl) (< PIE *bhlendhons) vs.*blind:, blind (f.acc.pl) (< PIE *bhlendha:ns).



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a. PGmc

SG PL

NO M *

*

ACC * * GEN * * DAT * *

b. ON

SG PL

NO M

ACC

GEN

DAT

c. lvDc

SG PL

NO M 1

2

ACC 1

2

DAT 2

2

As we can see from (50), the correlation between the Old Norse forms andthe lvdal Dalecarlian forms is exactly as we would expect given the OldScandinavian Hypothesis: words which are monosyllabic in ON have reflexeswith Accent 1, while polysyllabic words acquire Accent 2. We find a similar

failure of Syncope in the paradigm of n-class neuters. Here it is the dativesingular form which the Proto-Nordic Hypothesis predicts, counterfactually,to surface with Accent 1. The reflex in lvdal Dalecarlian is Accent 2.

(51) Development of a Germanic n-class neuter noun

a. PGmc

SG PL

NO M *

*

ACC * * GEN *

*

DAT*

*

b. ON



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42 Patrik Bye

SG PL

NO M

ACC

GEN

DAT

c. lvDc

SG PL

NO M/ACC 2

2

DAT 2

2

Without allowing for the (as far as I know) unattested possibility of vowels at-

tracting secondary stress purely by virtue of nasalization the correspondencesbetween Proto-Nordic and Modern Scandinavian in all its dialectal varietybecome difficult to state.

(52) PGmc ON lvDc*

>

> 2

days (m.acc.pl)*

>

> 2

guest (m.acc.pl)* > > 2 blind (m.acc.pl)

6.1.2. Riad 1992, 1998, 2003

As we have seen, DAlquen and Brown (1992) provide an impressive setof correspondences between Proto-Nordic and Modern Scandinavian. In thelast section, I argued that these correspondences provide a spurious basis fortheorizing about the origin of Scandinavian pitch accent distinction. Anotherproblem is that they provide no phonetic mechanism for relating the two. Thisis where the work of Tomas Riad comes in.12 Using the lexical correlationproposed by DAlquen and Brown (1992) between suffixes inducing Accent2 today and suffixes which carried secondary

pitch accent kluw 002

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