Re: Q (Caucasian Elf)

Lars Mathiesen wrote:
> > In Germanic and especially in Scandinavian, there are two forms of
>Umlaut:
> > i-Umlaut (fronting, produces Swedish a-dots, o-dots and y) and u-Umlaut
> > (rounding, produces Swedish a-ring).  Swedish, Norwegian and Danish
>carry
> > over this nine-vowel system (or ten if you count the schwa e/a), but not
> > Icelandic (which has length distinction).
>
>Swedish, Norwegian and Danish so have length distinctions. In Swedish
>and Norwegian you might argue that it's conditioned by the following
>consonant, but in Danish it's firmly phonemic.
Of, course, most people will tell you it's the other way around in Swedish
and Norwegian; in the modern languages long consonants are mere allophones
of the short ones that reliably occure after short, stressed vowels.

                                                         Andreas
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