Preaspiration is not unusual in connection with unvoiced consonants in Swedish. In all the 20 Northern Swedish dialects covered in this study unvoiced stops following stressed vowels are preaspirated to at least some extent, although preaspiration is not characteristic for all speakers. However, in two of the dialects preaspiration plays a more prominent and even normative role, being a means to maintain quantity distinctions. Preaspiration moreover fills this function in different ways in the two dialects. The description of this dependence on preaspiration for quantity distinctions is the topic of this paper.