Re: CHAT: geminate in _Messer_ (was: Announcement: New auxlang "Choton")

Quoting "J. 'Mach' Wust" <j_mach_wust@...>:

> On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 11:02:53 +0200, Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> wrote:
> >Actually, I too find the new rules easier. On top of which they allow for
> >more consistent treatment of vocalic length and don't involve the most
> >annoying concept of orthographic syllables.
> >
> >(Unless you're telling us you've got a geminate in _Messer_ ...)
>
> That wouldn't be much of a surprise: This feature is found in Swiss standard
> German, and Pascal's German seems to share other features with Swiss
> standard German, as e.g. the distinction between short |ä| and |e|.
>
> However, Swiss standard German geminates the |ss|, that is, has a long /s:/
> as well in |Messer| as in |heissen| (or |heißen|). So this doesn't make any
> distinction.
Neat. Are there any medial short [s], making for a a three-way contrast
/s:/~/s/~/z/ in the Swiss standard? Pascal would have to for his comments re:
|ss|~|ß| representing (in the old orthography) whether it spans two syllables
or not to make sense (unless I'm missing something).

                                                Andreas