THEORY: final features, moras and roots [was: it's what I do]

dirk elzinga wrote:

> Notice that the [t] is doubly linked; it is moraic in the first
> syllable and provides the onset for the second syllable. This is
> another definition of geminate: a consonant which is linked to two
> syllables at once. However, this definition of geminate relies on a
> representation which is the product of theoretical assumptions not all
> are willing to make. (Some have even argued that ambisyllabic
> consonants are really geminates in disguise since they also share the
> property of belonging to two syllables at once; interesting that in
> English many of these are written with two consonant letters, as in
> the word 'happy'.)
I remember being somewhat unsatisfied back in Year Four when we were
taught that syllable divisions always cut through double consonants.
Doubling a consonant rarely changes its pronounciation, my nine year
old mind reasoned, so why should it change the way that sounds are
distributed to syllables? (Despite these doubts, and despite my usual
contrary nature, I always followed this rule during exercises.)

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