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Re: What is gemination? What are geminates?

From:Carlos Thompson <carlos_thompson@...>
Date:Friday, November 10, 2000, 1:43
Cristian Jensen wabbe:

> Geminates are uninterrupted successions of two identical short
consonants
> across a syllable boundary, as in; <bookcase> [buk.kejs]. Long
consonants
> on the other hand can be restricted within a syllable, as in
Swedish:
> "wide" <vitt> [vit:], which contrasts with "white" <vit> [vi:t]. Or
Pattani
> Malay; [bulE] vs [b:ulE], "moon" and "months" respectively.
In Biwa there is an important distinction between open and closed syllables pá /pA/ [p_hA:] pat /pVt/ [p_hVt'] pata /pA.t@/ [p_hA.t_h@] patta /pVt.@/ [p_hVt'.t_h@] where [t'] means /t/ with no audiable release. Would that [t't_h] combination count as geminated? Chleweyish has also a similar feature, using simnilar orthographic forms: pa /pA:/ [p_hA:] pat /pA:t/ [p_hA:t'] patt /pat:/ [p_hat't_h] or [p_hat_h:] pata /pA:.t@/ [p_hA:.t@] patta /pat.t@/ [p_hat'.t_h@] -- Carlos Th