Re: What is gemination? What are geminates?

Kristian Jensen wrote:
>
> DOUGLAS KOLLER wrote:
>
> >From: "Robert Hailman"
> >
> >> The subject says it all. People have been talking about it all
> >> willy-nilly, and I haven't understood much of it. Does anyone care to
> >> explain?
> >
> >As I understand it, it's the doubling of a consonant sound as in the English
> >"meanness" (/minnEs/)" or "bookcase" (/bUkkes/) (don't know how to express
> >an offglide in Kirshenbaum), a kind of holding of the consonant sound for a
> >beat, as opposed to the illogical "mean 'S'" (/minEs/) or "book ace"
> >(/bUkes/). Some languages, like Japanese and Italian, use this as a phonemic
> >distinction: Japanese "kata" (square) vs. "katta" (bought); Italian "eco"
> >(echo) vs. "ecco" ((t)here it is, voilà).
Just to nitpick, /bUkes/ makes perfect sence in my ideolect, as
"bookcase", that's how I say it in fast speech.

> Douglas has it correct. But I'd like to add that there is also a
> terminological distinction between consonant sounds that occur when
> two identical consonant sounds are next to each other across a syllable
> boundary, and consonant sounds that are long but within the same syllable.
> The former is called a geminate, the latter is called a long or doubled
> consonant.
Thanks for your quick replies, y'all. I think I understand it now.

--
Robert