Re: Chinese Dialect Question

JS Bangs wrote:
> I don't think we can count this as "two kinds of 'r'". The distinction
> between [4] and [r] is one of length in Spanish, phonemically /r/ and
> /r:/. Their distribution attests to this--like geminates in most
> languages, they do not contrast initially or finally. And as a geminate
> /r:/ should not be considered a fully distinct phoneme. We do not say that
> a language with /k g k: g:/ has four velar stops, do we?
No, but when a language has only a single consonant that distinguishes
"gemination", it's rather questionable whether it's useful to consider
it truly gemination.  Historically, yes, it is derived from the
geminate, however, synchronically I would be hesitant to call it a
geminate, just as in the distinction between l/ll and n/n~.  Especially
since the "geminate" form is the one used word-initially.  You'd expect
the non-geminate form to be word-initial.

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