Re: long consonants

Bob Thornton wrote:

> --- # 1 <salut_vous_autre@...> wrote:
> > I'd want to ask if much languages distinguish long
> > and short consonants
> >
> > like if /na/ and /n:a/ would have different meanings
> > as it would be of /na/
> > and /na:/
> >
> > that's because I begun a language that I wanted to
> > have only a few
> > consonants and vowels and to extend the
> > possibilities the vowels and some of
> > the consonants have long and short phonemic
> > realisations
> >
A nice idea. No reason not to do it!
> >
> > For the vowels I know it is normal and found in a
> > lot of languages but
> > what's about the consonants?
> >
>
> Consonant lengthening, called 'gemination' is found in
> Finnish, and I think a few Semetic languages. It's
> uncommon, but not that much so.
>
Right. Japanese too, perhaps to be considered clusters; perhaps Korean, I'm
not sure (the "intensive" or "glottalized" stops sound like geminates to
me...).

Italian (though they may be analyzable as clusters?)

Also the languages (7 or so) of the South Sulawesi (Indonesia) family-- The
primary source is following *@, but there are other sources too. They can be
analyzed in a variety of ways-- phonemic, clusters, tense/lax et al.
Generally, every consonant can be geminated except /w y h/.

Several regional langs. of the Philippines also have geminates, but I'm not
clear on their origins-- I suspect from original clusters.

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