Re: long consonants

On Mar 9, 2005, at 7:15 AM, # 1 wrote:
> but still a question: are long consonants... geminated consonants
> phonemic in these languages?
> Are geminated consonants opposed to the short ones enough to make that
> pronounciating a germinated consonant as short would make the sense
> different or would it remains the same?
> And are they really phonemes in the sense it may be used in a root or
> do
> they simply *occur* when you paste a word that ends with the same
> consonant it is pasted to, like it is in the "penknife" example
> Sanghyeon Seo gave?
> - Max
In the Semitic languages, geminated consonants are modifications of the
non-geminated ones, with semantic meaning.  So it's a phonemic
difference, but not in the sense that /t/ and /tt/ are completely
separate independent phonemes.

For example:

the root |QPTz| in Hebrew.
In the _pa`al_ (G; "Simple") paradigm:
  /k>apats)>/ [k>Ofats)>] "he jumped"
In the _pi`eil_ (D; "Intensive") paradigm:
  /k>ippets)>/ [k>ippets)>] "he hopped around"

the root |GNB| in Hebrew.
In the _pa`al_ paradigm:
  /ganab/ [gOnav] "he stole"
In a 'job' pattern:
  /gannab/ [gannOv] "(a) thief"

the root |ZBN| in Aramaic.
(sorry, i can't remember the exact vowel qualities)
In the _pe`al_ (G) paradigm:
  /z b n/ "buy"
In the D paradigm:
  /z bb n/ "sell"

Btw:
G = simple paradigm (Hebrew PA`AL, Arabic FA`ALA, Aramaic P@`AL...)
D = paradigm with geminated middle root consonant


-Stephen (Steg)
  "and it's a heave-ho! hi-ho! coming down the plains
   stealing wheat and barley and all the other grains
   and it's a ho-hey! hi-hey! farmers bar your doors
   when you see the jolly roger on regina's mighty shores"
      ~ from 'the last saskatchewan pirate'