Kou wrote:
> From: "Kristian Jensen"
>
> > 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.
>
> I didn't know this. Does this mean the Japanese and Italian examples are
> long consonants and not geminates? Or does it mean that there are
languages
> (none of which I'm familiar with) where a hypothetical word like "ebb" is
> genuinely pronounced /Ebb/?
>
Italian has only geminates, if we consider the definition Kristian gave us.
Indeed these groups appear only across the syllable boundary: canna
/kan.na/, penna /pEn.na/, mirra /mir.ra/, colla /kOl.la/...
Luca